Panhandlers have been outlawed in St. Petersburg. City Council members listened as business owners, homeless activists, homeowners and newspaper “hawkers” voiced their opinions on the ordinance before it passed last night at 10:30 p.m.
The new ordinance states that no one can solicit cars on sidewalks or medians in St. Pete. The ordinance not only affects the poor and homeless; non-profit organizations, charities and hawkers will all be banned. Charities such as firefighters' “Fill the Boot” fundraiser that raises money for “Jerry’s Kids” are included in the ban. The fundraiser helps those with muscular dystrophy and other related neuromuscular diseases. St. Petersburg firefighters have collected over $30,000 for MDA in the past.
City Council member Jeff Danner said that banning panhandling shouldn’t hurt fundraisers like “Fill the Boot"; instead the charities will just have to be more creative in gathering money.
“$30,000 is nothing for an organization like the MDA,” Danner said.
Protesters opposing the ban rallied in front of City Hall an hour before the Council meeting started. Robert Harris, a newspaper hawker for the St. Petersburg Times, is one of 87 employees who distributes paper at busy intersections.
“I would like to see the Council members survive homeless without being able to hawk papers or use panhandling,” Harris said.
Harris helps sell some of the 7,000 newspapers that hawkers sell every Sunday. Many of the hawkers are poor, and selling the papers is their only source of income. They make 50 cents for every paper they sell. Sometimes they make as little as $50 for an 11-hour shift.
“I make $50 a week, and that’s all I have. It’s my job,” said Jeremy Block, another hawker.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.