Council considers tougher ‘sit-lie’ enforcement near schools

A story told of parents dropping their children off at Waipahu Elementary School only to be threatened by a knife-wielding couple living at a homeless encampment next to the campus has prompted one elected official to seek even greater enforcement of the city’s controversial “sit-lie” ordinances.

“I recognize that sit-lie enforcement may not be viewed as the most compassionate way of dealing with our growing homeless population,” Council member Augie Tulba told the Honolulu City Council’s Public Safety Committee last week. “But the safety of our students and young kids are paramount and I believe that enforcement in this type of situation is warranted.”

Ultimately, the committee agreed, voting Thursday to recommend launching a pilot program to allow for the safe passage of children around public schools and also suggesting stiffer penalties, such as jail time for homeless people who obstruct walkways or threaten pedestrians in parts of the city, including Waikiki.

The panel also called on state lawmakers to grant more funding to local agencies to better deal with what many say has become an overwhelming issue in Hawaii and elsewhere in the country.

The full Council is expected on Jan. 25 to review the proposed expansion of so-called sit-lie laws aimed primarily at preventing the homeless from camping, sleeping or obstructing sidewalks and other public areas.

Expanded under former Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration in 2017 primarily to clear large homeless encampments, sit-lie ordinances now mainly cover business-oriented areas. The city also has two other ordinances regarding stored property and sidewalk nuisances that special cleanup crews enforce each day around Oahu. Police are allowed to issue warnings, citations and, if necessary, remove homeless people from specified areas.

The latest proposal calls for greater efforts by the Honolulu Police Department and the city’s Department of Facility Maintenance to step up “enforcement of the sit-lie and the stored properties ordinances on all city sidewalks and public properties located near preschools, kindergartens, or elementary, intermediate, middle, secondary, and high schools in order to ensure the full, free, and unobstructed passage of the students and all other pedestrians to those schools,” the resolution on the proposal reads.

The state’s top education official supported Tulba’s proposal in written testimony to the Council, saying it promotes safe school zones.

“The health and safety of our students, staff, families, and members of our school communities are of utmost importance to the (Department of Education) … ,” said Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi in his testimony.

He expressed appreciation for the Council’s efforts “to protect the perimeters of our schools” and the continuing support from city officials and HPD “in keeping our schools safe.”

Civil rights advocates remain critical of the city’s ongoing effort to deal with the island’s homeless population.

“The ACLU of Hawaii has consistently opposed the sit-lie ordinance in the first instance,” Wookie Kim, the group’s legal director, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser following the Council meeting. “And over the years the geographical zones for it have expanded and we’ve consistently opposed them. And there have been attempts in the past to expand zones around schools and public libraries, and we oppose those as well.”

Kim added that “criminally prosecuting houseless people for the innocent acts of sitting, lying and sleeping in public spaces when there isn’t enough shelter in the city violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.”

According to the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the state’s homeless population, as of mid-2022, numbered 5,973, with the majority — or 3,951 people — living on Oahu.

Anton Krucky, director of the city’s Department of Community Services, told committee members that enforcement of sit-lie laws are not considered homeless programs per se.

“They really target at the belongings, cleaning up and sanitation efforts, and they are very much complaint driven,” Krucky said, adding that city resources are limited for greater enforcement activities. “The people that we have working on this are really loaded with their work. So I think to address a resolution like this we need to come up with a plan to do that.”

He added that a pilot program should specify geographical areas where school zones are located. “We’ll do the research to see if the current ordinances are active in that zone so we’re able to operate in those zones,” he said.

Krucky said his department would take a list of proposed school sites and work with the city’s Department of Facilities Maintenance, which maintains city-owned properties, and HPD, which handles enforcement, and come back to the Public Safety Committee with a proposed pilot program — “and also the funding that would be needed by DFM to have the staff to do that.”

Council members Andria Tupola and Calvin Say both said the state should assist as joint partners in curbing homeless encampments around Oahu, not just outside schools and parks or on city-owned sidewalks.

“What can the Legislature do to help us out also?” said Say during the meeting, adding his advice would be to invite all 76 members of the state House and Senate to tour encampment sites.

“It’s a real reality check. I’ve been down there, I’ve been down where they camp in the streams … ,” he said. “It’s endless.”

Say, who formerly served as state House speaker, said the city “cannot be the catch-all for all of these problems, with the state not supporting us.”

He added that if money can be found by the city toward a pilot program, then the state should match it, “because I get the emails from the elected officials at the state level saying, ‘We have this homeless encampment and it’s our job to address it as a Council,’ and that’s not right. It’s all of us as a community.”

Say asserted that the “chronics” — those homeless individuals who routinely break the law yet remain on the streets — should face stiffer penalties, including mandatory incarceration.

“That’s the ones who are bothering all of us, that’s the ones who are on the streets,” he said.

Council Chair Tommy Waters agreed, saying that although the resolution was focused on school safety, there are those in the homeless community who pose a threat to the greater public in all parts of Oahu.

“All you have to do is walk outside,” Waters said. “You have people right outside Iolani Palace, all along the fence line, people just sleeping on the sidewalks. Some of them have substance abuse problems, some of them have mental health problems, and some just don’t want the help.”

He added that although some city programs offer help for many homeless people, other options should include greater enforcement actions.

“There’s a carrot and the stick,” said Waters. Turning to city staff, he asked: “What are we legally able to do? Can we force people off the sidewalk? You know what I’m talking about … you see these guys just lying there on the sidewalk, literally you got to step over them or go around to walk.”

Waters said he, like Say, could see a mandatory 30-day jail term for some offending homeless whom he termed “the derelicts.”

“And by the way, that’s what the community wants,” he added. “That’s what my Waikiki Neighborhood Board said, ‘Just put them in jail.’”

Waters turned to the attending corporation counsel about any legal remedies open to the city — in particular for police — in removing those homeless people who may cause a public nuisance in public spaces. “What facts do they have to show to be able to remove?” he asked.

When the corporation counsel was unable to provide an immediate answer, Waters asked the city’s legal staff to return with more information so that the Council might “amend the law to make it easier for the police to enforce the law.”

Others testified of the difficulties of dealing with the homeless firsthand.

Leland Cadoy, an HPD corporal assigned to the city’s stored property ordinance team, told committee members the sit-lie law has to be enforced a certain way.

“We all know that homelessness is not a crime,” Cadoy said. “Therefore, we have to go according (to the law) so the city doesn’t get sued again.”

He added there are stipulations to the ordinance the city must follow with regard to areas of coverage, with some areas of Oahu not subject to police enforcement of the sit-lie law.

He added that HPD officers will first warn and document violators. “Then in about an hour or more come back, and if the person is still there we cite them. And we let them know now that this is an arrestable situation and we leave. And when we come back again, they get arrested, there is no other options after that.”

Cadoy stressed that unless possessions belonging to the homeless person — which are sometimes transported in shopping carts — are actually blocking city-owned sidewalks or hindering pedestrians, “there’s nothing we can do.”

“ACLU deems their things — even if we consider it to be trash — as personal property,” Cadoy said. “But there are ways not to get around (sit-lie) but to still address it. It’s their property and if you tell them, ‘I’m going to have to take your property if you don’t move it,’ they will move so we don’t have to physically get them to move, they don’t always have to be arrested to move, but we need the support of the community as a whole.”