Is Our Panhandling Population Shrinking?

It's not your imagination. The population of pan-handlers in Downtown Cleveland is down more than 40% over the past two years! This reduction can be largely credited to the hard working team at the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

On Friday, October 17th, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance will announce a new program to provide for the homeless called Generocity Cleveland. The press conference will be held in front of Old Stone Church (91 Public Square) at 1:30pm on Friday, October 17th. This initiative includes a new marketing campaign to reduce panhandling, new donation receptacles for people to give to the homeless and a new Mobile Services Unit designed to bring services to the homeless.

Generocity Cleveland is the result of a comprehensive partnership between the City of Cleveland, the faith-based community and Downtown property owners. This new program replaces the Alliance’s “Homeless Education Campaign”, which focused on reducing aggressive panhandling in Downtown. Last year’s campaign message; “Don’t Give Where It Can’t Help” encouraged people to donate to local service agencies rather than panhandlers. Since August of last year, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance Ambassadors have reported a 40% reduction in panhandling incidents. In addition, the Alliance has raised nearly $2,000 that has been used to purchase ID’s and medical supplies for the homeless.

Although the Homeless Education Campaign has been successful, Downtown Cleveland Alliance and faith-based organizations believed that an education campaign was not enough to help the homeless. Downtown stakeholders needed a more complete approach in order to meet both their goals of reducing panhandling and providing care and services to the homeless. Generocity Cleveland addresses both areas of concern through three united fronts: 1) marketing, 2) donations and 3) services.

Marketing: Generocity Cleveland’s marketing campaign replaces the Homeless Education Campaign message with a clearer and more positive message, “Change Where It Counts.” This message still encourages people not to give money to people on the street, but it also encourages them to give money by directing individuals to the new donation receptacles located throughout Downtown. The new message will be on posters and flyers throughout Downtown and will feature an image of the new donation receptacles that will be placed throughout downtown.

Donations: Downtown Cleveland Alliance recently purchased 30 used parking meters from the City of Cleveland to be used as donation receptacles, fifteen of which will be placed at strategic Downtown locations. The Alliance’s committee felt strongly that providing the public with safe donation locations throughout Downtown is the best way to divert funds from panhandlers (many of which are not homeless) to the organizations that serve the homeless everyday. It is not effective to just encourage people not to give to panhandlers, people feel compelled to give. These new donation receptacles allow people to still say no to panhandlers while giving much needed funds to trustworthy organizations that provide for the homeless. Donations are collected as part of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s Downtown Homeless Fund. They are used to give homeless people ID’s, birth certificates and other items necessary in order to get off the streets and get their lives back. This donation receptacle strategy is a successful model that has been used in similar cities such as Denver and Baltimore.

Services: Since the creation of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (2 ½ years ago), DCA has employed a full time social worker to help the Alliance provide direct services to the homeless. Since many homeless in Downtown are “shelter resistant”, it has become necessary for the DCA to be as mobile as possible, in order to meet people where they are at. To better provide services to the homeless, Generocity Cleveland has acquired an old Paratransit vehicle, which has been transformed into a mobile service bus. This vehicle will allow DCA and its partners to better provide services to the homeless and even transport individuals to area shelters if they desire.

"Clevelanders' giving spirit never wavers when taking care of their brothers and sisters, regardless of times or economy", stated Joe Cimperman, councilman of Ward 13. “Generocity Cleveland will provide DCA and our partner organizations the means to continue providing services to the homeless of Downtown Cleveland,” said Joe Marinucci, President of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. “Providing for the homeless is crucial to building a Downtown that benefits all stakeholders.”

For more information on how you can help please visit http://www.generocitycleveland.org/ or call 216-736-7799.