HERE'S SOME FRANK TALK ABOUT PANHANDLING

Re: Don't help drug-addicted panhandlers, officials plead, April 19.

On an impromptu coffee break recently, I was surprised to find
"Frank" panhandling just outside my downtown office building -- a
fair distance from where he typically "works" most days. He explained
that with the recent media coverage of crack addicts panhandling in
the market, and city staff advising those kind souls who take the
time to drop coins into a hat on the sidewalk to no longer do so that
he and others were being driven out of their usual locales, jacked up
by police and told to move on.

He looked at me sadly and shrugged "so, now we're all crack addicts."

The thing is, Frank isn't a crack addict. Nor is he an aggressive
panhandler. He is a kind, good-natured man who is well worth taking
the time to talk to.

There are dozens of Franks on the streets of Ottawa. And the last
thing dear people like Frank need is for society to buy into another
stereotype -- another excuse to be unkind, to cross to the other side
of the street, avert our eyes and simply pretend they don't exist.

Julia Goodhew, Ottawa

Research and project co-ordinator

National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness