Vancouver, British Columbia, tourist Dennis Ihaksi and his wife, Penny, have visited Waikiki off and on since 1977, but navigating the growing gauntlet of panhandlers and homeless people occupying the district’s public sidewalks has left them unsure about making a return visit.

"We’ll probably take next year off," Ihaksi said last week. "We’d like to come back, but we just don’t feel safe anymore. And it’s not just us that feel that way. We have friends that have been coming here for years and we all are having the same discussion."

There have always been homeless people and panhandlers in Waikiki. However, area residents and business owners say the visibility and aggression of some of these individuals have increased since the crackdown on street peddling and the nighttime closure of city parks, where the homeless were less visible.

Added to that is the lack of laws discouraging such behavior. Honolulu does not have laws against loitering, vagrancy or public intoxication, although there are laws prohibiting public drinking and disorderly conduct.

While Honolulu has a law against aggressive panhandling, Waikiki police say they don’t recall ever citing anyone under it because it applies only if the behavior happens within 10 feet of an ATM, a facility with an ATM, or check cashing business.

"I think law enforcement is doing the best that they can with the laws they are given," said Nick Prioletti, general manager of Lu Lu’s Waikiki. "But they probably need to be adjusted. For me, it’s a public safety issue."

On any given day, Prioletti said he’s grappling with fallout from having five to 10 panhandlers camped outside his restaurant’s door.

"Letting them sit in the park was probably better than letting them stay on the sidewalk, where they are sleeping, drinking and drugging, yelling and fighting," he said. "The only reason why they are sitting on our corner on the uncomfortable concrete with the sun beating down on them is that they know that this is where they’ll find the money."

On Tuesday, more than a dozen panhandlers, many homeless, lined Kalakaua Avenue from Seaside to Kapahulu avenues. A pair of panhandlers sat in chairs flanking each side of the crosswalk in front of the nearly closed International Market Place. One held a sign: "Why lie? Need Weed."

Outside the Pacific Beach Hotel entrance, Waikiki panhandlers Russell Mitchell, 29, and his 28-year-old boyfriend, who goes by the street name "Yoshi," struggled to get enough coins to buy lunch. The pair, who say they get about $30 on a good day, were already resigned to skipping breakfast since they had spent most of their money renting a sleeping space under a friend’s awning to keep themselves and their dog, Merlin, dry.

As he readied a cardboard sign with the plea, "Dog and I Hungry. Anything Helps Blessed Be," Yoshi said he’d rather be street performing than panhandling.

"It’s easier to make money street performing, but they make it so hard. I got kicked out for disturbing the peace," said Yoshi, who acknowledged that he recently did time for assaulting a police officer. "They’ve given me tickets for the dog. They’ve arrested me. They’ve taken my drum."

The story is similar among the homeless panhandlers gathered at the end of the strip outside Starbucks and Lu Lu’s Waikiki. They say enforcement of evening park closures pushes them onto the sidewalks.

"We get hassled all the time," said 28-year-old Jamie McClurken, who on Tuesday morning was surrounded by about seven other homeless panhandlers sitting near a donation bowl. "When we are on this side of the boardwalk, they don’t mess with us."

The group spends part of their time in Waikiki’s parks and beaches. However, once night falls and police start enforcing closing hours in those areas, they move to sidewalks on the mauka side of Kalakaua Avenue.

"I get about three to five complaints a month about homelessness from the mayor’s office and almost all of them include panhandling," said Honolulu police officer John DeMello.

Waikiki HPD Maj. Cary Okimoto said it’s clear that panhandling is tied to Waikiki’s tourist status.

"The generosity of the tourists brings them down here as opposed to going to Kaimuki or Waialae-Kahala," he said.

Still, homeless panhandler Louise Jane Brown cried as she described what it’s like to beg on the Waikiki sidewalks, where she’s lived for the past four weeks.

"It’s horrible," Brown said. "We see rich people — really fat ones walk by with a pizza and they won’t even give us a piece. People walk by and look at us like we are disgusting when they don’t know anything about us. We’re not hurting anyone. We’re just sitting here."

Prioletti disagrees. In his estimation, even what starts out as passive begging almost always morphs into something undesirable.

"They are heckling the tourists to give them money so they can go into ABC and buy booze. If they don’t get what they want, the begging will lead to more aggression," he said. "Laws need to be enacted to better gauge passive begging and aggressive panhandling."

