Drivers passing through some of San Antonio’s wealthiest pockets will now see signs advising them to donate to charity instead of giving to panhandlers, part of an effort to discourage the practice near busy intersections.
Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8), who is running for mayor in 2025, paid for the signs with money from his district’s portion of the city’s Neighborhood Access Mobility Program, which typically funds minor street and sidewalk repairs.
He hopes they’ll help “reduce the anxiety of residents” in his district, who until recently didn’t have much experience with homelessness or panhandling, he said in an interview Thursday. Their generous giving, he said, has inadvertently created a highly “profitable” corridor for panhandlers.
Pelaez’s Northwest council district starts north of Loop 410, stretching northwest though upscale shopping and dining areas at La Cantera and The Rim, and ending just after Boerne Stage Road.
The signs, at high-traffic intersections along Interstate 10, including Wurzbach Parkway, Huebner Road and La Cantera Parkway, say, “It’s OK to say no for your safety and theirs” and “Please give to local charities that help those in need.”
Pelaez also spearheaded a separate text-to-donate campaign in 2019 as an alternative to paying panhandlers but said the problem has only worsened since the pandemic.
The San Antonio/Bexar County 2024 point-in-time count report released Wednesday showed a 6.8% percent increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness compared to last year. Meanwhile, unsheltered homelessness, those living in encampments or elsewhere, has decreased by 25% since 2019.
“The problem is becoming more and more acute in my side of town,” Pelaez said
But advocates for the homeless are conflicted about the efficacy of such signage, which other cities, like Arlington, Texas, have also launched.
The federally designated nonprofit Close to Home coordinates homeless mitigation efforts, including the city’s 2019 text message-based Change the Way We Give initiative, which distributes donations to agencies serving people experiencing and at risk of homelessness.
While giving to service agencies is a more effective way to help people in need, Close to Home Executive Director Katie Wilson said Thursday that person-to-person giving can also go a long way toward someone’s recovery.
“We’ve heard this from people experiencing homelessness, that one of the most traumatizing things is people walking past you like you’re a fixture and you don’t exist,” she added. “It can make it hard to see yourself as worthy of taking that step [to get help].”
She recommended giving out simple items like a water bottle or a granola bar as a way to engage — and homeless service agencies always need volunteers.
Pelaez contended that giving cash to panhandlers “enables” drug and alcohol abuse and puts money in the hands of the cartels. “I think that that problem eclipses all others,” he said.
Nikisha Baker, president and CEO of housing and assistance nonprofit SAMMinistries, said the organization encourages “the compassion of the community to be directed towards professional resources that understand the complexities of mental health and substance abuse and housing” instead of enabling continued panhandling on the street.
Wilson and Baker noted that not all panhandlers are homeless, as some of that activity is connected to human trafficking or people who are not as desperate as they may appear.
Pelaez’s office said the signs cost $6,000. The fund used to pay for them provides each council member roughly $500,000 per year for such discretionary projects.
The city’s current panhandling ordinance states that it is illegal to solicit “in an aggressive manner in a public area” or within 50 feet of areas such as ATMs, banks, parking meters or pay stations, marked crosswalks, bus stops or bus stations. Attempts by Northside council members and the chief of police to ban panhandling altogether were unsuccessful.
