Feed the Meter, Feed the Homeless

[The Straight Story]

Feed the Meter, Feed the Homeless

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- San Francisco plans to install 10 bright orange parking meters in areas plagued by panhandling to encourage pedestrians put the change they normally give to pandhandlers to charities and programs that help the homeless.

Although other cities that implanted similar ideas have reported reductions in panhandling, the meters have drawn ridicule from many homeless advocates and been dismissed as simply ineffective by others.

“There's always going to be panhandlers,” said Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. “The real issue is trying to do a better job of getting people with acute mental health crises, the people who the public is concerned about, off the street.”

The meters donated by the city's Department of Parking and Traffic will bear signs explaining how people how they can help. The slogan for the program is: "Be a PART of change. Don't give change."

http://www.kcbs.com/Feed-the-Meter--Feed-the-Homeless/2179795