EDITORIAL: Wrong-headed on homelessness

Philadelphia needs to focus on building up existing resources and not on passing new legislation. The law -- which targets homeless individuals in Center City who have previously refused to take advantage of shelters or treatment programs -- makes sleeping or sitting on city streets for prolonged periods of time illegal. It also criminalizes aggressive panhandling, defined as "repeated begging, insistent panhandling, retaliatory comments, blocking of free passage of a pedestrian, touching or yelling at a pedestrian." These restrictions should only exacerbate the homelessness problem, however, as the city has done nothing to increase funding for shelters so that they will be able to cope with the expected influx. What does this mean for our area? Councilperson Jannie Blackwell rightly removed West Philadelphia from the bill's purview last spring. But University officials and community leaders, fearing that West Philadelphia would become a haven for the homeless as a result of the legislation's uneven nature, subsequently put pressure on Blackwell. She has agreed to include University City in the law by passing a separate bill this fall, while the rest of West Philadelphia will remain exempt. As ludicrous as the legislation is in its essence, it makes even less sense in a University setting. It has the potential to create problems in situations ranging from block parties to people handing out flyers around campus. The concerns of those who foresee a shifting of the concentration of the city's homeless unless the law is enacted uniformly are also valid. All we can do at this point is hope that the law is deemed unconstitutional on the basis that it restricts activities on one side of the street and not the other. And we hope that once city officials are done with this nonsense, they can devote energy and funds to improved shelters and services, rather than criminalizing homelessness.