Transient troubles 'frustrating' for some downtown businesses

July 20 at 2 p.m., a call comes into the Whitefish Police dispatch. A group of transients with dogs have been hanging out at a city park near the Whitefish River for the past few days. The caller tells police he’s concerned. He’s with his grandmother and the transients are being “very loud and confrontational.”

Twenty minutes later another call comes into dispatch. This time it’s a group of five transients and three dogs sitting on a sidewalk downtown in front of a store. The caller says they’re singing and scaring away customers.

The same employee calls back a day later to report another group of “loud and pungent” transients playing music in front of the store again. Police arrive and the group shuffles out of the public right of away. That’s about all police can ask of them. Whitefish city code doesn’t specifically address panhandling or loitering.

“There’s nothing saying they can’t ask for money or play music, as long as they’re not disturbing the peace,” explains Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial.

“They can’t block the sidewalk and they can’t cause a disturbance, but for them to just sit there, there’s not much we can do. They have the right to sit at a bench or along the road. It’s not against the law to be dirty or stinky.”

But for some business owners downtown, Whitefish’s draw as both a tourist and transient destination is becoming a noticeable concern.

Groups of transients hanging on street corners can be aggressive and intimidating to visitors and locals alike, they say.

“It’s concerning because Central Avenue is the face of the town,” said Trek Stephens, owner of The Toggery. “It has to have a nice appearance. [Transients] could affect that experience. It’s an issue.”

In fact, one business owner has decided to leave Central Avenue, in part, because of ongoing problems with transients and panhandlers.

“I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been an issue,” said Deena Brenden, owner of Piney Creek Interiors. “It’s a big enough issue to my business that it’s one of the main reasons I’m moving.”

Brenden described the constant effort to pick up garbage, dog feces and even human feces from around the building at the corner of Central Avenue and First Street.

“We’ve had people sleeping in our dumpster and behind our air conditioning vents,” she said. “It’s frustrating and I’m over it.”

Brenden says she’s called police dozens of times over the years to assist with these issues.

“[Police] come and shoo them away, but they come right back. I don’t know what the answer is,” she said.

Police calls about transients downtown happen almost daily in the summer months. The week of July 18 to 24, Whitefish officers responded to a dozen calls about transients. Last week, 14 calls were placed about transient activity.

Dial says his staff probably spends a couple hours a week dealing with these incidents. While not a big drain on his department’s time and resources, “It’s an annoyance,” Dial said.

“A lot of merchants call us and we explain [the laws] to them,” he said.

Stephens notes that Whitefish is a known destination among people who illegally ride freight trains across the country.

One member of the online Reddit forum r/Vagabond — a website frequently used by self-described train-hoppers and hitchhikers — describes Whitefish as a “hobo paradise.”

“Within 100 yards of the station you’ve got public restrooms, a library and a park with electrical outlets,” the writer said. “Then further down the street there’s a great downtown where they love street music and don’t care how dirty you are. There’s also a river that runs through town you can find camp spots along. To top it all off, you can easily hitchhike into Glacier National Park.”

Another popular online forum, Squat The Planet, a website for “misfit travelers,” also mentions Whitefish as a stopping point. In a recent thread, one traveler described watching other transients in Whitefish who were looking into vehicles, drinking, vomiting and sleeping in a park near the rail yard.

“At one point a farmers market set up around them and their dogs... and still no one [cared,]” she wrote.

City Manager Chuck Stearns says the city is somewhat limited in ordinances they can pass about panhandling, vagrancy or loitering. He is aware of other communities, such as Boulder, Colorado, that have attempted to regulate the transient population, “but they often get into lawsuits.”

“Some cities try to do what they can, but there are [constitutional] protections,” Stearns said.

Missoula has attempted to deal with its own panhandling issues with the Pedestrian Interference and Aggressive Solicitation Ordinance. An original version of the law prohibited solicitations for money downtown and banned sitting or lying on sidewalks within 20 feet of an entrance to a building, within 20 feet of a footbridge or tunnel and prohibited sitting or lying on the sidewalk downtown from 6 a.m.-11 p.m.

But in 2014, Missoula City Council softened the ordinance after facing pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, which called the law unconstitutional. Missoula’s updated version of the law prohibits people from sitting within 10 feet of a business entrance downtown, but rejects a ban sitting anywhere on downtown sidewalks.

In a similar case, a federal judge ruled that Boise, Idaho’s ban on panhandling was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

A report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty argues that panhandling and loitering laws are essentially the “criminalization of homelessness.”

“Falling asleep, standing still and sitting down, are all necessary actions for any human being’s survival,” the 2014 report states. “More and more communities across the country are treating these life-sustaining behaviors as criminal acts when performed in public places by people with nowhere else to go.”

Laws that prohibit panhandling or sitting on sidewalks, the report continues, “are passed under the erroneous belief that using the criminal justice system to remove homeless persons from a city’s commercial and tourist districts is the best method for improving the economic health of those areas.”

“The evidence reveals, however, that criminalization laws are ineffective, expensive and violate the civil rights of homeless people.”

Stearns notes that while Whitefish doesn’t have laws specifically addressing panhandling or loitering, there are laws on disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct that police use to deal with aggressive and unruly behavior.

Dial advises residents to call police if there is an issue with people interfering with business, blocking sidewalks or littering. Overnight camping is not allowed at city parks or on private property without permission, and open containers of alcohol are not allowed, he added.

“People should call us right away and give us the best description they can,” Dial said.