A disabled Vietnam-era veteran named John sat below an Ikea umbrella on a La Mesa median Tuesday. He displayed a neatly lettered signal that learn: “Please assist with what you’ll be able to. Each little bit helps, even change.”
John wouldn’t give his final identify however shared that he’s been taking donations at that intersection — Fletcher Parkway and Amaya Drive — for years.
A reporter requested him if he had been conscious that the town had erected indicators elsewhere on what additionally is known as Veterans Memorial Parkway that learn: PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT PANHANDLING.
The indicators steered that withholding money would contribute to fixing homelessness. They gave the town’s Homeless Outreach & Cell Engagement telephone quantity, electronic mail deal with and web site.
John hadn’t heard of the indicators, however didn’t suppose they utilized to him.
“I’m right here as a result of I must earn a living to pay my payments,” John stated. “I’ve a spot the place I can sleep at night time and have meals obtainable or I make my very own meals.”
He stated he lived along with his brother someplace close to La Mesa.
“I’ve a room,” he stated. “That’s it.”
La Mesa Metropolis Supervisor Greg Humora stated two indicators had been put in Oct. 18 on the Jackson Drive medians going through east-west Fletcher Parkway, which averages round 25,000 autos per day. One other is adjoining to the Costco parking zone at Marengo and Fletcher Parkway.
The Marengo signal was obscured by a field for a day or two earlier than a Public Works worker eliminated it about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. (On Wednesday, the signal bore a wig, based on a Fb publish. One other signal had the phrase NOT defaced.)
The worker, who declined to offer his identify, informed Occasions of San Diego that related indicators had been torn down at Dallas Avenue and Amaya Drive, apparently by folks objecting to them.
Critics aren’t confined to road folks.
La Mesa Councilman Invoice Baber stated: “I don’t assist putting in these indicators. We want extra compassion and fewer forms, particularly for our homeless.”
Metropolis Supervisor Humora, a former public works director and metropolis engineer for La Mesa, stated the indicators had been “developed by workers to additional homeless schooling and outreach according to the Homeless Motion Plan.”
He famous that the indicators “direct consideration to the companies offered by the HOME program for people seeking to assist with homelessness.”
Requested who green-lighted the indicators, he replied: “Workers approved the signal design and places. The Metropolis Council was conscious of the indicators.”
He confirmed that La Mesa first realized of all these indicators after they had been utilized by El Cajon — beginning in 2017.
Any preliminary public reactions to the indicators?
“None that I’m conscious of,” Humora stated by way of electronic mail.
However he indicated the anti-panhandling program wouldn’t be expanded.
“I don’t know if extra indicators will go up at this level,” he stated.
Requested for remark, a outstanding homeless activist and former La Mesa mayor had been essential of the indicators.
“I’m not conscious of any information on whether or not these indicators work,” stated Martha Sullivan of the San Diego Housing Emergency Alliance.
“I hope NOT, as a result of as a previously houseless pal informed the decide in her listening to on a panhandling ticket issued by the El Cajon police: (paraphrasing) Poor folks shouldn’t be punished for making an attempt to eat.”
Sullivan conceded that the La Mesa indicators don’t threaten tickets for panhandling, typically referred to as “flying the signal.”
“However the actuality is that thousands and thousands of {dollars} are appropriated to ‘assist’ houseless folks, however little or no truly reaches lots of them,” she stated by way of electronic mail. “We will see with our personal eyes that the inhabitants of houseless residents continues to develop, [and] we all know from current reporting that the demand for shelter/companies far outstrips the availability.”
Sullivan stated that if native governments want to scale back panhandling, they need to collaborate with different native governments to provide ample meals, housing, bodily/psychological well being remedy (together with habit) and longterm look after aged and/or disabled residents.
“This contains having extra skilled social employees interacting with houseless residents than cops,” she stated.
La Mesa’s motion plan to fight homelessness, authorised in 2019, doesn’t point out posting indicators in opposition to panhandling, nonetheless.
El Cajon spokesman David Richards stated La Mesa workers hadn’t reached out to his Metropolis Supervisor’s Workplace about El Cajon’s signage.
“Additionally, we don’t accumulate information on panhandling,” he stated.
Former La Mesa Mayor Artwork Madrid didn’t mince phrases.
“I feel it’s insulting, offensive and demeaning,” he stated. “I can bear in mind not too lengthy when the son of a La Mesa councilman was homeless and the son of the mayor of El Cajon was additionally homeless.”
Madrid, mayor from 1990 to 2014, stated there ought to have been dialogue amongst prime metropolis officers.
“They need to all resign as a result of the message contradicts what La Mesa use to face for,” he stated. “Not way back, [Councilwoman Laura] Lothian steered that La Mesa homeless people ought to be despatched to Campo.”
Former county sheriff candidate David Myers, a La Mesa resident, stated: “The indicators being up are positively a sign on the failures of presidency and neighborhood to adequately deal with how persons are struggling to outlive, pay for fuel (if they’ve a automotive), shelter, put meals on the desk.”
On the personal Fb group La Mesa Happenings, the indicators had a blended reception.
“No one panhandles as a result of it’s enjoyable or simpler than a ‘actual’ job,” stated one lady. “It appears to me that these indicators are more likely to scale back panhandlers’ belief within the HOME program. How would you reply to somebody who sees you as an issue to be eliminated relatively than an individual to help?”
Additionally noting that panhandlers aren’t essentially homeless, one other lady stated a neighbor in her condo advanced would make twice as a lot cash in a day than she did at her personal job.
“Simply wish to share a wider perspective than simply people who truly do need assistance,” she added.
However one other lady stated of panhandlers: “It’s getting very distracting making an attempt to drive round all of them, so this can hopefully make site visitors situations safer.”
One man stated he was OK with the indicators.
“Panhandling on road corners shouldn’t be a viable response to homelessness, and we actually have no idea whether or not the folks doing it are homeless,” he stated. “Many seem like disabled indirectly, and standing in road corners or road medians all day lengthy is a singularly untherapeutic and unhealthy motion for disabled folks to be doing.”
He added: “There aren’t any positives and no advantages to this. And there additionally is not any proof that folks do that out of financial necessity. I’d counsel you go onto Google scholar and take a look at the analysis on road nook panhandling.”
One man was blunt:
“I feel the police ought to haul all panhandle[rs] off to a spot (not jail) however a spot the place they’ll decide the assistance they should get them on monitor to rehab themselves from no matter [their] difficulty is that has them there. Many are littering nuisances whereas some aren’t. Some crap and go to the lavatory behind bushes.”
However others shared sympathy for the road folks:
“They’re not going to inform me what to do with hard-earned cash,”
stated one individual.
“I’ll proceed to offer cash to whomever I select, each time I select, and for no matter motive I select,” stated one other.
And John, the Amaya Drive panhandler?
He stated he’s pondering of transferring to a different state for higher veterans’ advantages.
Within the meantime, he cites the regulation governing panhandlers — you’ll be able to’t “accost” somebody for cash or aggressively solicit donations. Or stand inside 500 toes of a freeway ramp.
How did he know these nuances?
He says he was an El Cajon cop within the Nineteen Sixties.
