After weeks of condemnation from activists and community members, Mayor Peter Marchetti’s bid to effectively ban panhandling at key Pittsfield locations officially died Tuesday night. His claim that the ordinance was in the name of public safety fizzled against arguments that it amounted to an unconstitutional attack on First Amendment rights and class warfare against the city’s poorest. The measure arrived at the city council meeting with a 4-1 vote to file from the ordinance and rules subcommittee.
Before the measure was unanimously voted down, Pittsfield community members stepped up to the plate during open mic one more time to spell out the dangers posed by the ordinance as written.
“I can appreciate being responsive to those who, during the election, complained about panhandling in the media. I really do respect that. It is part of what democracy is, and Lord knows these days we need to practice democracy as much as humanly possible. I can also appreciate the sincerely held belief in the potential danger of panhandling on medians, even in the absence of any data at all in Pittsfield that supports that concern," said Reverend Mike Denton, pastor of United Church of Christ Pittsfield, which founded and houses the South Community Food Pantry in the city’s downtown. “The problem is that there are real risks people are facing that cause them to be willing to take this hypothetical risk. It is because of the very real and provable risk that comes from being homeless in a time when rents are rising, funding for supportive housing is being cut, and homelessness in Pittsfield is on the rise. It comes from the very real risk of food insecurity born of inflation, reduced food benefits, and cuts to school lunches that we've seen double the numbers to our pantry and feeding programs in two years. People are willing to take this hypothetical risk that comes with panhandling in order to cope with the very real risk that comes from not being able to afford the copay needed to pay for medicine and other health-related supplies.”
Pittsfielder Kamaar Taliaferro asked the council to not just reject the ordinance outright, but to look ahead at how the city can work to keep people off the streets to begin with.
“After you guys vote this ordinance down, what I want to know, what's the plan?" he asked the councilors. "What's your next step? As candidates, what are you going to promise to your constituents? Because nearly every single affordable housing development in the city is being supported with ARPA state and local fiscal recovery funds, and when that money runs dry, what's the plan? What's the plan? I would hope the plan is not more rubber-stamped incremental tax financing agreements to developers to gentrify our neighborhoods, forcing people into homelessness. That's not a plan.”
Ward 6 city councilor Dina Lampiasi – one of the four votes to file the measure during the ordinance and rules subcommittee meeting last month – said the ambiguity of the ordinance left her cold.
“I really have a problem with the phrases like ‘intent to obstruct or hinder and endanger themselves,’" she said. "How can, if we’re talking about a law enforcement officer or anybody else, [they] look at an individual that- Perhaps they're panhandling, perhaps they're just hanging around on the sidewalk or in the median, but how can we really look at that and tell that somebody is intending to obstruct or to harm themselves? It puts us in a really weird place with enforceability, and I don't want to see any ordinance that the city passes or law that the city passes to be unfairly and unequally implemented.”
Faced with the failure of his plan, the mayor clarified that his vision was for co-responders attached to the Pittsfield Police Department to have enforced the ordinance.
Marchetti maintained that despite scathing criticism over the issue, he was attempting to address the city’s challenges around poverty and homelessness with initiatives like the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Task Force he launched last year.
“In your budget, you will find that three new co-responders [that] will be added, not funded by taxpayer dollars, but be funded by the opioid trust fund," said Marchetti. "I've got pretty beaten up over this from day one. I have been doing the job of trying to take care of the exact people that I'm now being accused of trying to make disappear. I created a task force. There's some members of the task force that are here tonight, and I appreciate their words, that we don't always agree on every single issue, but we still have a job to do and still have a job to tackle.”
Audio from the meeting is provided by Pittsfield Community Television.
