Panhandling

Street begging is a chronic underlying social problem which governments normally ignore until something sensational makes it a hot topic in the media. Then, the predictable array of apologists and critics descend from the hills to defend it or condemn it. A week later, when the topic is once again exhausted, they return to the heights, proud of their secure places on the moral high ground.

Unfortunately, what is missing in all of this clatter is a real solution to this pervasive, socially destructive and degrading problem, or even a consensus on how to develop one.

A number of things are clear. Begging is corrosive. Its economic costs include lost convention business, declining tourism revenues and the diversion of customers away from downtown businesses. The intangible, and perhaps more damaging costs, include a sinking civic reputation, a decline in civility and a lower quality of life for our residents.

Begging provides no value to our city, and there are no winners when we allow begging on our streets. Our residents lose, our visitors lose, our businesses lose, and by bearing the added costs of policing, our city loses. Perhaps worst of all, the beggar loses. Begging degrades the panhandler – creating a descending spiral of declining self esteem, increasing anger and growing humiliation.

Begging is a clear signal of civic failure. It signals our inability to discourage socially corrosive behaviour on our streets and our failure to effectively address poverty and homelessness. The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed our legal right to control begging. Our failure to do so is a clear indication that our civic leaders are not doing their jobs.

We spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on social programs aimed at resolving poverty. We have shelters for the homeless, food banks and soup kitchens for those in need, and a host of people providing social services for the poor and mentally ill. Yet street begging persists. History shows that if the apologists have their way and we continue on our current path of doing nothing, begging in our city will continue to increase. And with this increase will come an escalation of its negative effects on our city.

The experience of other cities (New York City for one) demonstrates that there are workable options to controlling and street begging if we have the vision, will and courage to take action. I propose that we learn from the experience of other cities and implement a “carrot and stick” approach. We should create a task force made up of representatives from social services and Toronto Police with a clear mandate to eliminate street begging. We would provide this task force with the economic and social service tools they need to divert people from begging. If there are mental health issues, the task force will engage mental health resources to assess and address the need. If there are drug or alcohol addiction issues, they will make connections with the appropriate programs available to deal with these dependencies.

The task force will also be given the legislative mandate and policing powers needed to enforce a begging ban. We will make it clear that while Toronto is one of the world’s most welcoming cities, it does not welcome begging.

Begging is not the best solution we can come up with for dealing with poverty, and we should not rely on it as an alternative to effective action. We can and must do better than that. There are better ways to earn a living, and we should focus on providing such opportunities, and the incentive to take them, to those who need them.