Panhandling restrictions painstakingly wrought by Pittsburgh City Council last year haven't panned out as planned.

Six months after the passage of new rules, panhandlers are feeling the heat but apparently aren't getting connected with social service agencies, as the ordinance envisions. The Police Bureau has no data on enforcement. Business owners, who backed the bill, offer mixed reviews of its effectiveness.

"I don't see nearly as much [aggressive panhandling]," said Rich LoPresti, owner of Lubin and Smalley Florists, on Market Square. "They tend to vanish quickly, since they know about the ordinance."

Jack Cohen, owner of SW Randall Toyes and Giftes on Smithfield Street, has seen no improvement.

"As a matter of fact, they've gotten more demanding, these street people," he said, adding that one recently chased him an entire block.

The panhandling ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Len Bodack, bans anyone from asking passers-by for money between sunset and sunrise. It also bars solicitation at any time within 10 feet of street food vendors and bus stops, and within 25 feet of outdoor eating establishments, automated teller machines and lines of people waiting to buy tickets or enter events.

Repeat violators can get fines, community service or jail time.

Council sought to make it less punitive by requiring that police ask a social service agency, currently Mercy Hospital's Operation Safety Net, to conduct an on-site evaluation of any panhandling violator.

Mac McMahon, outreach team leader for Community Human Services, based in South Oakland, said he's only aware of one such evaluation in six months.

"It's been minimal intervention that's been requested of us," agreed Linda Sheets, program administrator for Operation Safety Net. She would not say how many people have been evaluated, nor what services they've received. Her agency provides shelter and medical treatment to the poor.

"I think there are still problems, a minor disconnect there," said Mr. Bodack.

Assistant Police Chief Paul Donaldson said officers are offering evaluations, but panhandlers, whether they're frauds or true homeless people, refuse them.

"We can't force them," he said.

The bureau said it could not determine how many times the ordinance had been invoked.

Panhandlers said they're not being offered evaluations. They claimed police have been approaching them a lot more, particularly in the last week, but haven't been using the new ordinance.

Richard Banholzer, a 10-year veteran of the cup-holding trade Downtown, pulled a yellow citation from his worn wallet. Dated Tuesday, it said he owed $10 for "obstructing public passages," specifically the entrance to Downtown's Mellon Square.

"I've been here for 10 years," said the 58-year-old Wilkinsburg resident. Has he ever been cited? "This was the first time."

Other panhandlers report being asked to move along or told to stop asking for money.

Better weather has brought more people Downtown, attracting more panhandlers and generating more complaints, said Police Bureau spokeswoman Tammy Ewin. The increased presence of bicycle officers Downtown may also play a role in panhandlers' perceptions of more enforcement, she said.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership's eight Downtown Ambassadors, due to start work July 1, will help police enforce the ordinance and serve as witnesses in aggressive panhandling cases, said partnership spokeswoman Mary Ellen Solomon. She did not know if they would be involved in connecting panhandlers with social services.

Street people interviewed all feared there will be an effort to "clean sweep" them out of Downtown before the July Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Mayoral spokesman Dick Skrinjar said that perception was the result of "anxiety on the part of that community, as opposed to a stated policy of this administration."

"We do want to change the appearance and reputation of Downtown, but not necessarily because of the All-Star Game," said Assistant Chief Donaldson.

Nonetheless, advocates for the homeless and poor are worried.

"It has been made clear to me from a number of [city] departments that this All-Star Game is a big deal," said Mr. McMahon. "If they just start uprooting people, they're not going to get the result they're looking for."

His agency is scrambling to put together a plan to shelter homeless people during All-Star Game week, if they are displaced from their usual haunts.

A three-year agreement between the city and the American Civil Liberties Union governing city cleanups of homeless encampments expired Tuesday. It required that homeless people get a week's notice before a cleanup, and that seized belongings be stored at a South Side boathouse for a year before they are discarded.

In years past, the city distributed fliers warning of cleanups. This year, the city posted permanent signs near homeless camps, warning of cleanups every Tuesday.

One homeless man said some of his compatriots have lost their belongings in the cleanups, while others carry everything they own with them on Tuesdays.

The Pennsylvania ACLU is watching the situation closely, said its director, Barb Feige.

"Certainly the city wants to put a best face on for the All-Star Game, but they can't do that at the expense of peoples' rights," she said.