Give priority to shelters for homeless

The Honolulu City Council may feel its efforts to grapple with homelessness were blunted last week when Mayor Kirk Caldwell vetoed Bill 6, a measure that sought to expand the city’s "sit-lie" ordinance that aimed at keeping sidewalks clear in key business districts.

The truth is, there is room for compromise here. That, rather than an veto override, is what should be pursued with a measure of urgency that’s been dismally lacking in the wrangling over the issue for many months.

And the call for leaders to step up and start delivering on promises is a call that needs to be heard at the state Capitol, as well as in Honolulu Hale: promises of transitional and, ultimately, permanent housing for those living on the streets.

Some of these ideas — a Sand Island "safe zone," for example — have been on the planning boards but need to be accelerated. And others — for one, the prospect of city access to properties such as the Hilo Hattie store site on Nimitz Highway — are new, and should be explored.

Bill 6 was an effort to further expand what has been a successful effort to keep sidewalks clear in Waikiki and select other business areas in Honolulu, where homeless encampments had become intrusive.

The basic sit-lie ordinance — a prohibition against anyone sitting or lying in a sidewalk area — is patterned after a similar law enacted in Seattle, city administration officials said — an ordinance upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because it was based on the principal of protecting the free flow of commerce.

The reason for vetoing Bill 6, they said, was that the expansion did not stick to that principle and instead expanded the restricted zone beyond business areas. The risk here: The entire sit-lie restriction could be struck down because it was not laser-focused on protecting business and instead became a means of targeting homeless people in particular, wherever they were.

However serious this legal risk is perceived, it seems smarter to safeguard the sit-lie ordinance as much as possible for what it is: a limited tool for protecting the interest of companies to conduct business unobstructed. The Council should take the alternative measure proposed by Mayor Kirk Caldwell that restricts the ordinance more specifically to city sidewalks serving businesses.

Agitating for a veto override would just amount to more political posturing and a wholesale waste of time and energy. There would be no upside to pursuing a sit-lie ban that’s less constrained and less legally defensible, in any case, because this is not the ultimate solution to Honolulu’s homelessness problem.

It only buys time as the city and state governments create that solution: providing more secure sheltering options to those who are now being allowed to set up camp on city streets. Ideally, it’s permanent housing with social services aimed at giving some stability to individuals and families who are chronically homeless — and, with that stability, hope for a path to greater self-sufficiency. This is the "Housing First" concept that has found favor in federally funded programs across the country, including Honolulu.

But Hawaii’s problems are especially knotty, which makes the halting response to it intensely frustrating. Hawaii is a destination for mainlanders who venture west hoping for a home in paradise but soon find out about the "paradise tax" and can neither afford housing nor a plane ticket home.

There is also the critical problem of migrants who come here freely from Pacific islands under the Compact of Free Association with the U.S. Hawaii is disproportionately bearing the cost of safety-net support for these migrants because Hawaii is a primary destination.

Finally, the inventory of rental housing units is sorely lacking on Oahu in particular, even before the search for Housing First homelessness accommodations began.

Housing advocates are justifiably impatient with the response to date, including what’s emerged from the 2015 Legislature. Gov. David Ige requested at the opening of the session that $100 million be deposited in the state’s Rental Housing Trust Fund — an appropriate response to a crisis situation. But the amount was whacked to $40 million, and that’s not the jumpstart the state needs.

City officials plan to announce in about a month a strategy that will involve the state-owned Sand Island property that’s been eyed as a transitional accommodation for the homeless, and there’s no time to lose in sewing up those loose ends. Additionally, it’s gratifying to hear the pledge that an opportunity to put the Hilo Hattie property to public use will be explored, as the retailer moves through bankruptcy proceedings.

And there are potential projects that haven’t been sufficiently developed, For example: Finding space the homeless could affordably rent as storage for their belongings would fill a need, as would making showers and bathrooms available.

The fact is that Honolulu is in desperate straits to make progress in its battle against homelessness. It will take all hands on deck, working on the same problem, rather than at cross purposes.