Waikiki property manager Melody Young estimates that in the past year she has made more than a dozen complaints about homelessness and panhandling to the city, including Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office, police and the city’s 311 smartphone app.

"The last four to six months have been the worst," Young said.

Richard Kelly, a property manager for a Waikiki condominium that rents about 60 units to tourists, said that in the past year he has taken out trespass orders on about 75 people from his building, giving police grounds to arrest them if they return.

"Just a few minutes ago, I trespassed a guy who came into my lobby and was hitting people up for a quarter," Kelly said. "I told him to leave my building and he said, ‘You can’t tell me to do anything. I’m King Kamehameha.’"

Kelly said calling the police in such a situation is generally useless because the panhandler is usually gone by the time officers arrive.

"No one seems to be doing anything about the situation here," he said. "How is it that it’s legal for someone to sit on the sidewalk drugged out of their mind asking for money for weed? It just blows my mind."

Okimoto said police respond to panhandling complaints, but they have to operate within the law.

"The aggressive panhandling law describes the behavior, but the crime itself refers to it happening in a prohibited location," he said. "People also are surprised that we don’t have laws against vagrancy, loitering or public intoxication, either. I don’t know why. They may want to talk to the ACLU."

A sidewalk artist could be cited for peddling if an exchange of money prompted them to provide the service, Okimoto said. However, the law allows an intoxicated person to solicit money on the sidewalk if they don’t verbally request it, he said.

"Now, if someone stops you on the sidewalk and refuses to let you pass unless you give them money, they could be charged with harassment or maybe even terroristic threatening," Okimoto said. "But we can’t do anything unless someone is willing to make a complaint. Tourists rarely will."

Ihaksi said he’s speaking up because he’s seen Waikiki’s homeless and panhandling problem worsen dramatically since last year. Just a week or so ago, the Canadian couple saw the coroner removing a homeless person’s body from outside the public bathroom at Kuhio Beach Park. On Thursday, Ihaksi said a person sleeping on a blowup mattress blocked their entrance to 24 Hour Fitness. After their workout, the couple walked past Lu Lu’s Waikiki only to encounter about a dozen people begging for spare change.

"My wife and I are panhandled every time we try to get by this group,"Ihaksi said. "It’s worse here than in Los Angeles or San Francisco. We’ve also been to Vietnam, China and Cambodia. In the tourist areas, we didn’t see the massive group of people with hands out to the extent that it’s happening here."

HAWAII’S AGGRESSIVE PANHANDLING LAW

>> “Panhandling” or “soliciting” means any solicitation made in person upon any street or public place in the city in which a person requests an immediate donation from another person. The term does not include passively standing or sitting.

>> A panhandler has to use aggressive tactics in a prohibited location to be cited for aggressive panhandling. Aggressive panhandling is forbidden within 10 feet of an ATM, a facility with an ATM, or a check cashing business.

>> The penalty for aggressive panhandling in a prohibited location is $25 for each offense. Waikiki police said to their knowledge they have never cited anyone for aggressive panhandling; however, they said they have cited a small number of aggressive panhandlers on charges of assault, harassment or terroristic threats. They noted that Honolulu does not have laws against vagrancy, loitering, public intoxication or being homeless. Source: HPD

Panhandlers in Hawaii are considered aggressive if they:

>> Persist in soliciting money from, follow, or approach a person after that person has given a negative response by either words or conduct to a solicitation for money

>> Intentionally touch or cause physical contact with a person being solicited without the person’s consent

>> Intentionally block or interfere with the safe or free passage of a person exiting or entering a vehicle near an ATM

>> Use violent or threatening gestures toward a person being solicited

>> Use profane or abusive language that is likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction from the person being solicited

>> Approach or follow a person being solicited in a group of two or more persons in a manner intended or likely to cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm or damage to or loss of property or otherwise to be intimidated into giving money or other thing of value. Source: HPD

First Amendment and panhandling

>> Panhandlers and street performers have a First Amendment right to be on the public ways and sidewalks provided they are not obstructing the flow of traffic or peddling. Peddling is defined as selling, renting, or offering to sell or rent goods, wares, merchandise, food or other kinds of property or services. A person offering goods or services in public places in Waikiki who does no more than solicit or accept a donation, leaving the amount to be determined solely and freely by the donor, is not in violation of the peddling ordinance.

>> The ACLU has established a “Know your Rights” line, 522-5906. Callers should leave their name, a brief synopsis of their First Amendment challenge, and contact information such as mailing address, email, or phone number. Source: ACLU