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Signs outside the BeLoved Asheville headquarters call for better treatment of the homeless population by both police and citizens.
Solicitation charges highlight homelessness
AISLINNMCSHANE
Contributor
dmcshane@unca.edu
Soliciting charges in Asheville
rise, according to local homeless
shelters. The homeless population
continues to struggle to find safe
living arrangements.
“Panhandling is a way to meet ba
sic needs oftentimes when it’s hard
to find economic means otherwise,
like if the work dries up or some
thing,” said Amy Cantrell, founder
of BeLoved Asheville, a homeless
support center.
Public records show in February
there were 112 soliciting charges in
the city of Asheville alone.
“It is a common complaint we
get from people downtown, getting
panhandled. Part of the reason we
do focus on it when we do is be
cause of aggression,” said Ashe
ville Police Sgt. Evan Coward.
Panhandling citations rose 1.2
percent in 2016, reported by to
BeLoved Asheville. They tracked
the citations received by people in
the Asheville shelters during the
Housing, Not Handcuffs campaign,
a campaign to end the criminaliza
tion of homelessness. Cantrell said
the trend continued to rise in March
2017.
“Trespass is the biggest charge
that we’ve seen by far. Almost
half of the charges were trespass
ing. Closely behind that were pan
handling and public urination,”
Cantrell said. “If you have a record,
it’s gonna be much more difficult
to find jobs, find housing and then
people have to turn to panhandling
to get the resources that they need,
so all this is sort of cyclical in na
ture.”
Some of these citations may be
more serious than people first re
alize. Officials at Human Rights
Watch reported, as of 2007, 13
states had laws wherein someone
could be labeled a registered sex of
fender for public urination.
“Many times over my career I’ve
checked out with some who I sus
pected was probably panhandling,”
Asheville resident Coward said.
“You try to talk to them and kind of
see what’s going on in their life and
you’ll actually run into someone
who maybe feels like they don’t be
long or maybe wants to hurt them
self or is just in a dark place. As po
lice officers, we come across people
a lot of times on the worst day of
their life.”
Homeless people still face a lot
of stereotypes as well. Many peo
ple assume homeless people are all
criminals, or all addicted to drugs
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
Opioid crisis endures 30 years after its start
BRAILEY SHERIDAN
Contributor
bsherida@unca.edu
Laura Cleveland’s traumatic
overdose urged her to confront
her opioid drug disorder and find a
solution.
“I took an overdose one night of
about 14 pills. As I was in the emer
gency room with my husband and
my children came in, the look on
their faces, that scared look of Ts
mom going to be OK?”’ Cleveland
said.
Cleveland, 46, said her depen
dence on opioids began when a
doctor prescribed her opioids to
relieve the pain from chronic mi
graines almost 30 years ago.
“After exhausting a lengthy list
of actual migraine medicines, my
neurologist at the time put me on
Percocet. When I first started on
this medicine, my life was normal,
everyday stuff. I only took it when I
had a severe migraine,” said Cleve
land, an Iron Station resident.
She said she does not remember
when her use of Percocet became a
drug disorder. It was only when she
overdosed that she became aware
of the gravity of her problems and
sought help for them, said Cleve
land, a daycare provider.
“I decided right there that I was
done. I spent a week in a mental
hospital. When I came out, I did
hold onto my pills for a bit. I did
take about six pills within a six
month period when I had a bad
migraine. After that, I just quit,”
Cleveland said.
The opioid crisis began in the
early 1990s and involves the mis
use and or abuse of prescription
painkillers such as heroin and fen-
tanyl, a powerful synthetic opioids,
according to the National Institute
on Drug Abuse.
Eric Boyce, assistant vice chan
cellor for public safety at UNC
Asheville, said many people turned
from prescription painkillers to her
oin because of the lower price. With
an influx of heroin users, makers
began using fentanyl as a cutting
agent, which increases the potency
of the drug.
“The epidemic has come with a
number of overdoses and deaths
because of the fentanyl. It’s not the
heroin, per say, in its pure form or
with what it would normally be cut
with, but the fentanyl that makes it
extremely dangerous,” Boyce said.
The impact of the opioid crisis
CONTINUED ON PAGE 25