Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors this week approved plans for an advertisement campaign as part of the Virginia county’s strategy to crack down on panhandling.
The initiative will use social media, signage and advertisements at busy venues, such as movie theaters and concert sites, to urge drivers to consider donating to nonprofits instead of panhandlers directly.
The plan, approved unanimously Tuesday, comes over a month after local lawmakers put a plan to offer part-time jobs to panhandlers on hold. In October, supervisors cited issues with communication plans and the possible impact the program would have.
The new campaign will include posters that say things such as, “Give where it counts” and “Handouts don’t help.” The goal is to reduce panhandling, county spokeswoman Nikki Brown said
“We know that one of the ways that we can address panhandling is for people to not give them money, and if people stop giving them money, then they will stop going to that area to panhandle,” Brown said. “That’s really what we’re trying to encourage here.”
The $60,000 plan includes placing ads at movie theaters and the Potomac Mills mall next month. It will also include ads at Jiffy Lube Live in June. Social media ads are scheduled for both December and the start of next summer.
“Our vision of success is really obviously a reduction in panhandling. That’s our No. 1 goal. By doing so and kind of getting people to give where it counts—increasing resources for community partners,” Brown said, we “will then improve public perception of the county and improve concerns of safety.”
The approach also includes plans to urge donations to nonprofits rather than giving directly panhandlers on OmniRide buses, as well as on message boards at certain intersections.
Supervisor Kenny Boddye said local leaders have to “attack the supply side of this because folks would not be standing on corners, going to shopping centers, all these things, unless it was lucrative in some way.”
Others, though, suggested more needs to be done to get a grasp on panhandling in some parts of the county. Supervisor Bob Weir described the advertising efforts as “window dressing, in some respects.”
“If we don’t get to the underlying problem that we were trying to address in the first place, which, yes, had something to do with panhandling, but also, particularly, has something to do with traffic safety, road safety and that sort of thing. I think we need to get to that point and not just kind of let that slip into the backwash,” Weir said.
Fewer panhandlers are out and about when it’s cold, so Brown said the county will be evaluating results next year to determine if the campaign changed driver behavior.
“We’ll start looking at that data to say, ‘Are we seeing less panhandlers at these locations?'” Brown told the board. “We also know, though, and I’m probably getting out of my lane a little bit, but that panhandlers can move, you know, clearly. So less complaints about panhandling, less instances of it, less complaints to you all.”
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