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Arlington is expanding its efforts to discourage panhandling in the city after officials said signs put up at intersections across the city have led to fewer panhandlers, but some have concerns about the signs.The signs discourage drivers at intersection from giving money to panhandlers.“Contribute to the solution,” the red, white and blue signs read. “It’s OK to say not to panhandlers.”The signs also direct anybody who needs assistance or wants to give money to visit the page arlingtontx.gov/homeless to learn more.A staff report says city employees have determined the signs are working by using anecdotal observation and a decrease in the number of calls to police about panhandlers.The signs in Arlington aren’t prohibiting anybody from panhandling but are seeking to discourage people from interacting with those who are asking for money and encourage panhandlers to seek institutional resources.Safety and public concernsPanhandling cannot be banned outright. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1980 case that solicitation for money is protected speech under the First Amendment. It hasn’t stopped cities from trying to effectively do that, from laws and ordinances that ban standing in the median or walking into the street to accept money or other offerings from drivers to prohibit loitering.Jennifer Wichmann, deputy city manager for Arlington, said the city’s main concerns have primarily been about safety and responding to concerns from residents. The biggest safety concern is when people who are panhandling step into the road to accept money.“That actual act of stepping into the road to get money is not legal,” Wichmann told KERA News. “We want to make sure the people in Arlington are safe and secondly we’re responding to concerns from the public.”Wichmann said people driving in Arlington have complained less about panhandling at intersections where the signs have been installed.There’s no data on how many people have donated money or used the website on the signs to get help since they were installed, Wichmann said, but that is something they’re looking at evaluating in coming months.Keith Brooks, head of the city’s public works, said new signs are going in areas the city has identified as hot spots for panhandling.The new signs will go up at seven new locations:Southwest Green Oakes Boulevard and Interstate 20

Little Road and I-20

South Cooper Street and I-20

South Collins Street and I-20

West Sublet Road and Highway 287

North Field Road and Interstate 30

North Cooper Street and I-30It’ll bring the total number of intersections with signs to 10. The original three were installed as part of a pilot program in 2023.‘No silver bullet’Hannah Lebovits, a professor of public affairs at UT Arlington and assistant director of the Institute of Urban Studies, said discouraging giving at intersections may not be the best way to deal with panhandling.Lebovits said there are drawbacks to discouraging person-to-person giving.“There’s no silver bullet,” she said.Lebovits said the signs are intended to help people connect with resources and that encouraging donations to organizations that help vulnerable people is a good thing, as is connecting those in need with assistance.But the signs may cause unintended harm.“The people who are panhandling, the individuals who are in a vulnerable situation can experience harm when we move from an individual, interpersonal transfer of resources to institutional transfers of resources,” Lebovits told KERA News.She said institutional barriers can make it difficult for people in need to access resources and even prevent them from trying. Those can include things like qualifying for help, navigating where to go for certain resources and accessing resources needed immediately.“What we expect is that the institution is engaging in a more equitable, more efficient and more effective transfer of resources than we would if we were to just hand somebody say $10 on the street,” Lebovits said.She emphasized that organizations in Arlington and Tarrant County are doing important work that helps improve lives and aids people in vulnerable positions. Her concern is that they can’t meet every need every time.Some immediate needs like food, toiletries and feminine hygiene products can be hard to get ahold of when people in vulnerable positions need them, she said. For some people, the social stigma of getting help from charities or government programs feels worse than asking for money on the roadside. That can stop some people from getting help they need, too.Wichmann said that accessing resources may feel daunting, but many organizations in Arlington like Arlington Life Shelter, Mission Arlington and the Salvation Army can meet those needs. Shelters in the city don’t just provide a place to sleep, she said. They also offer many of those basic needs freely.Giving to those organizations is a good thing, Lebovits said, and she doesn’t feel that anybody has a responsibility to give to people who are panhandling. She only worries that the signs may cause unintended harm. She said the administrative barriers can be a lot to deal with, and a person dealing with an addiction or mental illness may not be able to access resources as readily as those who are not experiencing those circumstances.If someone is thinking about giving money at an intersection, Lebovits said, it’s important to keep a positive outlook. Some people will be concerned that the money will go toward things like drugs or alcohol, but she said that’s a pessimistic view of humanity and seems to have gaps in logic. On the contrary, giving money to someone could help them meet basic needs more easily.“It’s more important to place that on the backburner when we think about giving, when we think about interacting with people who are panhandling,” Lebovits said. “Instead of having an overly paternalistic view of how our money can likely be used for harm, I think it’s better for people to engage in a thoughtful, logical exercise in how your money can be used for good.”Panhandling isn’t illegal in Arlington, but Wichmann emphasized that walking into the street to accept donations is. Still, she said when police are called about panhandling they try to connect people in need with resources and typically only give citations for something like walking into the street if it becomes continuous.“We try to approach these things with help first,” Wichmann told KERA News. “We all work to offer resources and assistance in the city to our fellow residents who are without homes and help them, hopefully, get resources and access to things that will help them get into safer and more permanent housing.”Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org. You can follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.