A Winnipeg man who once sold his artwork on a street corner says he has little choice but to return to panhandling after he says police ticketed him and told him he needed to buy a permit.

Jamie Hogaboam lives in a shelter and says he simply doesn’t have the money to pay for the $300 licence. Now, rather than displaying his art for sale, he spends his day with a handmade sign and a cup.

The man, whose life-like paintings once turned heads, says he mostly goes unnoticed.

“I felt a sense of pride that here’s an artist trying to better himself and now that I’ve been sent back to being just a panhandler, it just feels really degrading,” he told CTV Winnipeg.

Hogaboam lives in and out of shelters and is unable to work after a gambling addiction and severe depression left him broke. He spent his first night on the street at the age of 50 and began sleeping in shelters in 2014.

CTV News profiled Hogaboam in June when a local studio began showcasing his artwork publicly and providing him with a space to paint. His art often depicts serene, natural settings and vivid portraits of Canadian athletes, and he sold the one-of-a-kind pieces on the street.

Hogaboam asked for $5 donations for each postcard-sized print, and he often made about $50 per day. But now, he says, he’s back to earning around $10 from panhandling.

He now spends about five hours each day with a cardboard sign: “I’d rather sell my paintings to rich people than beg the working class for change.”

Hogaboam said he wants the City of Winnipeg to reconsider its position.

“I’m willing to buy a permit if you have a reasonable permit, which would be sort of like a busker’s licence or something to sell artwork,” he said.

But the city says Hogaboam is considered a mobile vendor and that he needs a proper licence to operate.

One advocate says that giving Hogaboam a ticket wasn’t a reasonable response.

“It’s not a good use of police resources to be handing out tickets to someone who’s homeless and has no capacity to pay the ticket,” said John Hutton, executive director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba.

In the meantime, Hogaboam said he will continue panhandling until he decides if he can make enough to afford the $300 permit. He has a court appearance scheduled in mid-October regarding the ticket.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg