Panhandling Restrictions Dropped By Alexandria City Council

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Restrictions on panhandling are no more after Alexandria City Council action on Saturday, although certain offenses remain covered as violations under the city code.

Panhandling, the act of collecting money in places such as intersections, is largely allowed in the City of Alexandria. However, the city code restricts certain panhandling actions, including panhandling that causes fear of injury or criminal action in a public place, panhandling with touching without consent, panhandling while blocking the free passage of a person, panhandling with intimidation, panhandling within 15 feet of ATMs, and panhandling within a roadway travel lane.

The city sought to repeal its panhandling restrictions as panhandling is protected by the First Amendment under the Constitution, per the 2013 Clatterbuck v. City of Charlottesville decision. In the Charlottesville case, there was a $126,000 settlement from the city due to its panhandling ordinance. In addition, the 2015 Reed v. Town of Gilbert decision determined "government can only regulate one form of protected expression differently from other forms of expression if the regulation is narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest."

According to City Attorney Joanna Anderson, Arlington and Fairfax counties do not have panhandling ordinances, and other local jurisdictions repealed ordinances. The city attorney said Alexandria's panhandling ordinance was used 50 times over the last decade, but no incidents have occurred since 2020.

Panhandling associated with criminal actions such as assault, touching without consent, intimidation, blocking the free passage of people and blocking roadways and walkways are covered as violations under the city code.

The one part of the repealed panhandling ordinance not covered by an applicable part of the city code is panhandling within 15 feet of an ATM.

Anderson said there were two incidents in the last 10 years involving panhandling near an ATM.

"In those instances, there were also probably other things that created the reason for somebody to call the police in that instance," said Anderson. "We believe that everything that is in the panhandling ordinance can be addressed with other sections of the code."

Before City Council voted to remove the panhandling ordinance, Councilmember John Taylor Chapman called for additional discussion on addressing the panhandling issue near ATMs.

"Your ATMs that should be protected space for everyone," said Chapman. "That's when you're most vulnerable if you're getting cash out of something."