Lending a ‘Helping Hand, Not a Handout’ : Homeless: The city has tentatively approved a policy of discouraging panhandlers while encouraging donations to private agencies serving them.

Santa Monica and Los Angeles count their homeless people by the thousands, and West Hollywood does it by the hundreds.

Beverly Hills, as near as city officials can tell, probably has a few dozen.

But, spurred by complaints from residents and merchants, the Beverly Hills City Council has concluded that the homeless are a problem. And this week, the council unanimously gave preliminary approval to a tough new aimed at eliminating aggressive panhandling, public drinking and many forms of sleeping, lying or even sitting in public places.

The city also is planning a companion program to encourage residents and tourists to contribute money to agencies that serve the homeless rather than giving directly to panhandlers. Donations would be collected at participating restaurants and businesses, then passed on to private agencies, mostly outside the city, that help the needy.

City and police officials readily admit that homelessness is not a crisis in Beverly Hills. “We’re not looking at the same problem as Santa Monica or West Hollywood,” Deputy Police Chief Ron Garner said, “but it is one we want to deal with.”

Hard and fast figures are hard to come by, but those who work with the homeless in Beverly Hills estimate that 40 to 50 homeless people stay or pass through the city on any given day. Several quick daytime tours by a reporter of the city’s famed shopping district recently turned up an average of five or six people actively panhandling.

But the number of homeless is actually greater, said the Rev. John Perling, pastor of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church. Perling helps run the Beverly Hills Ministerial Assn., which consists of five churches and synagogues that provide temporary assistance to the homeless and others in need. Many of the city’s homeless, he said, keep a low profile, spending much of their time in the alleys.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit people from sitting, lying or sleeping on sidewalks, greenbelts, parking lots and other public areas except when watching a parade or when seated on a lawfully installed bench. The ordinance also would make it illegal to leave baggage or other personal property in public areas.

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The ordinance would make it a misdemeanor to “coerce, threaten, hound or intimidate another person” for a donation. Such aggressive panhandling could include blocking someone’s path, following people after they have indicated they do not want to make a donation, or causing them to fear for their safety. The ordinance also forbids drinking alcoholic beverages on public property or private property open to the public without the permission of the property owner.

The law will come back to the council for a second reading Tuesday, and if approved will go into effect April 23. Violation of the law will be a misdemeanor punishable with a fine.

The city is also drafting an ordinance to prohibit camping in public parks.

The program is intended to offer help to those who need it, but also crack down on panhandlers who physically or verbally intimidate residents and visitors, city officials say.

The city has a deep concern about the homeless, Councilwoman Vicki Reynolds said. In April, a city study group with representatives from churches, synagogues and social service agencies will examine programs established by other cities with an eye to providing more direct help to the homeless in Beverly Hills. Berkeley, for example, has a voucher program that allows residents to buy vouchers to give to homeless people instead of money. The vouchers can then be redeemed for food.

At the same time, the city has to keep its streets and parks for the use of all residents, Reynolds and Mayor Robert Tanenbaum emphasized Tuesday. The city plans to make residents aware of the humanitarian program the city is establishing but “we have to keep our streets secure,” Tanenbaum said.

An attorney with a public interest legal group that has challenged Santa Monica’s anti-encampment law on constitutional grounds told the council that the proposed Beverly Hills law might be unconstitutional.

The proposed ordinance may not explicitly single out homeless people, said Richard Novak, an attorney with Public Counsel, but he added: “Those of us who do have homes have less need to ‘sit, lie or sleep’ in public places.” Public Counsel is the public interest law office of the Los Angeles County and Beverly Hills bar associations.

Such ordinances have the effect of forcing homeless residents to move to other locations and criminalize individuals for their homeless status, Novak said.

City Atty. Greg Stepanicich said, however, that most of the provisions of the ordinance are not new and have been adopted by other cities, “and as far as we know have not been struck down.”

A homeless man who asked to be identified only as “Connie” was less than pleased by the proposed ordinance when interviewed earlier this week.

