UCHRA Program To Help Panhandlers Could Benefit Cookeville

The City of Cookeville wants to team with UCHRA’s Substance Abuse Solutions program to discuss resolving panhandling issues.

SAS Resource Manager Luke Eldridge said since July, the program has over thirty clients across the Upper Cumberland. Some of these clients are panhandlers.

“Being with this program, I’m hoping we’re going to really make a difference,” Eldridge said. “But we’re not going to be able to help everybody because not everybody wants the help. I don’t think it’s just because of COVID [that panhandling has gone up the past few months], I think it’s they realize they can make money and this is what they’re doing.”

Eldridge said SAS provides recovery resources for anyone with a history in the judicial system, homeless people, or anyone needing drug abuse help. He said panhandlers are often difficult to work with since they have little incentive to search for help.

“To them it is a profession, and you know they’ll park in certain places and then they’ll walk over to there and they’ll hold their sign, and then they’ll get the money,” Eldridge said. “Some of them they won’t go get the help. They don’t think they have a problem. Some of them, whatever they use the money for they enjoy.”

Eldridge said he hopes to help the panhandlers by offering them help to find different ways to earn money. If the individual is motivated by drugs or alcohol, he said the SAS program can help them get the help they need.

“We’re not just trying to get them off the street to make everything look better,” Eldridge said. “These are human beings. We want to help them and get them back on their feet.”

During the recovery process, trust is a big issue. Eldridge said on the one hand, the client may have burnt a lot of bridges with family and friends. The client may have reached out to other resources but did not receive the level of help expected, Eldridge said.

The SAS program is contracted through UCHRA under a two year $635,000 Department of Justice grant.