Stacy Lee, an employee at Earth and Spirit, had just left the store and was walking down Ninth Street in search of some lunch when she was approached by three men asking her for money.
"When I said no, they kept following me," Lee said. "They were obviously drunk and didn't understand until I turned around and confronted them that I was not going to give them anything."
Panhandling is not new to Ninth Street. "There have been panhandlers on Ninth Street for years," said Carol Anderson, co-owner of the clothing boutique Vaguely Reminiscent. "It's kind of `live and let live.'"
However, following a recent campaign to rid the downtown area of panhandlers by increasing policing there, more of them were seen on Ninth Street, Anderson said. "Some of the new people were more aggressive. They wouldn't just ask for money, they would follow you. It was kind of intimidating."
Customers as well as employees were having problems with the panhandlers. "We had a lot of complaints from customers," said Sherry Clayton of Wavelengths.
Panhandlers could often be found congregating on the benches outside of Francesca's Dessert Caffe. "If customers complained, we would ask [the panhandlers] to leave," said Barrett Mardre, an employee at Francesca's.
The Ninth Street Merchants Association decided to combat the issue through a campaign called, "There's Another Way to Help." Officially launched on March 8, the program seeks to provide customers with alternative ways to help panhandlers by contributing to charitable organizations instead of giving spare change directly to the panhandlers.
Participating stores, from Poindexter's to CCI Photographers, have placed information flyers in their windows and cardboard boxes at their registers to collect money. Information cards listing "Tips for handling panhandlers" and names and phone numbers of various charitable organizations are also available.
Currently, three organizations are receiving the donations: Durham Rescue Mission, Community Shelter for HOPE and Durham Community Soup Kitchen.
"We wanted to get rid of panhandlers, but didn't want to come across badly," Clayton said. While the Ninth Street Merchants Association's main desire is to keep panhandlers off the street, many of the merchants see this campaign as a way to reach out to the needy in the community. Some stores, like Ravena's and Francesca's, match their customer's donations.
Trinity senior Mark Lorey, a member of the Student Activist Cooperative, said more direct outreach may be what is really needed. "Compassion isn't giving money," Lorey said. "It's stopping and talking to [panhandlers]. It's taking steps past that like helping people get to shelters. Compassion shouldn't stop when you walk out the door of a store."
However, Lorey said he does see some potential in "There's Another Way to Help." "It could be a first step towards a deeper consideration of why people are in need," Lorey said. "I hope it will be." The campaign is purposely designed to supply customers with the opportunity to perform a service instead of giving useless handouts to beggars on the street. "The goal is to provide customers with a way to feel like they're helping," Anderson said.
In addition to the "There's Another Way to Help" campaign, the Ninth Street Merchants Association has received support from local police. Though they rely primarily on car patrols, they have supplemented these with bike patrols and one or two one-hour walking beats a day.
A new ordinance prohibits "aggressive begging," which is determined by the degree of threat in the panhandler's appeal for money, said Corporeal W.P. Long of District 2. "If [the panhandlers] beg aggressively, they can be taken in or issued a citation," Long said.
In the last few weeks, merchants say they have seen a noticeable decrease in the number of panhandlers. "There used to be a couple of vagrants who were familiar," said Tina Romanella, an employee at Ravena's. "They were in the same place, same time of day. I don't see them anymore." Merchants admit that this decrease probably results more from more frequent and stringent police patrolling, yet they said they feel that their campaign has contributed.
Customer support for "There's Another Way to Help" has been strong. "A lot of customers--I'd say about 75 percent--have asked about it," Romanella said. "I feel like it has made people more aware that giving money to panhandlers is not the way to help them."
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