How we punish those without money
How many times have you walked past a defeated looking individual sitting on the ground outside of a store asking you for change? Many of us have become desensitized to this, and we walk past without a second thought or even a glance.
Abbotsford sees its fair share of panhandlers. In fact, the City of Abbotsford evidently considers this to be such a problem that the City, in collaboration with Abbotsford Police Department (APD), placed 20 new “no panhandling” signs at different intersections throughout the community just last month.
The signs read: “Panhandling on roadways is unlawful and unsafe. Please consider giving to agencies that help those in need.”
In an interview with the Abbotsford News, Sgt. Kevin Murray of APD’s street outreach response team explained that when citizens give to panhandlers it “dissuades the panhandler from seeking the assistance of professionals trained in the areas of homelessness, mental health, and addiction,” and that they “can ultimately be counter-productive to the health and well-being of the person panhandling.”
When it comes to the panhandling signs, not everyone is optimistic that these will produce the desired results, nor do they have confidence in the APD to be able to solve issues of homelessness and poverty on their own. On APD’s Instagram post about the panhandling signs, multiple users said that the charitable organizations for street-entrenched people in Abbotsford are overcapacity, with one user commenting, “You know how many people get turned away from those organizations. There’s nothing wrong with giving someone your change [;] we need to stop criminalizing poverty.” Multiple other users commented that they didn’t support the signs, and insisted that they would do what they wanted with their money.
Panhandling is not listed as an illegal offence in the Canadian Criminal Code, but in British Columbia it is illegal to solicit in an aggressive way. As a result of this, many communities in B.C. have started cracking down on panhandlers, but the reality is that criminalizing panhandling is one of many ways that our society criminalizes poverty.
If a portion of the population’s only means of survival becomes criminal, or if their only stable residence is in a tent on grounds where it is illegal to camp, we have a societal and systemic issue at hand. This is the reality facing many people who are street-entrenched, homeless or underhoused, or simply just poor.
Poverty is measured by Statistics Canada under the low income cut-off measure (LICO), more commonly known as the poverty line. Families living under this measure spend most of their income on basic necessities like food, shelter, and other living expenses with little to no money left over to spend on education or extracurricular activities. In extreme cases, people cannot meet their basic needs and may go hungry or become homeless.
Low-income Canadians are over-represented in the criminal justice system and have a higher likelihood of facing barriers once they’ve been incorporated into the system. Homeless individuals are more likely to be held in detention when arrested, be denied bail, plead guilty or be convicted, and face more difficulties upon reintegration.
The John Howard Society, a non-profit organization that advocates for prison reform, says that “Poverty prevention is crime prevention. If nothing is done to help people living in poverty, families suffer and so does the community. We all pay the price in higher crime, poor education, and lost potential.”
Many children and youth of low-income families also face more difficulties finding quality employment and are at additional risk of being underemployed, or they are only able to obtain temporary employment, which can lead to financial, and therefore personal, instability. Being exposed to the traumas of low-income living is also related to serious addiction or can lead to mental health problems which can impact one’s ability to find housing and stable employment. For many, this may lead to a life of long-term poverty which could put someone in a desperate position where committing criminal acts may seem like the only option for survival. These socio-economic factors must be considered when discussing issues of panhandling or homelessness.
The criminalization of poverty is a global issue and a national trend. Critics of laws that unfairly target low-income individuals include Leilani Farha, United Nations special rapporteur for adequate housing and CWP’s executive director, who said in a 2015 United Nations report: “Such laws are often framed under the guise of public health and safety but, in reality, the aim is to ‘beautify’ an area for the promotion of tourism and business or to increase property values.”
When a formerly homeless man fought against $65,000 in fines for charges related to homelessness, former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant called the fining or ticketing of homeless folk as “the definition of kicking someone when they’re down.”
Let’s reframe this. When the California wildfires threatened 1,100 homes, as many as 4,000 residents found themselves suddenly homeless. As a result, multiple fundraisers on GoFundMe campaigns began popping up publicly asking people for money.
The difference between those affected by wildfires and someone who is publicly asking for money on the street really comes down to our perception of that person. The Californians were respected, home-owning members of the community — people who conformed to societal expectations of “normal living” — whereas our society tends to criminalize and demonize poor people, especially those who are low-functioning, struggling with mental health or addiction issues, and especially those who don’t have a place to live.
