More vagrants in Chinatown, merchants say

By midafternoon Sunday the sidewalks along Mau­na­kea and North Pau­ahi streets were nearly empty, a sight that didn’t bode well for area shopkeepers still hoping to eke out a few more sales before closing time.

Sam Say, for one, wasn’t complaining. The 53-year-old proprietor of M.P. Lei Shop said he likes the weekend respite from the yelling, fighting and various other unpleasantness he said has become the norm when homeless people are out in force weekdays.

"They go where the free food is," Say said. "On the weekends there’s no free food around here, so they go somewhere else. That’s why I like Saturdays and Sundays."

Like other business operators in the area, Say said he has noticed an influx of new faces in the area’s homeless community in recent months, a possible result of the ban on sitting and lying on sidewalks that took effect in Wai­kiki in September.

Say works at the lei shop from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. He says his business has been affected by the constant presence of homeless people loitering on the sidewalks and by the erratic behavior of those who may be suffering from mental illness.

Say said he is familiar with many homeless people in the area, occasionally acquiescing to their requests for loose change, but he said the arrival of homeless people from outside the neighborhood has resulted in increased volatility.

"There is fighting all the time," he said. "I have customers who say they are afraid to come now."

As if on cue, an apparent argument broke out a block away, a shoeless woman clutching her head, yelling something unintelligible at a shirtless man slumped over a shopping cart.

Indeed, while the area around Say’s shop was relatively clear, there were conspicuous signs of the area’s homelessness problem nearby. On River Street a dozen people sat in doorways or were supine on the bare pavement. At Fort Street Mall, men and women gathered in the recessed entrance ways of closed eateries or slept curled below benches.

Farther down Maunakea, Alex Nguyen, whose family owns Lin’s Lei Shop, counted his blessings.

"We’re lucky because the police park right out in front (of the shop), so homeless people know not to hang around here," Nguyen said. "But you go up past Hotel Street, it’s a wreck.

"There is an increase in homeless people for sure," Nguyen said. "When the (charitable kitchens) open, they’re all lined up like they’re going to a comedy show."

The Honolulu City Council recently gave its approval to expand the sit-lie ban to several other areas, including downtown and Chinatown. While detractors have argued that the such measures criminalize homelessness without addressing its root causes, many downtown business owners welcome the government’s intervention into a problem they said threatens their livelihoods.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell has said he favors the expanded sit-lie ban but is awaiting an opinion from city lawyers before signing.

That can’t come too soon for Kim Hue Ly and her husband, Thien Trung Do, who said the increasing number of homeless people in the area has hurt business at their shop, Kim Trading.

"I’m scared," she said. "Sometimes they will come in three or four times a day and try to put things in their pockets."

Do said he has asked people who loiter near the shop not to sleep outside his doorway and not to cause disturbances when his customers are around.

"We work seven days a week just to pay the rent," Do said. "Some years we make a little money, but this year we’ve lost money. Not as many people are coming to Chinatown because of all the homeless."