Dozens of downtown business and property owners have been meeting over the past couple of weeks to address what they say is a growing panhandling problem, fueled by a rising population of new homeless people moving into the area.
Three meetings have taken place so far, with attendance dominated by business owners who say their patrons are increasingly being approached outside—and sometimes inside—hotels, restaurants and bars by people aggressively asking them for money.
“Homelessness is not the issue—it’s when people feel unsafe when someone is harassing them for a dollar,” says Ben Blackwell, area manager of Hospitality America, which oversees operations for the Courtyard by Marriott hotel and the adjacent Starbucks, as well as the downtown Hampton Inn. “Downtown has made leaps and strides in the past 10 years, and we don’t want to stunt that growth by not addressing this issue.”
Downtown resident Mary Jane Marcantel says she heard at one meeting that there’s been a 43% increase in new homeless people moving to Baton Rouge since January. As BRPD ambassador for the fifth district, she’s responded to multiple calls this year involving preventing homeless people from harming themselves or others.
“Baton Rouge is in a vicious cycle of throw money, more people come, throw money, more people come … but the services are failing,” she says. “Why are businesspeople having to deal with all of this?”
However, Michael Acaldo, president and CEO of St. Vincent De Paul, says his organization does more than simply feed people, adding the nonprofit, which typically has between 300 and 1,000 people visit daily, provides hot meals, beds and offers medical prescriptions, among other services. Last year, he says they provided more than 30,000 guests nights of shelter. But, St. Vincent De Paul and other providers, Acaldo acknowledges, can’t force people to stay in their shelters.
Though he did not attend a meeting, Brad Watts, owner of The River Room, Cecelia Creole Bistro and the Loft at Cecelia says his frustration stems from the fact that panhandlers refuse his money when he offers to pay them for wiping his windows or picking up trash on the sidewalk. He’s had to call the police on occasion when a panhandler walks into his bar and refuses to leave.
Ben Taylor, owner of several downtown buildings and parking lots, distinguishes between downtown’s normal homeless population—with which he says the business community generally empathizes with—and an incoming wave of grifters and panhandlers he believes are being dropped off by buses in Baton Rouge.
Though unconfirmed, Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer, who also attended the meetings, says the Baton Rouge Police Department is researching the possibility of such occurrences.
“BRPD is on it. We need to make sure our hotels are filled up and people don’t feel like they’re being harassed,” Rhorer says. “There’s a great public awareness about this issue, which is both long-term and short-term, but we need to make it clear that aggressive panhandling won’t be tolerated.”
