By Kyle Voils, senior attorney – Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness
The City of Evanston has repealed its decade-old unconstitutional restrictions on panhandling.
Over the last year, CCH’s Law Project and policy staff worked with the ACLU of Illinois and a private civil rights law firm, The People’s Law Office, to advocate for the City of Evanston to repeal its ban on panhandling, which put broad restrictions on folks asking others for help in public.
From writing a formal demand letter, to meeting with Evanston City Council members and testifying at Council hearings, our coalition worked to demonstrate that these restrictions were not only illegal, but also cruel and ineffective.
Asking one another for help is the basic foundation of human society, and we should all be concerned by any attempts to regulate our ability to ask for help. The right to free speech is protected by the First Amendment, and that includes panhandling. This was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court a decade ago when it ruled that government regulations of the content of our speech—like Evanston’s panhandling ban—are almost always illegal.
Evanston’s law violated the First Amendment for this reason. In order to enforce Evanston’s laws, the police would have to listen to what someone said and make a judgment about whether the statements were illegal or not based on whether they involved asking for help. Panhandling laws like these have been struck down by every court to consider them for more than a decade because they violate the First Amendment.
This ban was cruel and counterproductive. Now more than ever, as the Trump Administration strips people of their food assistance and medical benefits, people need help and are more likely to ask for it. Punishing people with fines for those requests only makes matters worse, making it more likely that folks will be forced into homelessness and harder for them to climb out of it.
Instead, focusing our efforts on increasing access to resources—affordable, accessible housing, food, and medical care—is the compassionate and more effective way to address issues of poverty in Evanston and communities throughout Illinois.
People all around Illinois are being punished for panhandling, simply asking their fellow humans for help. Evanston can count itself on the right side of the law and humanity by repealing its panhandling ban. Other communities should follow suit.
Kyle Voils, senior attorney for the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness shares public comment at an Evanston City Council Meeting.
