Montgomery City Council takes up controversial panhandling ordinance again Tuesday

Sara MacNeil | Montgomery Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption Mayor Strange reacts to new Montgomery panhandling law Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange reacts to the Montgomery City Council passing an anti panhandling law.

Montgomery City Council on Tuesday will revisit a controversial panhandling law that passed in July, but has yet to be enforced.

The ordinance, which passed unanimously, would require a mandatory two days in jail for panhandlers. Enforcement was delayed because it was never signed by Mayor Todd Strange.

There's also been an amendment added to the law that a person can be fined or jailed for giving money or any other object to another person through a car window on a public road.

Patrick Aitken said this would make his job as a homeless advocate and case worker impossible as it criminalizes handing someone food, water bottles, hygiene products or even his business card from a vehicle window.

“I’d rather pay a couple of bucks [through] the window than the thousands of dollars a year it takes to keep a inmate in city jail,” Aitken said.

Aitken said he has noticed that after the law passed in July, some people he regularly helped had vanished from the streets.

A man who slept under the bridge on Ann Street — a regular who stood outside Salvation Army, a woman with the street name “Blue” — were all nowhere to be found when Aitken returned to Montgomery from a trip to Mobile.

“It was almost like there had been a sweep,” Aitken said.

Jonathan Singleton used to sleep on a mattress under the bridge on Ann Street, but since the ordinance was introduced, he has been paying $10 a day to sleep on someone's porch.

Since the amendment to jail those who give to panhandlers was added, Singleton doesn't make enough to pay the rent. He made $1 after five hours of asking for money Thursday, he said. Singleton said a woman he knows on the streets has turned to prostitution because she no longer makes enough money panhandling.

More: Do you give to panhandlers? It could be punishable with jail time in Montgomery

The city has justified the ordinance as a measure to address public safety. There was no argument among City Council members at the last meeting about the impracticality of creating a law that says it's illegal for someone to give another person an object out of a car window. The ordinance was carried over to the next City Council meeting Nov. 5 with the only stipulation being the penalty of jail time was too harsh. The City Council is set to vote on the ordinance Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a statement saying the legislation is excessive and, in July, threatened to sue the City of Montgomery if Mayor Todd Strange doesn't veto the ordinance to jail panhandlers. The SPLC will have a press conference at 4:15 p.m. in front of City Hall before the meeting Tuesday.

Not all panhandlers are homeless, but it’s no secret that life on the streets is dangerous. A homeless woman in a wheelchair has been shot and killed outside of Salvation Army in the past, Aitken said. Instead of receiving protection from the police, they are often harassed or persecuted. Police are scrutinized for their treatment of the homeless in many cities. The Montgomery Police Department hasn't been an exception to the criticism.

“I know they may get a bad rap for harassing the homeless and panhandlers, but they’re only following orders, so it comes from the top,” Aitken said. “Trust me, they’d rather be going after serious lawbreakers."

Singleton, who lost 35 pounds in less than a year due to illness, said the police have assaulted him. He said he's been dropped off in Prattville by an officer who threw his bicycle in the river. One officer told him it's against the law to be homeless.

"They'd rather push us out than help us," he said.

Singleton is also cited regularly for various charges such as solicitation on a highway. The police charged one woman who was panhandling with something along the lines of "operating a business without a license."

Singleton gets charged fines and court fees. He then gets charged with "failure to pay," receives a warrant and is jailed, accruing more and more fines and fees that he will never be able to pay off.

Sara MacNeil can be reached at smacneil@montgome.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.