To the Mayor, Saratoga Springs City Council, and Department of Public Safety:

Saratoga Springs is a city known for its beautiful downtown, thriving businesses, and vibrant community. However, behind this image are individuals experiencing homelessness, poverty, and housing insecurity who deserve more than signs telling the public not to engage with them.

Recently, electronic signs displaying messages discouraging engagement with panhandlers have appeared throughout Saratoga Springs. While city officials have presented these signs as an effort to promote public safety and encourage charitable giving, we must ask ourselves: Are we addressing the problem, or are we simply asking residents to look away from it?

Panhandling is not the root of the problem. It can be a visible symptom of much deeper issues, including the lack of affordable housing, inadequate access to mental health services, unemployment, and barriers to social support.

Discouraging residents from engaging with people asking for assistance does not eliminate these circumstances. Instead, this messaging risks reinforcing the stigma and social isolation already experienced by people living in poverty.

We recognize that public safety is important. Residents, visitors, businesses, and individuals experiencing homelessness all deserve to feel safe. But public safety and compassion should not be treated as opposing priorities.

We call upon the City of Saratoga Springs to take the following actions:

• Remove or replace anti-panhandling signs with messaging that respects human dignity and provides information about accessible community resources.
• Increase transparency regarding public spending on anti-panhandling initiatives, including the costs of electronic signage and evidence of its effectiveness.
• Prioritize accessible, year-round, low-barrier shelter services and develop sustainable solutions for individuals experiencing houselessness.
• Strengthen investments in affordable housing, mental health services, substance use treatment, and community outreach, with attention to the underlying causes of housing insecurity.
• Include individuals with lived experience of houselessness and poverty in policymaking, ensuring that those most affected by these decisions have a meaningful voice.
• Establish measurable goals and publicly report progress toward reducing homelessness and improving access to housing and essential services.
• We are not suggesting that Saratoga Springs can eliminate houselessness overnight. We are asking city leadership to demonstrate that addressing poverty means more than discouraging its visibility.

A compassionate community does not measure its success by how effectively it hides hardship, but by how seriously it responds to the people experiencing it.

Houselessness is not a public relations problem. It is a human issue that requires human solutions.

We urge Saratoga Springs residents, students, local businesses, community organizations, and visitors to support this petition and demand policies rooted in dignity, accountability, and meaningful change.

Saratoga Springs can do better. Let's demand better.