Connie welcomed the provisions aimed at curbing aggressive panhandling, he said, because the practice gives other homeless people a bad name. But, he said, rules prohibiting sitting, lying or sleeping in public areas will “make life even more miserable.”

“Life is bad enough,” said Connie, 35, who said he has lived in Beverly Hills on and off since 1987. He said the city is clean and quiet at night. He added that the danger of getting robbed or assaulted is far less than in other cities in the region.

Beverly Hills police are “usually very courteous,” he said, although they have rousted him at various times and told him to move on. He generally gets $10 to $75 a day from panhandling on the streets, he said, adding, “Most people are nice and leave a buck.”

Connie said he finds odd jobs from time to time, but he usually doesn’t last very long at a job because his prostitution arrest record comes back to haunt him.

He said he would not hesitate to test the ordinance in court if police interfere with his living and working in Beverly Hills.

As homeless, “We have rights. They’re not privileges, they’re rights,” he said.

He said he is concerned that by asking residents to donate to agencies, mostly outside the city, rather than directly to panhandlers, the city is passing the buck for its homeless problem to other cities.

Indeed, although Beverly Hills churches and synagogues have long been active in working with the homeless, the city itself has done little, compared to neighboring cities.

Last year, the city allocated $38,000 from its $75-million annual budget to charitable groups that help the homeless: $25,000 to the Westside Food Bank, $3,000 to the Beverly Hills Ministerial Assn. and $10,000 to the Los Angeles Free Clinic.

In contrast, West Hollywood, a city of similar size, sets aside more than $500,000 in a $35-million budget to fund a privately run shelter and counseling center and other private programs for the homeless. West Hollywood officials say about 350 homeless people are in the city on any given day.

Santa Monica, which has about 2 1/2 times the population of Beverly Hills and a homeless contingent that is believed to average about 1,500, has a full-time homeless program coordinator and allocates $2 million for homeless programs.

Beverly Hills officials said they want to deal with the problem before it gets out of hand.

The city’s police recorded about 850 complaints for an eight-month period from July to mid-February. The department has only recently begun tracking complaints specifically about transients, so no figures are available for previous years, said Lt. Frank Salcido. The figures do not distinguish calls about panhandling from more general complaints about transients.

It is not just the Police Department that gets the complaints, said Deputy City Manager Peggy Curran. The City Council, city manager’s office and Chamber of Commerce have also received a steady stream, she said. The calls run the gamut from a humanitarian concern about what can be done to help the homeless to outrage that the city is allowing people to panhandle, Curran said. Some residents feel threatened and unsafe when approached by panhandlers, she added.

Many of the complaints are from merchants, many of whom are paying some of the highest rents in the nation and who don’t want panhandlers scaring away customer.

There is “frustration at seeing them there,” said Perling, the pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran, “and shopkeepers are complaining. Nobody wants them standing right outside of their store. It’s economic. Everything in Beverly Hills is economic.”

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The City Council approved the new policy at a March 2 meeting that is meant to dry up the donations handed out on the streets to panhandlers but to encourage residents and visitors to give to agencies that help the needy and homeless.

In the coming weeks, city and Chamber of Commerce representatives will meet with restaurant and business operators to encourage them to post signs in their windows that read: “Give a helping hand, not a handout. Provide effective assistance to the homeless by giving to local agencies that offer food, shelter and other services for those in need. Ask this establishment how to help. . . .”

The city will provide the signs, along with referral cards that list the names of social service agencies in Los Angeles and Santa Monica that help the needy. Among the five or six agencies listed will be the Westside Food Bank in Santa Monica, St. Joseph Center in Venice and PATH, an acronym for People Assisting the Homeless, in Los Angeles, said Asst. City Manager Curran.

The city will provide donation boxes for businesses to place on counters for residents and visitors who would rather make a donation then and there.

The city and the chamber will also encourage restaurants to join Restaurants United to Serve the Homeless, a program that allows restaurant patrons to add $1 to their bill to go toward social service agencies.

RUSH was co-founded in February by Pasquale Vericella, owner of Il Cielo in Beverly Hills, and radio and television personality Elmer Dills.