Sit-lie ban might not survive its expansion, mayor warns

Mayor Kirk Caldwell is warning Honolulu City Council members that efforts to expand the city’s sit-lie sidewalk ban could make the existing law vulnerable to legal challenges.

The Council voted 7-2 Wednesday to support Bill 6, marking the second of three approval votes needed before the measure is eligible to become an ordinance. Council members Brandon Elefante and Kymberly Pine, both of whom have consistently voted against sit-lie bills, cast the two "no" votes.

The bill adds portions of McCully, Aala, Punchbowl and the Kapalama Canal to the list of areas where the sit-lie ban is applied. It also shores up Bill 48 — the business district sit-lie law passed last year — by applying the prohibition on both sides of the streets in the 15 commercial-business areas now designated as sit-lie areas.

Caldwell, in an email response to a query from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, said he’s troubled by Bill 6, as now written. "The new floor draft … seeks to apply Honolulu’s sit-lie laws to areas along canals, in parks and ‘on’ planting strips along sidewalks," the mayor said. "This proposed draft will need to be reviewed carefully so as not to jeopardize the existing laws."

The mayor’s concern echoes assertions made previously by city attorneys that the sit-lie ban is most legally defensible when the act of sitting and lying on sidewalks hinders a business’s ability to operate.

Specifically, the version of Bill 6 that passed Wednesday adds places:

» In Kapalama, along Kohou Street, which runs parallel to Kapalama Canal, between Olomea and Kalani streets; and Kokea Street, between Olomea and Kalani.

» In the Kalihi-downtown region, the city blocks between Aala and River streets from North Beretania Street to North Vineyard Boulevard; the sidewalks surrounding Aala Park; and Punchbowl Street between South Beretania and South Vineyard.

» In McCully, the area bordered by McCully, South Beretania, Makahiki/Isenberg and Algaroba/South King streets.

The measure now goes back to the Council Zoning and Planning Committee for more work.

Testimony came from supporters and opponents of expanding the sit-lie ban.

Judy Lind, executive director of the Kukui Children’s Foundation, said her nonprofit owns and operates the Kukui Center. She said she supports the bill, which would put the center in a new area with sit-lie restrictions. Since the sit-lie ban took effect in downtown-Chinatown, a greater number of homeless have moved into the Kukui area and the foundation’s property has been vandalized in two months as many times as the previous six years, she said.

"We have lost the use of our outdoor seating area for meeting with clients due to the theft of equipment," Lind said. "Even more concerning is the first-ever incident of a man found unconscious in a first-floor locked bathroom with needles, most likely from a heroin overdose."

But Michelle Baltazar, who described herself as a homeless person living in Waikiki, said she is baffled that Council members would pass legislation that criminalizes being homeless.

"How can you support laws aimed toward attacking the poorest of the poor, the homeless people of Hawaii?"

Council members were equally passionate in arguing their views.

Councilman Joey Manahan said he’s seen an alarmingly steep increase in the number of homeless who live around Kapalama Canal, which is part of the area he represents.

Some have grown so used to living there that "I’ve seen kids getting picked up by school buses there to go to school," Manahan said. "That’s not OK, and I really fear for their safety out there."

Meanwhile, interactions between the campers and neighboring business owners "have become more and more unfriendly," he said.

Elefante, one of the two Council members who oppose the bill, said all the sit-lie laws have done is push the homeless into other areas of Oahu.

"It continues to move people around," he said. "Since we passed legislation … last year, I, personally now see more and more homeless folks coming into the suburban areas such as Pearl City, Aiea and Waipahu."

The city needs to continue to display "compassion and love" toward the vulnerable, and work with service providers to provide aid to them, Elefante said.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin said the Council gave the Caldwell administration roughly $32 million to help house the homeless. To date, the administration has had little to show for it, he said. The administration had suggested Sand Island as a temporary shelter for those moving into Housing First initiatives "but after all these months, nothing, nothing to show for it," he said.