The reality of these situations is that both the Californians and the panhandler on the street are in need, but for many people, being confronted with a panhandler can be an uncomfortable situation. Abbotsford’s new panhandling signs are an attempt to eliminate this situation, but could also be considered an attempt to separate homeless individuals from the rest of so-called “normal” or “everyday” people for the comfort of other residents.
Chief Constable Mike Serr of the APD argues otherwise. He says that the new panhandling signs are part of an attempt to manage some of the street disorder that they were seeing, stating that “A lot of people in the community were getting frustrated, as you see in some communities with essentially a lack of accountability with people camping anywhere or garbage left in alcoves or on private property.” He made it clear that the signs are not there to criminalize people, rather to funnel them into services that are already available.
“I mean persons that are marginalized… giving them a ticket is not what we want to do… So we’re not giving tickets; what we’re actually trying to do is give people access to supports,” Serr said.
Serr says the city has lots of resources to connect individuals to.
“As you know we have over 100 faith-based churches — communities here who are incredibly supportive. So people who need a meal, people who need a place to stay, people who need support — I believe they are there for them, and that’s where we want to direct individuals to.”
There are multiple agencies in the Fraser Valley that provide services to those living in poverty, who are street-entrenched, or who are struggling with other social problems. These agencies include Archway Community Services, Cyrus Centre, Phoenix Society, Mission Community Services Society, and 5 and 2 Ministries. Additionally, the Abbotsford Police Department launched their Street Outreach Response Team (SORT) this year, which includes a homeless outreach coordinator, whose primary job is to connect street-entrenched individuals with resources available in the community.
Overnight tenting and tent cities are another issue that the SORT team wants to address. Tenting overnight in parks is legal in most of our city parks and is only restricted at Mill Lake Park, Exhibition Park, and Civic Centre. However, many homeless individuals continue to camp in areas that are restricted, including rural areas and grassy patches.
This wasn’t always the case though, as overnight camping had previously been prohibited by Abbotsford’s city bylaws. In 2015, Abbotsford’s homeless population won a Supreme Court case against the City of Abbotsford, with chief justice Christopher Hinkson ruling that disallowing homeless folk to sleep in parks violated section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the right to security of person. Homeless folk are now permitted to tent overnight in parks from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. daily, but they must dismantle their tents every day. Something Chief Serr says he recognizes as an issue.
“That’s something that the government has to look at, whether people have to take down their tents everyday and repack, and [then] have to set them up again — I get that frustration,” Serr said.
Prior to the 2015 Supreme Court Case, violence against the homeless community by Abbotsford police included chicken manure being spread over a camp, tents being slashed, and residents of tent cities being pepper sprayed. It seems that the APD is currently making an effort to repair its relationship with the homeless community.
“What I can tell you is our officers who are going to those camps, who know the individuals, that’s a really important part: building that trust and that relationship,” Serr said. “We know that the camps exist. We’re naive to think that we’re going to get rid of every single camp, or that homelessness is going to end, and people aren’t going to be in tents. There are people who have chosen to live that lifestyle, quite frankly, and so you know, we’re very mindful of the fact that you can put all the housing you want in, but there’s a lot of different social and economic reasons why people choose to live in that way.”
Serr explained that the sergeant who is a part of SORT is also a lawyer who is helping people who live in tent cities to obtain legal identification, which he says can help them to access support. He also explained that the team advocates for safe drug supply, and that much of the crimes we see being committed by the street-entrenched population are survival crimes.
“So, our Project Angel [is] working very closely with Fraser Health and getting individuals who have that problem, that substance use, in to see the doctor and getting them, if they’re not ready for treatment or peer support, to get them access to clean, safe prescription drugs that will help moderate their drug use, and then hopefully we can get them off of it,” Serr said. “So, I think if you put the right programs in place, which I believe Abbotsford has, I do believe we can mitigate or reduce people’s need for having to commit crimes to support these habits.”
He explained that Abbotsford has a long way to go, but the city is doing better than some other communities.
In a 2019 article from the Globe and Mail regarding the rapid growth of tent cities across Canada, reasons for why these cities continue to pop up were cited as the rising cost of housing, at-capacity homeless shelters, and that peer support for drug users present in the camps was a reason they stayed. Despite this, city injunctions to close these camps are frequent, such as the recent incident in Vancouver when tent city residents were ordered out of Crab Park, and in 2018 with Discontent City in Nanaimo.
