Even though Claudia Smith walks out of homeless shelters every morning desperate for money to buy food and clean clothing from thrift shops, she acknowledges that cussing and hounding people isn’t going to help her.
So she isn’t too fearful of getting snared by an ordinance passed by the City Council Wednesday that will hit aggressive panhandlers with fines when it takes effect by early November.
Not that she could pay the fine, anyway.
“Fines, how am I going to pay it? If I had the money, I wouldn’t be out here,” she said.
Under the law, panhandlers can be ticketed if they ask for money within 10 feet of bus stops, ATMs, currency exchanges or banks. Panhandlers will be barred from asking for money from people in restaurants, sidewalk cafes and gas stations.
They cannot be rude or use profanity, and they cannot touch a person whom they are asking for money, according to the law. It also bars two or more panhandlers from jointly asking for cash.
Mayor Richard Daley told reporters after the council meeting that people are asking only for common-sense restrictions. “No one wants to be harassed,” Daley said.
Most people asking for money present no problem, and the aggressive panhandlers are few, he said.
While the law was passed without debate, a 1991 law that outlawed all panhandling sparked a class-action lawsuit that cost the city nearly $500,000 to settle. City lawyers say this new law, focusing on aggressive begging, will stand up to legal challenges.
As she walked the city Wednesday begging for money, Smith, 37, said she understands why lawmakers felt they had to do something to control the aggressive panhandlers.
“I’ve seen them say nasty, disrespectful things, things I wouldn’t say to my dog,” said Smith, who became homeless five years ago. “They shouldn’t be rude and cuss the person out that doesn’t help.”
Smith begins panhandling the minute she walks out of the shelters at about 6:30 a.m. She doesn’t stop until she makes it back to the shelter about 12 hours later.
For the miles she logs wandering and begging, she collects about $25 on a good day.
As Smith walked north on Michigan Avenue, she sipped coffee and relit a cigarette stub she pulled from the pocket of her jacket. In a barely audible voice, she asked people for money as she passed within 10 feet of bus stops and walked in the path of pedestrians.
According to the law, Smith could be fined $50 fine for the first two offenses and another $100 for each subsequent offense.
“It’s a damned-if-I-do and a damned-if-I-don’t situation,” she said. “I’ve got to eat.”
Sitting on the sidewalk outside Tiffany’s at Superior Street and Michigan Avenue, Andy Miller stretched his long legs out in front of him across the cement. He had a black porkpie hat turned upside-down on two Bibles ready to catch coins and bills. A CTA bus stop was nearby.
As the 61-year-old man wrote out scriptures on the back of Western Union forms, he asked passersby to read passages from a Bible, and he asked for money.
Rosemary Brcich, running errands downtown, put a dollar into his hat. She said that even though some panhandlers seemed out of control, she believes that a law will do more harm than good.
“I run into very few aggressive people; the ones who are, I say, `This is all I’m going to give you,'” said Brcich, who lives in Bridgeport. “For most people, it’s not only the money you give them, it’s the look you give them. That another human being cares about you.”
Minutes later, Brenda Johnson, 43, walked up to Brcich and asked her for money. Brcich dug into her pocketbook and pulled out a dollar, the usual amount she gives.
“Thank you for listening,” Johnson said. “Everyone else just walks by.”
