Macon Council Approves Downtown Donation Meters for Homeless

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – If you’re a person with a big heart but you don’t like giving money to the homeless because you’re not sure if it’s actually going to food or clothing, now there’s a meter for that, thanks to the Leadership Macon Class of 2012.

“Nobody wants to have panhandlers downtown,” says councilman Rick Hutto.  “Nobody wants to be bothered, yet we have to recognize there is a real problem, so what they have recommended doing is actually putting donation stations downtown that would be very much like a parking meter.  It’s not at the city’s expense; these would be sponsored and so you could either put change in (or) you could even swipe a credit card.”

“A lot of other cities in the country have tried this, too, like Nashville and Orlando,” says Jonathan Dye, with the Leadership Macon Class of 2012.  “We took a lot of the programs and looked at the best practices and we think we’ve designed a program that’s going to be really successful and that’s going to be supported by the business community and by individual citizens.”

Macon’s version of the program will have the Urban Development Authority place nine meters throughout downtown.

Although the exact locations of the meters are yet to be determined, Dye says they’re likely to go up along the sidewalks of Poplar Street and other streets throughout downtown Macon.

“They’re all going to be located downtown,” says Dye.  “We’re going to work with (Macon) Central Services and the Urban Development Authority to ensure that the locations are perfect and that they’re not going to interfere with any businesses downtown.”

The proceeds from the meters will benefit the Macon Coalition to End Homelessness, and it’s all for a good cause.

“Any organization within the coalition that provides direct services to the homeless–whatever they might be–this money will go to support those activities,” says Dye.  “It’s food, it’s medical expenses, it’s job training–things that will not only sustain them today but try to help them to be able to sustain themselves in the future.”

Leadership Macon expects the meters to be installed and operational by November.