Saratoga Springs Addresses Pan­han­dling After Arrests

It was the arrests of a dozen homeless people and a petition by Saratoga Springs residents asking to ban begging and panhandling in the city that sparked discussion Tuesday night. TWC News spoke with one of those homeless men who was arrested; he says the city's not giving people like him the support they need. 

Hope is hard to have when you've been homeless for 15 years. Donnie Petersimes has his guitar and not much else. 

He took care of his mom until she died from cancer; then, he didn't have a place to go. 

"The day she died, I went out and got drunk," he said. "I'm an alcoholic, and I don't make no bones about that, but I'm a good person, too. And people know me around this town."

Donnie was one of 12 homeless people arrested in Saratoga Springs last weekend. But Donnie says he's not the problem the police should be paying attention to. 

"It's the new mix coming into town and messing things up," he said. "It ain't us."

And Mayor Joanne Yepsen agreed with Donnie during a discussion about panhandling and homelessness on Tuesday night.  

"There is a difference between homeless and panhandling," the mayor said. "The aggressive panhandlers that we've been seeing are not homeless."

While Yepsen said the 12 arrests were made because those people were breaking the law, the conversation Tuesday wasn't about arresting their way out of the problem. 

"Services need to be in place," said Michael A. Finocchi, executive director of Shelters of Saratoga. "We can't just take these individuals and move them to another county or another city."  

Alicia Wilson stopped by to visit Donnie on Tuesday afternoon. She used to be homeless, but says that even with a bachelor's degree, it was hard to get back on her feet. 

"It's not equal across the board for everybody," she said.

So for people like Donnie, who struggle with alcoholism, some days are better than others.

The mayor said about a dozen donation drop boxes will be set up throughout the city this summer in an effort to get people to donate to organizations that help the homeless. The city wants people to stay away from giving money directly to panhandlers.