Another bill seeking to create a "bill of rights" for homeless people passed its first committee hearing on Saturday.

The measure, Senate Bill 1014, referred to as the "houseless bill of rights," proposes 12 guarantees for homeless individuals, such as the right to equal treatment regardless of housing status and the right to sleep in a parked vehicle that is in legal compliance.

The bill says the purpose is "to ameliorate adverse effects visited upon individuals when those individuals lack a home."

The Senate Committee on Human Services and Housing passed SB 1014 during a hearing that included the passage of at least one other homeless bill. The other measure would allow a homeless person convicted of violating a law relating to obstruction of a public place — such as Honolulu’s sit-lie law — to have the conviction vacated.

It’s not the first time the committee passed a measure calling for a homeless "bill of rights." Last year, Rep. John Mizuno introduced a similar measure, but it stalled in the Judiciary and Labor Committee — the same committee to which the current legislation has been referred.

Dave Mulinix, a member of (de)Occupy Honolulu, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement from 2011, said the city is violating the civil rights of homeless people by enforcing laws that he says target the homeless.

"The police and the city workers treat them like they’re not human," Mulinix testified, adding that ID cards and medication of homeless people have been thrown away during city sweeps of homeless encampments.

"Reaffirming that these are human beings who have civil rights is incredibly vital," Mulinix said.

He said one homeless woman lost all her belongings after a nighttime city raid, leaving her with no property and nowhere to go because the shelters were already closed.

"It is so cruel what they’re doing," he said.

Homeless advocates point to the city’s sit-lie ban, stored property ordinance and sidewalk nuisance law as measures that criminalize the homeless.

Raina Whiting, director of the homeless outreach group In the Streets, testified the bill is needed to highlight the struggles of the homeless under city laws, some of which passed after last legislative session.

She said children have lost their books and school supplies in sweeps and some seniors couldn’t graduate because they could not afford new texts. She also said a woman became ill trying to hold her urine overnight because she was afraid of fines for using the park restroom after hours.

"A homeless bill of rights will stop that sort of thing or at least give them some sort of acknowledgement that they exist," she said.

But State Homeless Coordinator Colin Kippen said such a law is unnecessary because the homeless already have rights under the state and U.S. constitutions.

"Those tools are there," he said. "They need to be used."