Clearing sidewalks a near-term city expense

City officials will remind you that the sweeps they do around Oahu enforcing the sidewalk ordinances will affect anything that’s stowed where public passage should be clear.

Anything from roadside memorials to a basketball hoop in the neighborhood can get tagged, and out they go.

But something like 90 percent of the time, the complaints that come in and the sweeps are all complaint-driven concern homeless encampments. So far, the enforcement actions have been the most visible manifestation of the city’s effort to deal with the city’s homelessness crisis.

Of course, the Stored Property Ordinance and Sidewalk Nuisance Ordinance only treat the symptom of a larger problem. The hope is that permanent solutions will render such actions unnecessary.

Those solutions remain elusive. In the meantime, the administration of Mayor Kirk Caldwell has asked the City Council to make regular hires out of the emergency contract workers performing the clearance duties, with the creation of a permanent enforcement team. It’s not being done to whittle the city’s budget the civil service slots will cost more in the long run, with full union pay, and benefits, on into retirement.

Seven people working on contract are now staffing the team, at an annual cost of $223,069. The administration is asking to create eight full-time city positions assigned to the Department of Facility Maintenance, at a cost of $342,640.

Ross Sasamura, department director, said the change is needed because of collective bargaining agreements. A decision that was sought by the union for maintenance staff, United Public Workers, limits how long a private contractor can handle duties normally done by city staff. The limitations were put in place after a grievance about privatizing city duties was filed and arbitration sided with the complainant, Sasamura said.

Fair enough. But under these circumstances, it’s reasonable to expect a permanent city department to have more vigorous oversight and produce better results.

The city can’t simply turn a blind eye to camping on the streets. For one thing, Honolulu businesses and the tourists who frequent them are not blind, and allowing the squalor to compound month after month could ultimately demolish any reputation Hawaii retains as a desirable tourist destination.

And from the standpoint of maintaining Honolulu as a humane city, the fact remains that the streets are not safe places for anyone to live, whether it’s a vulnerable individual whose health already is compromised or a family. Children are not going to thrive in such an environment.

Further, the $141,060 allotment for parks grounds-keepers seems reasonable encampments have taken a toll on the parks and at least some part of the $320,000 for new trucks is defensible, if the workload of the department warrants it.

What all of these investments signify is that sidewalk sweeps have become part of the municipal duty roster and likely will remain so for some time. Honolulu is not unique in this regard, with Portland and other cities trying similar programs to manage the problem.

But the goal should be to phase out this duty over time, or at least diminish the need for such a team, by finding more lasting solutions. The emphasis needs to be on ramping up Housing First, the strategy found most cost-effective at helping the chronically homeless by providing stable accommodation first, and then treating their other problems.

And the state’s recent decision to implement more controls in meal programs for the homeless should help. It was primarily aimed at strengthening food-safety regulations of soup kitchens and other outreach operations. However, the initiative also will help by directing more of the people in need to the centers and services equipped to get them back on their feet.

Getting Honolulu’s homelessness problem under control is a challenge that requires tough enforcement of laws protecting access to public properties. But the homeless need better shelter alternatives and social support services than they have now, and those have to be in place if the city is ever going to make real progress.