Chinatown Weed and Seed program on Oahu requires a sustained effort and more housing

The city has put an emphasis on reducing crime and homelessness while revitalizing Chinatown, but the experience of the original Chinatown Weed and Seed program two decades ago shows that ongoing efforts and money will be needed to continue any progress.

This time around, the lack of the original federally funded Weed and Seed program means that it will be fully funded by the city.

The City Council allocated $250,000 in the city’s budget. However, Mayor Rick Blangiardi listed an additional $750,000 for the program in a draft proposal of his plans for the city’s $386 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The federal government awarded states and municipalities millions of dollars of ARPA relief funds meant to combat the public-health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga currently repre­sents the Chinatown area but represented Makiki and Ala Moana in 1998 when Weed and Seed began in Chinatown.

Four years in, Fukunaga helped bring it to her district in response to drug dealing. Weed and Seed addressed the criminal issues, then led to community cleanups and the creation of a community policing team.

“The Weed and Seed effort was very effective because part of the federal program initially meant that if you had people who were prosecuted, adjudicated and were found guilty, they were prohibited from returning … for a year or more,” she said.

“So it really created a very different kind of partnership between the Police Department, prosecutor and community leaders.”

Former U.S. Attorney Steven Alm led Chinatown’s original Weed and Seed program and is now resurrecting it as Honolulu prosecutor.

The original Weed and Seed reduced felonies and misdemeanors by 70%, Alm said. But because the efforts were not sustained, Chinatown saw the same problems reemerge.

Federal funding priorities shifted, Fukunaga said, and local officials struggled to continue paying for it.

Chinatown began slipping backward, and residents and businesses have repeatedly told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that conditions have only gotten worse and more dangerous as COVID-19 forced Oahu shelters to reduce their bed space as businesses struggled or shuttered.

“When many of the shops and businesses were closed, restaurants etc., it sort of left the streets open both to those who are homeless and congregating in the area,” Fukunaga said.

“It just escalated, these conditions that by themselves may not have been as horrible,” she said. “But when you put them all together, they were just so in your face everywhere that it really contributed to urgent need for a change.”

So far, the new Chinatown incarnation of Weed and Seed has led to arrests of 74 people, mostly for drug-related crimes, Alm said.

Of the 74 people arrested, about 25 were homeless.

“When you actually look at the real numbers of homeless in Chinatown … I’ve heard different estimates, but I’ve heard like between 50 and 70 people,” Alm said. “We’re going to be able to get them help. Often people think that people have to really want to go get treatment to be successful. That’s not true. They just need to get into treatment. After being in jail for a few days, they start thinking more clearly, and decided to get a chance to go to treatment.”

People who are picked up through Weed and Seed for drug possession will be assessed by the state Department of Health at Oahu Community Correctional Center and placed into drug or mental health treatment programs.

Po‘ailani Inc. specializes in dual diagnosis treatment of both severe mental illness and drug addiction and is one of the service providers that accepts people brought in through Weed and Seed.

It’s too soon to determine how many spots in treatment facilities will be needed, said Po‘ailani Inc. CEO Abby Paredes.

“This program and this idea of how we’re going to help and make a difference here in our state — I would want it to just keep expanding and expanding,” Paredes said.

“Using that concept of identifying people and either mandating or encouraging the homeless population into treatment, because we know treatment has really excellent outcomes, and once they’re kind of in our system, there’s a lot of other providers that they will also be able to receive services from,” she said.

The latest version of Weed and Seed also could again prohibit people from Chinatown while on probation.

Alm believes that crime would not necessarily follow them to other parts of Oahu, insisting that Chinatown’s makeup creates more opportunities for problems.

“There is something about a location like Chinatown — with all the bars, all the alleys — that over the years has just made it an easier place for certain crimes to get committed,” he said.

Alm emphasized that reducing crime should not be about issuing homeless-related citations for things like sidewalk obstruction.

“We’ve talked to the police about it: Don’t cite the homeless folks for all this manini stuff, because they’re not going to show up in court,” he said. “You’re going to get a warrant out there that’s going to disrupt their lives.”

“If they do get arrested, it’s because they’re committing a felony smoking crack or ‘ice’ or something like that,” Alm said. “That’s a different story.”

Banning someone from Chinatown — known as a geographic exemption — will not be requested if a person works in the area or is receiving services like drug treatment or mental health care nearby, Alm said.

The success of Weed and Seed will be determined by measuring whether people feel safer in the area. Surveys have been sent to residents and business owners asking whether they would leave a bike in the area, or if they feel safe walking in parks in the area. Those answers will be monitored over time.

At River of Life Mission Honolulu, a faith-based homeless feeding program, positive changes already have happened over the past month even though the number of clients has gone up, said Executive Director Paul Gates.

“There’s less tension on the street,” Gates said. “There’s less verbal conflict. It just seems a little more peaceful and settled.”

“That’s what we all want.”

Future success will come from “seeding” Chinatown with beneficial programs, Alm said.

The original Weed and Seed included an early-education Head Start program and after-school sports. Surveys will determine what programs the current Chinatown community hopes to see.

Laura Thielen, executive director of Partners in Care, Oahu’s planning body that coordinates housing and services for the homeless, was doing homeless outreach during the original Weed and Seed.

Success now will rely on how those arrested interact with the courts and whether follow-up treatment keeps them out of the criminal justice system, she said.

“It’s one thing to take people off of the streets and move them away from Chinatown,” Thielen said. “But for us, we don’t want them to be deposited somewhere else. We want them to really be able to benefit from whatever interaction they have with the system.”

“They actually get into the resources that they need, and it’s not just a referral and a one-day kind of a thing,” she said. “It’s got to have some longevity to it.”

A critical piece also will be the availability of affordable housing, which remains a crucial part of reducing isle homelessness.

“From the moment that someone enters our program at Po‘ailani, and I’m sure the other treatment providers are doing the same, from Day One when they’re writing up their treatment plan, they’re also writing a discharge plan.” Paredes said.

“Those plans have to start from the beginning of it’s not only helping getting into the program and helping them through treatments and building their supports and so forth; it’s really, Where are you going to go?”

City Council Chairman Tommy Waters echoed the need for affordable housing and careful planning for Weed and Seed to work.

“The fact that we’re back doing Weed and Seed in Chinatown again points to the importance of the city actually building affordable housing so we can get folks off the street permanently,” Waters said. “This new effort cannot just be about pushing people from one community into the next, and I’m concerned that OCCC doesn’t have the capability to treat individuals experiencing mental health issues.

“We need to develop a plan for addressing our housing needs and utilize federal funds to provide places for people to live so that we’re not back here in four years doing Weed and Seed all over again.”