A tiresome story that never changes

Bethesda Urban Partnership photo.

I don't know how many of these stories--about rather than giving money to homeless people, depositing it in duded up parking meters instead, where the money is directed to social service programs--I've read in the last 8 or 9 years. They never work. They hardly generate any money. The success of homeless people in begging is dependent on their making contact with people--direct/eye-to-eye--and our feeling guilty enough about our circumstances to want to give money. Parking meters don't engender the same emotions...

See "Feeding the Meters Helps Bethesda's Needy" from the Post.

From "Metering out kindness" in the Ottawa Citizen, 5/13/2008:

Just why do we have city kindness meters? Is it to salve the consciences of those who don't like to give money to panhandlers? Or is it to actually help the homeless? If it is to aid those on the streets, kindness meters have failed. The devices, old parking meters which were erected so that people could donate money to local charities specializing in the homeless rather than to panhandlers, have been ignored for the most part by residents. Over the past six months, the six meters have generated only $2,200 in donations. A pittance to be sure.

The kindness meters are the type of simple, unthinking solution to extremely complicated matters that don't go anywhere near solving the issue. What they do is give the impression of helping. The drug situation on Rideau and Bank streets is unlikely to be changed by kindness meters. The problems of the homeless might be too big for society to fix. Each person on the street is a huge medical and logistical project. And after spending all that money on drug treatment, housing and mental illness, the cure might not be there. Intervention can fail.

But kindness meters are merely a political photo opportunity giving the facade that the municipality cares about street people. Our politicians have waited too long to deal with the downtown homeless problem until, now, it is being thrust in the faces of residents and tourists alike.

Kindness meters are a symptom of a political system that wants to appear to be addressing the street people problem when, in reality, it is not.

Cities ranging from Athens, Georgia (2003), Boston, Denver, Chattanooga, Montreal (1994), Ottawa, Orlando (1994), Marysville, California (1997), and Baltimore have done this. They raise little money. Also see "Parking meters make a change for needy" from USA Today.