It is well known that the cost of housing has increased and the vacancy rate has decreased in the Metro Vancouver area the past few years, so the issue of homelessness comes as no surprise. As a response, activists are trying to get to know individuals in these camps and support them in other ways, such as connecting them to community resources.
While Serr says that resources are plentiful and available, the reality is that capacity may be limited, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Mission Community Services Society’s (MCSS) shelter and supportive housing programs for adults is almost always full, with people being turned away daily. Beds also fill up quickly during both the emergency weather season, which starts in November and ends in March, and during the regular season. MCSS is expanding its services to meet this growing demand, but it reflects the pressing need for more temporary housing present in the Fraser Valley.
Abbotsford isn’t the only B.C. community to crack down on panhandling and loitering. Last September, the city of Quesnel, B.C., started issuing fines to panhandlers and homeless people sleeping or sitting in specific downtown areas.
It may seem ironic that someone who is begging for money would be ordered to pay a fine for doing so, but Quesnel’s director of development services, Tanya Turner said to the Abbotsford News: “Our main objective is not to obtain money; it’s to change behaviour.” The fines range from $100-500 and are intended to reduce crime and “nuisance behaviour.” But these fines stay on people’s records and can become a social or financial barrier in an individual’s future.
According to B.C.’s webpage on municipal ticketing: “If a person fails to respond to the [municipal] ticket at all, neither paying the fine nor notifying the local government that they want to dispute, the local government may submit the ticket to the court for consideration by a justice. The justice must review the ticket and convict the person in his or her absence and impose the penalty if the ticket appears to be in order.”
Chief Serr seems to hold the same view as Turner — that it isn’t fair to all citizens if certain individuals are camping, loitering, or soliciting money on the streets and near businesses.
“At the end of the day, it’s not just hiding people. We’re not trying to push people into the bush and hide them. Everyone that we talk to, we’re providing support and care. But again, if someone is camping in front of a business or in a park that is not one of the parks they’re permitted to camp, or on a piece of grass that is absolutely not permitted, I think we have an obligation to our community as well,” Serr said. “We’re here for the whole community, so we have to support them as well. And accountability for people who are living in those tents to be good neighbours, good community people, who are going to be mindful of their space and their impact in the community as well.”
What we must ask in this situation is if the “whole community” (referring to those individuals who are housed and stable) should really be prioritized when it comes to the enforcement of panhandling laws. Putting up signs puts street-entrenched folks at further risk of being stigmatized, all so those living with privilege can spare feeling awkward when entering a store or stopping at a red light. In this way, the laws that penalize extreme poverty become both a financial punishment and a social one.
This stigma reaches far outside the law, perpetuating the cycle of legal punishment. Panhandling and overnight camping laws are not the only way our society financially punishes poverty. It’s not cheap to be poor, and this can be reflected in subtle ways like one’s ability to shop “value.” Take Costco, for example. A simple Costco membership can save families money with the ability to buy in bulk, but these families must have the financial means to spend lump sums of money all at once in order to save money long-term.
There are bigger, more obvious ways as well. In an article by Peter Edelman of the Guardian, it is stated that 10 million American people owe the government a collective “$50bn in accumulated fines, fees, and other impositions.” Things like not paying bus fare or parking fare because an individual simply does not have the funds and receiving a ticket for that could set someone back an entire paycheck. For some, even a $50 parking fine could mean that they don’t eat that week. Or take banking overdraft fees, for example. Someone who cannot afford to pay a bill that is automatically withdrawn from their bank account can receive an overdraft charge, and then a returned item charge if their overdrawn money is returned to their account. This can sink low-income people further into poverty.
The punishment and criminalization of poverty is something that has the ability to impact us all. Living in poverty or being poor shouldn’t be a crime. Proactive measures should be taken to ensure that poverty can be prevented before it is reacted to. The Valley may have a number of resources available, but that doesn’t always mean they are accessible. We need to ensure that the safety nets, community support, and networks are strongly established before we slap on fines and fees to people who are already just trying to survive.
Shara Hamed/The Cascade
Darien Johnsen is a UFV alumni who obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree with double extended minors in Global Development Studies and Sociology in 2020. She started writing for The Cascade in 2018, taking on the role of features editor shortly after.
She’s passionate about justice, sustainable development, and education.
