State lawmakers should swiftly shelve HB 1889, commonly known as the "Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights," lest this measure divert attention from far more significant bills that would spur concrete action to help homeless people into transitional or affordable housing and educational and job-training programs.

HB 1889’s core intent is important — to ensure that we as a community never become so inured to the persistent problem of homelessness that we begin to regard individuals living on the streets as less than human.

However, the bill’s broad and vague language on issues of employment, privacy and government interaction could serve ultimately to put homeless people in a special class of their own.

That would make it harder to pass community health and safety standards for public spaces that should be accessible to everyone, and undermine city and state laws supporting those goals.

Therefore, this bill should not be enacted, no matter how noble its aim.

Every homeless person does deserve to be treated with dignity, and clearly many are not. This is something we must work on as a society, not have legislated from on high, with serious unintended consequences.

Outreach workers are fanning out throughout Hawaii now for this year’s National Point in Time Count of People Experiencing Homelessness. The count, conducted during the last 10 days of January, is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for communities across the country to receive funding for various programs combating homelessness.

According to last year’s count, there were 4,556 homeless people on Oahu, including 3,091 sheltered in emergency, transitional or safe-haven programs, and 1,456 "unsheltered" living on streets, parks, beaches or other outdoor places.

Successful social-service agencies such as the Institute for Human Services, which operates three emergency shelters in urban Honolulu, have shown that extending a helping hand while simultaneously holding shelter residents to behavioral standards helps the individual and the community at large.

IHS has bed space available in its separate shelters for single women and single men, and a short waiting list in its family shelter.

"We help people and they work hard to help themselves," explains IHS executive director Connie Mitchell. "It’s a two-way relationship. It’s not about getting them out of sight. It’s about getting them on their feet."

That’s the correct philosophy, and one that all Hawaii lawmakers and policymakers should follow as well.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s tepid remarks in last week’s State of the State address — the issue of homelessness accounted for a mere two paragraphs of boilerplate language in his speech — and the collapse last week of the city’s proposed $142 million rental-housing deal makes it doubly important that state legislators take the lead with meaningful bills this session that galvanize the conversion and construction of affordable housing, especially rentals; help fund the construction of public restrooms in areas where homeless people are known to reside; expand intensive outreach and services for the mentally ill; and provide more help for drug and alcohol abusers who are willing to seek treatment.

HB 1889 accomplishes none of that.

There’s far more potential in a package of bills that focus largely on providing more affordable housing, including getting folks into their own rentals with the help of government subsidies and funding the construction of inexpensive rentals, including "micro" units suitable for a single person.

This boarding-house-type accommodation — essentially single rooms with a shared bathroom — used to be more available to rent in Honolulu, advocates say. But most of those buildings have been replaced by more expensive developments.

These bills recognize that 40 percent of the homeless people in Hawaii hold jobs. They are the working poor, not the panhandlers, drug users or sidewalk ranters who garner the headlines.

Rather than a bogus Bill of Rights, lawmakers and leaders should focus on what these strivers truly need: A decent place to live.