ASHEVILLE - City Council adopted expansions to its panhandling ordinance Aug. 26 amid community outcry, with critics of the change fearing criminalization of the city’s unhoused and asking instead for solutions to address the root causes of poverty.

The changes will prohibit panhandling using gestures or spoken words in new areas of the city, including West Asheville’s Haywood Road and Patton Avenue. These streets are now dubbed “high traffic zones,” a designation that already encompassed Biltmore Village and a majority of downtown. It also expands the downtown zone into South Slope and sections of Merrimon Avenue.

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