Richard Lipsey’s meeting to address panhandling attracts key stakeholders

Businessman Richard Lipsey says he’s committed to putting up money to help address a problem with aggressive panhandling and litter near Interstate 10 at the intersection of Siegen Lane and Rieger Road.

At a meeting Thursday at his Rieger Road office building with nearly 40 elected officials, law enforcement leaders, nearby business owners and community activists, Lipsey asked other business people in the area to also chip in to help deal with aspects of a problem he acknowledges is more complex and challenging than he initially realized.

“We, in this part of Industriplex, need to band together and figure out what we can and cannot do to address this problem,” says Lipsey, who convened the meeting. “But the problem is much bigger than I thought. We cannot escape looking at the bigger picture of the homeless problem in Baton Rouge.”

Homeless people are not necessarily panhandlers and panhandlers are not necessarily homeless, a distinction those in attendance acknowledged during the course of the nearly 90-minute meeting. But the populations often overlap because of underlying behavioral health and substance abuse problems that are difficult to address.

Lipsey and others say the problem with panhandling in their area, more than homelessness, is particularly troublesome, and has led to litter and piles of discarded shopping carts on the side of the road and confrontations that make employees and vendors feel threatened.

Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, who attended the meeting along with several key staffers, discussed how her administration has been working to not only coordinate efforts among various social service providers that help the homeless, but do outreach to homeless individuals to identify why they are on the streets and figure out how best to meet their needs.

But the city-parish has only four case workers and their efforts at outreach are just getting started. Meanwhile, the problem has gotten worse in parts of the city—the Rieger Road area for one, downtown for another—since the pandemic.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux explained that law enforcement has its hands tied because panhandling is a misdemeanor and nonviolent misdemeanor offenders are not being booked into jail, in an effort to reduce the potential for spreading the virus.

But even without the pandemic, arresting panhandlers is not a viable or compassionate solution, says East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore, who explained that most panhandlers are drug addicted and need treatment.

Broome noted that her administration’s efforts to pass a stricter panhandling ordinance in 2019 was unsuccessful because of pushback from those who felt it was cruel and punitive to those who suffer from addiction and mental health issues.

One particular contributing factor in the Rieger Road area appears to be a string of motels owned by out-of-state investors that Lipsey and other area business owners believe are attracting drug activity and prostitution. Lipsey invited representatives from the motels to the meeting but they did not show up. 

Lipsey says he plans to contact the owners and make them an offer.

“The Motel 6, Super 8 and Econo Lodge—I’d like to buy them,” says Lipsey, who is prepared to make an offer to the owners. “I’d love to buy them and tear them down.”

In the meantime, the meeting produced a handful of short-term action items. Lipsey says he and other business owners will put up money for signage to discourage panhandling.

A representative from the Louisiana State Police said he will reach out to the Louisiana Department of Transportation to clean up state green spaces along the interstate and to repair a state-owned fence along the service road that has been destroyed.

The administrator from a nearby methadone clinic said he will make sure his patients are not contributing to the problem, as they wait in a socially distanced line to pick up prescriptions. 

City officials said they will step up efforts to coordinate among various social services agencies.

But everyone acknowledged it will take a lot of work. 

Moore pointed to programs in other cities that have used a “multi-tiered approach” that includes a crisis team to identify panhandlers, and a homeless/problem-solving court.

“The goal should be to deflect and divert away from the justice system as much as possible,” he says.

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