City uses old parking meters to collect money for homeless

Jim Sanches has been living on the streets of Las Vegas for a year.

He recently spotted one of the city's new bright green donation stations, read the "DONATION STATION -- TO END HOMELESSNESS" sign on the refurbished parking meter and chuckled to himself.

"What a joke," Sanches said. "Where is this money going?"

National advocates for the homeless said a new Las Vegas program that spruces up old parking meters to collect money for the city's homeless will be ineffective. But local supporters said any amount of money will be helpful.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has been a harsh critic of the chronically homeless. At one point city officials outlawed feeding homeless people in parks, which was later overturned by an appeals court that deemed it unconstitutional. He tried to keep them from using sidewalks for toilets and lean-tos and attempted to ship the homeless to a facility in Jean.

More recently he called on citizens to help the homeless enjoy improved quality of life.

Goodman said the meters are meant to complement existing aid to the homeless, not replace it.

"It's a much more incidental thing," he said. "It's more like impulse giving."

City officials unveiled the seven bright green donation stations earlier this month to collect money for the Homeless and Housing Services program, which pays for shelter, transportation and other costs relating to the local homeless population. Three more meters will be added later.

The meters hold about $75 each, depending on the denomination of coins inside. They are placed in high traffic areas, including the corner of Main Street and the Fremont Street Experience.

Robert Brunner, executive director for the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, said the idea is an in­expensive way to attract attention to the needs of the homeless.

"It's a very handy way, a nonintrusive way, for someone to donate," he said. "A lot of people would rather do that than hand a dollar's worth of change to someone who is homeless. It's not that people's hearts are hardened, rather they'd give money to an entity they know will manage it properly."

Brunner added the meters offer a way for people annoyed by panhandlers to still donate.

"We hope that the people who don't mind talking to someone on the street will continue reaching into their pockets," he said. "Some people are concerned by giving to that particular person that instead of getting something of substance that it'll go for a bad habit."

In the first five days in operation, people deposited $127.70.

Donations are routed to the following services:

■ Out-of-town bus tickets for those with family in another city where they can get help toward self-sufficiency. Money also can be spent on 30-day and 24-hour bus passes.

■ Temporary housing for those who are waiting for permanent housing but don't have a place to stay in the interim.

■ Addressing needs for people who are trying to qualify for grant funds, such as fees for identification cards, work cards or birth certificates.

Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., said money from the meters never truly reaches the homeless and dehumanizes the person-to-person exchange of physically giving money to someone in need.

"Cities have tried this parking meter idea for a long time, and it hasn't been successful," Donovan said. "The very personal act of asking for money and giving or not giving is a human interaction. It's a nonviable approach to generate revenue for homelessness. There are many more effective ways of doing that."

According to the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's most recent census, which was conducted in January 2009, about 13,338 homeless people live throughout Clark County.

That number is up 17 percent from 2007, the last time the survey was conducted.

Despite the increase, the number of unsheltered and hidden homeless people decreased, according to the report.

Baltimore city officials enacted a similar meter campaign in 2006 with 10 parking-meter-donation stations in the downtown area. The meters can hold about $40 in change.

Now, there are 27 meters pulling in from $200 to $400 per month total, an average of $2,400 to $4,800 annually.

On any given night, at least 3,000 people sleep on Baltimore's streets, according to city officials.

Tom Yeager is the executive vice president of operations for the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, which handles the city's donation meters. The change collected is deposited into the city's account for Baltimore Homeless Services, which allocates money for transitional housing, overnight and emergency shelters, eviction prevention programs and permanent housing.

"We don't get a lot of money; it's change," Yeager said. "But this is a chance to give money; it's an education. You can put your change where you can make a change. We want people to give to where we know it's going to help."

Some say it's solely about discouraging panhandlers rather than donating to charity.

The small amount of money raised doesn't truly make an impact and not everyone uses those services, said Tulin Ozdeger, civil rights director for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

"I really think when people give to people on the street there's a human connection," Ozdeger said. "There is a more meaningful way of addressing homelessness rather that putting up parking meters.

"Ultimately, the biggest issue is that our local and federal governments need to devote more resources and more funding for affordable housing to help get people off the streets."

Contact Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Review-Journal writer Alan Choate contributed to this report. Review-Journal photographer Jason Bean also contributed to this report.