Just say no to panhandlers?

Business and property owners in downtown Seattle will distribute a brochure this holiday season giving tips to tourists, workers and shoppers on how to deal with panhandlers.

The advice? Don't deal with them.

The two-color, tri-fold brochure is in draft form and not available for viewing by the media.

But Anita Woo, communications director for the Downtown Seattle Association, said the tips include walking with confidence and politely saying either "sorry" or "no" when asked for money.

The brochure also provides a list of human-service agencies to which people may donate as an alternative to giving to panhandlers. It is targeted at panhandlers, too — providing information on where and when they can get free meals or other help.

Designed to discourage panhandling by making it less lucrative, the brochure is eliciting mixed reactions among homeless advocates and others who serve that population.

Bill Hobson, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, has seen the draft brochure and says its overall content appears reasonable and is consistent with his own practices. Hobson is a member of a human-services task force organized by the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA).

Hobson said that when approached by panhandlers, he almost always informs them of available services and rarely gives them money unless he senses they truly are hungry. Then, he buys them something to eat.

"I do have a concern that a lot of the money that panhandlers get on the streets ends up being spent on drugs and alcohol," Hobson said. "I would encourage people instead to give money to organizations that directly serve homeless people."

Advocates are in a tenuous position, he added.

"Do I really want to advocate for someone's right to beg when I don't want homeless people to have to beg? What I want is for them to rediscover and reacquire whatever it is they need to become self-sufficient."

Disdain vs. compassion?

But another homeless advocate, who has not seen the brochure, said it sounds to him like disdain for panhandlers disguised as compassion.

"It's not the most venomous thing, by any means, but it does tend to veil in a rather flimsy way — maybe not even consciously — a certain contempt toward this population," said Joe Martin, a downtown social worker and member of the Seattle Displacement Coalition.

"If someone is moved to give money to someone on the street who obviously is not doing very well, then they should do so.

"I don't think the DSA should assume to direct or control people's charitable impulses at that personal level."

Martin likened the brochure to one that advises Yellowstone National Park visitors "what to do when they encounter a bear. To some degree, this is what this brochure is doing. We, as a society, have a tendency to recategorize poor people as some other species."

Marji King, 24, lives in an abandoned building with scores of other homeless people. She says her only addiction right now is caffeine and that much of the money she gets from panhandling she puts back into downtown businesses through food and coffee purchases.

King crouched against a lamppost on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pine Street on Friday morning, carrying a cardboard sign that said: "Spare a penny?" In front of her was a large Starbucks holiday cup about a quarter-full of coins.

"I don't ask people for change," she said. "I hold this sign. If people choose to see it, then they choose to see it. If they choose to ignore it, then they choose to ignore it."

King said she has been on and off the streets for eight years and that her panhandling proceeds in the past helped finance her escapes.

She says panhandlers who hold signs passively asking for money deserve to be respected, not messed with.

"If you see someone who needs help, help them out," King said. "If you help them out, you won't see them out on the streets as much."

The Rev. Rick Reynolds, executive director of Operation Nightwatch, said that, like Hobson, he does not support panhandling as a solution to a homeless person's problems.

"My problem with panhandlers is that there are way more homeless people working jobs, yet panhandlers continue to be the stereotype of what it means to be homeless," he said.

"From my experience, a good number of panhandlers are not homeless."

Reynolds, who has not seen the draft brochure, said the DSA has a history of being sensitive on issues affecting homeless people.

"Yes, they come at issues from a business point of view, but they have shown compassion in their approach," he said.

Hotels, offices to receive

Woo of the DSA said the goal is to distribute the brochures to hotels and offices a week or two before Christmas. She declined to say how much the brochures cost, except to say the project is being financed with private money through the Metropolitan Improvement District.

The brochures also will be handed out by downtown ambassadors, a crew of district employees who patrol and clean streets and assist visitors and police.

Woo said the ambassadors will distribute the brochures to panhandlers and people seen giving to them.

She said the brochure also tells people to contact police if they feel they have been a victim of aggressive panhandling. But it does not define what that means.

Under the city's panhandling ordinance, aggressive refers to panhandling done in a way that instills fear in a reasonable person to compel that person to give.

In the early 1990s, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington challenged the ordinance in court, with a judge upholding the law but removing some language.

Doug Honig, the group's communications director, said that as long as the brochure does not misstate the law, it does not seem to violate civil liberties.

People may find it distasteful or feel uncomfortable when they are approached by a beggar, Honig said, but those feelings alone do not make panhandling illegal.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com