I was glad to hear that they are working on this issue;
But that’s not the case anymore, as the city and its public and private partners have adjusted policing, security and amenities to curb the amount of begging along downtown Sioux Falls’ primary commercial corridor. And that’s resulting in what regulars to the bustling Phillips Avenue say has been a noticeable downturn in the number of transients and homeless loitering on street corners.
I am hoping they are NOT applying the same strategy of the last mayor of ‘whack a mole’ where they just chased the transients from one park to another with a roundup Friday afternoon to the County Jail.
Is the organization in cooperation with the SFPD monitoring where a person goes once they have skirted them out of DTSF? How many are getting services? How many are just finding another intersection to panhandle at?
I can tell you as someone who lives adjacent to DTSF, while there is a noticeable difference in the core of downtown, on the fringes the homeless are still gathering.
Obviously this is a work in progress and a huge learning curve but at least they are putting the BID Tax increase to good use and actually making an attempt to do it right this time. Heck, I even saw a drone flying down Phillips Avenue of Saturday night, not sure if it was a police drone or just someone screwing around.
I would also like to know more about this;
DTSF President Joe Batcheller told The Dakota Scout that the organization recently entered two-year, $700,000 contract with Block By Block, a Kentucky-based company that helps groups like DTSF optimize its hospitality and safety services.
Did DTSF get a grant for programming or is it coming directly from their budget? Also, is it the job of DTSF to provide security to business owners? There are good arguments on both sides, but I am still curious why the city did’t just chip in for this programming?
I wish them luck in tackling this, and remember, hand sanitizer is for your hands not a mixer for your cocktail.
*I did leave Joe Batcheller a voicemail with some followup questions and hope to hear back from him.
Let’s see if their answer to the problem is to set up porta potties with sanitizer again so the users can use and consume like MMM did.
How do you solve this problem without profiling?
Quote sounds vague. Homeless along 8th street is a serious problem. The city is not known to be sympathetic. Bus tickets to Fargo?
couple weeks back i turned off reid street onto 10th and this one panhandler right there by fawick park was counting his cash in between groups of cars coming over the viaduct there and he had a wad of like $2000.00 in a roll, they all have the same cardboard signs now, someone plz figure out how that happened
His plan is just chase them from the eyesight of the overpaid DT crowd.
How many of these folks are “homeless” because they choose to be? You can’t help them by giving them more to make it easier on them. Why work when idiots driving by give you free cash for booze? You can eat for free. Meanwhile, businesses are begging for employees to keep afloat. Maybe we could set aside land, Lewis could house these people, homeless problem solved.