By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org (TNS) Despite court rulings that soliciting money is protected as free speech, some cities and at least one state are considering new restrictions on panhandling in traffic medians, arguing it’s a safety hazard. New Mexico’s Democratic governor this year and an Arizona Republican lawmaker last year proposed statewide bans on asking for money on street medians, though neither passed.
Wilmington, North Carolina, passed a similar ordinance this year , and Roanoke, Virginia, has stepped up enforcement of a law that has been on the books since last year. Advocates for homeless people have sued over a similar law in Jacksonville, Florida. A handful of cities are turning to incentives as a solution: Oklahoma City, where courts struck down a panhandling ban, offers city cleanup work to panhandlers .
Philadelphia and Fairfax County, Virginia, have similar programs, and Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, recently reinstated one. The efforts have grown amid a nationwide homelessness crisis, with more people visibly soliciting money in the streets, and higher pedestrian deaths compared with before the pandemic. Backers of the bans argue that they promote safety, but opponents say that there’s no proof such restrictions protect pedestrians and that they infringe on free speech rights.
Court rulings have been mixed. Many of the newest laws or proposed laws banning pedestrians on narrow medians followed one in Sandy City, Utah, which a federal ap.