Just Say No to Panhandlers, New Coalition Says : Downtown: Beggars are more likely to be addicts and alcoholics than starving mouths, according to Real Change, which will introduce a meal token to give them in place of money.

A coalition of business and community leaders Thursday announced the formation of Real Change, a group whose purpose is to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers.

The leaders of Real Change said that many of the people asking for money on the streets of San Diego are not only not hungry, they’re probably not homeless. And more and more, they say, are responding to refusals to their pleas for money with shouts, shoves and other forms of violent confrontation.

Panhandlers are more likely to be drug addicts and alcoholics than starving mouths in need of a meal, according to coalition leaders.

For three months, seven community leaders representing such organizations as the San Diego City Council, the San Diego Police Department and the Regional Task Force on the Homeless have put their heads together to try to solve the increasing problem of panhandling on downtown streets.

City Councilman Ron Roberts, whose district includes part of downtown, said, “I hate to say never, but as a general rule, no, you should not give money to panhandlers.”

Frank Landerville, head of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, said the best way to handle a panhandler is to say no and walk away.

Real Change offers “a gimmick”--Landerville’s word--to curtail panhandling in San Diego.

Merchants all over town soon will have available small envelopes that contain a fake coin redeemable for a meal at one of several shelters for the homeless. Of course, as Landerville pointed out, you don’t need a coin to get a meal at any of those places now; the coin and the envelope are merely a way of informing the panhandler--and the person inclined to provide spare change--that food and services are available.

One side of the envelope reads, “Need a Meal?” followed by listings of where to get breakfast, lunch or dinner. It lists a “helping hand infoline,” 549-0997.

“Spare Change,” reads the other side of the envelope. “Money given to a panhandler is often not used for food or lodging. Say a firm NO”--no is capitalized and underlined--”to a request for money. Do not enter into a discussion. Give a Real Change/Spare Change coin instead. For donation information: 239-4800.”

Father Joe Carroll, president of the Joan Kroc St. Vincent de Paul Center, the city’s largest homeless shelter, said he is surprised at not having been consulted about Real Change, since his building is listed as one of the best places to get a meal.

Carroll said, however, that he agrees with the group about panhandlers:

“I’ll throw in my 2 cents and say I’m strongly against panhandling. I don’t see a need for it. It becomes a way of life, and that’s terrible. It’s people asking for help without any conditions attached to it. It doesn’t help the person receiving the money or the person giving it.”

Carroll said few panhandlers are homeless, that most are residents of downtown hotels who “have been clever enough” to figure out how to make money by asking other people to give away theirs. He said “a large percentage” are using spare change to buy drugs and alcohol, and, by giving their money away, “the victims of panhandling” are feeding the addictions of others.

“Truth is, we have enough kitchens in San Diego to feed everyone in need of a meal--and then some,” Carroll said. “As a homeless person who wants food, you have five to six opportunities a day in San Diego to get a (free) meal.”

Members of Real Change say they’re not being facetious in pointing out that some homeless people are getting fat on free meals. Carroll was reluctant to say that obesity is a problem among the homeless, but he did say that it isn’t so far-fetched to believe that it could be in the very near future.

“It isn’t just the volume of meals they’re getting,” he said. “It’s the fact that so many of the meals consist of fatty, starchy foods. They’re getting a lot of mashed potatoes and not many green vegetables. I heard just the other day that 20 local agencies are planning free meals on Thanksgiving.”

Carroll said he would “ never give money to people on the street.” However, he sometimes tells them where they can find a meal or a bed for the night.

“There’s enough help in the city for almost all of the people out there,” Carroll said.

Landerville and Roberts said much of the problem with panhandling is that it’s the same 25 to 50 people who engage in it every day of the week.

“We see the same familiar faces over and over, day after day after day,” Landerville said. “Alcohol and substance abuse play a very big part.”

Roberts said that, although panhandling was once limited to downtown, it now extends to all areas of the city and county. He said he did not include so-called representatives of small missions and other homeless organizations--groups that most often ask for money at the zoo and Lindbergh Field--as being panhandlers. He said some are genuine and some are charlatans and that “it’s up to the individual” whether to give money to such groups.

Nancy Goodrich, the police representative, said panhandlers are “not likely to beat up people who refuse them money,” but that ugly confrontations are more common than they used to be.

“Some people are being grabbed at, and more threats are taking place,” Goodrich said.

Ron Oliver, executive vice president of the Central City Assn. of San Diego, alluded to a recent survey in which four out of five panhandlers admitted that they use money collected on the street strictly to buy drugs and alcohol.

Police spokeswoman Goodrich said panhandling is against state law and that drug and alcohol problems “should not be fed under any circumstances because they so often lead to more severe problems--car theft, breaking and entering . . . crime that quickly victimizes other people as well.”

Mary Colacicco, executive director of the Travelers Aid Society of San Diego, said the homeless population of San Diego County now exceeds 7,500.

“But food is not the issue among these people, and for the most part,” she said, “neither is shelter. In either case, giving change--spare change--on the street won’t solve the problem. Only real change will.”