Laws Enforced for Panhandlers in Dallas

 

After many years now, Dallas police have stopped panhandlers after evening hours. The city council has also tried to reduce the increasing number of panhandlers in the area.

Council members called it a failure and waste of government money after spending more than 450,000 dollars on public relations. The funding aims to discourage people from contributing to panhandlers and promote non-profit programs for individuals just on the street.

The council came up with another idea to reduce council panhandlers. They want people to connect for mental healthcare and social service. A group of marshals will go out and check on the panhandle and how his mental and physical health is.

The whole process will work according to the condition of each person that whether they are homeless or not. And if s/he is homeless, s/he will be added to the Dallas rehousing scheme list. Others will undergo evaluation by the mobile crisis team, and it will be on them whether they accept or decline the service for them. People with unpaid fines will end up in custody. Willis mentioned everything should be in one direction, and not everything should be colliding.

Homeless advocates claim that the program risks putting particularly vulnerable individuals closer to the justice system of criminals.

According to a University of Texas professor, "the entire struggle to make and clear the difference between the two groups aims to make it clear to everyone that the panhandlers are just fooling around and that not all of them are homeless. And that everyone should be mad at them and that they should get jobs and work."

Whereas the city tries to present its homeless population as mostly "service resistant," Lebovits believes that the poor quality of its programs discourages people from participating.

There were almost 500 complaints regarding people asking for money and begging. Most panhandlers, according to city workers, have no shelter. They do earn from $20 to $300 each day by begging motorists for money. And they use this money for food and housing.

According to the staff of Dallas, mental health may play a factor in their inability to keep down a job or look for social services.

It has now become a problem in Dallas as there was trash and urine seen on the roads. So, they find a different solution to manage the panhandlers in the area and clean the city with the help of the city council.