It may not look like much, but the city finally appears prepared to take concrete action to clear out the homeless encampments in Kakaako.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Thursday announced plans to roust homeless individuals near Ilalo Street, on the outer edges of the makeshift tent city, just a short walk from Ward Warehouse and luxury condominiums now under construction.
Given the size of the problem, the city’s action, which begins Monday with posting of notices, is small and tentative. It will affect only 20 to 25 of the almost 300 homeless people living in the area, and they will be given nine days advance notice to leave. But it’s a necessary, if regrettable, consequence of allowing people to live in squalor on public sidewalks for years.
It’s a step in the right direction for other reasons.
First, the action won’t just shuffle them along. Gov. David Ige asked Caldwell to hold off on sweeping the homeless off the streets until there is someplace for them to go. The city will oblige. Caldwell and state homeless coordinator Scott Morishige have identified shelter space available for the adults they will roust come Sept. 8, so they can get the help they need.
Second, the city and state are sending a clear and firm message, backed up with action: We won’t allow you to camp on the streets if you can avoid it — and we’ll make sure you can avoid it.
Honolulu police and nearby landowners will make sure the homeless individuals don’t simply move across the street to private property. It should go without saying that those asked to leave the streets should not be allowed to stay where they are just because they don’t like going to shelters.
Third, the action comes through the Governor’s Leadership Team on Homelessness — a coordination necessary to tackle the breadth of the problem, which goes well beyond moving a few people here and there. It’s encouraging, finally, to see the team at work.
Monday’s sweep notices will reach only individual adults because space for families is not available. That’s unfortunate, because innocent children living on the streets have the greatest need for safe harbor, and should be the top priority.
Shelter space is desperately needed for families, and the setup of those shelters should be flexible enough to accommodate their practical needs. For example, families should not be strictly required to leave during the day, and they should have a secure place to store their belongings.
The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has identified property it owns in Kakaako Makai, including the land under the Next Step Shelter, that could house all of the homeless in Kakaako, including families.
OHA has a right to expect a fair return for use of its land — it has a fiduciary duty to manage its assets responsibly for the benefit of Native Hawaiians. But as many of the Kakaako homeless are Native Hawaiian, OHA should be flexible in what terms it will accept. The cost of using the land should be shared —— by city and state taxpayers, to be sure, but also by private landowners and, more important, by the federal government.
While the city and, belatedly, the state, are leading the charge on homelessness, it should be remembered that the governor’s leadership team includes the four members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation. Our leaders in Washington, working with their local partners, will need to continue to identify and push for more federal funds that can be used to expand shelter space and affordable housing in the islands. Many of our homeless moved to Hawaii under the terms of the Compact of Free Association, a security pact between certain Pacific island nations and the federal government that has forced Hawaii to bear a disproportional burden of the social and health costs of this migration.
We are owed some relief.
Finally, it should be remembered that the city’s new initiative scrapes just the top of the homeless iceberg. Most of Hawaii’s homeless, estimated at about 5,000, live elsewhere, about half of them without any shelter. The work has just begun.
