Augusta leaders turn to PR campaign to curb panhandling

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A new plan to deal with panhandling and a push for better service from city departments were on the minds of Augusta commissioners Tuesday when they met.

Although the full Augusta Commission didn’t meet, commissioners on the Finance and istrative Services committees held their meetings.

Due to a lack of quorum, Public Services, Public Safety and Engineering committees couldn’t meet. All items from those canceled meetings are being pushed to next week’s full commission meeting next Tuesday.

Carrying over from last week’s panhandling ordinance meeting, commissioners were pushing for a new panhandling campaign based on “Give Change that Counts” that’s already active in Savannah.

There was a lot of discussion on it early in Tuesday’s meeting.

“There is a difference between panhandling and homelessness. For example, everyone whose homeless does not panhandle. And everyone who panhandles is not homeless,” said Danielle Hayes, Augusta Public Information Manager.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office said in last week’s panhandling meeting upwards of 90% of the panhandlers they’ve interacted with are not homeless.

The goal is to make sure your money isn’t misused on the street, but sent to a non-profit that provides valuable resources.

10 organizations in Augusta have already expressed their for the education campaign.

The program would use three metrics to measure success:

• Surveys of local businesses at the start and finish.
• Annual reports from partnering local nonprofits.
• Work with Augusta 311, and the Richmond County sheriff’s and marshal’s offices.

It would cost $25,000 for a one-year campaign including media ads and fliers. The funds would come from the city ’s budget.

Takiyah Douse, Interim City , said: “That would include radio advertising, TV, billboards, any type of social media needs, and any other print media that would be needed.”

Commissioners are looking to only approve one year for now to see how it works for Augusta.

But a few commissioners raised the point that the money could be better used towards the strategic plan already ed within the past few years, to tackle homelessness that hasn’t received much attention since.

“I’m not against the program. I just wonder if $25,000 could be spent in a different direction,” said Jordan Johnson, District 1 Commissioner.

Overall, city leadership is still pushing for solutions since they found out from their attorneys last week an ordinance is out of the question.

Hayes said: “We want our community to know that even though panhandling is protected under the constitution, it can become a public safety issue. Especially if the panhandler is in spaces where they can get hurt, or others can get hurt.”

Without recommendation, the plan was forwarded for consideration by the full commission.

Tuesday’s discussion came after a shock last week from leadership over Augusta’s legal team claiming Columbia County’s panhandling ordinance would be unconstitutional to bring into Richmond County.

Some had sought to model panhandling efforts on that ordinance.

Another discussion took place around an environmental justice ordinance.

This came up as a recommendation from the Savannah Riverkeeper to create more barriers around industrial projects that are environmentally challenging, following community uproar around a biomass facility being proposed for Dixon Airline Road.

While a town hall meeting at Diamond Lakes Regional Park showed unity against putting in the facility, the ’s office is recommending against creating an environmental justice ordinance, saying it would create an unfriendly business environment.

Commissioner Jordan Johnson talked back, saying we still need to consider low-income areas that industry builds in.

Interim Takiyah Douse said she would still look into environmental protections based on Johnson’s concerns.

Meanwhile, commissioners on Tuesday pushed Douse’s office to obtain completed service level agreements from every Augusta department and report back a standard completion time of each service from each department.

This stems from complaints about service times for Augusta departments.

That proposal will go before the full commission.

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