ACLU seeks to ban Honolulu homeless enforcement

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / JULY 24
A homeless individual’s shopping cart and belongings block the sidewalk at Pawaa In-Ha Park.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / JULY 24

A homeless individual’s shopping cart and belongings block the sidewalk at Pawaa In-Ha Park.

STAR-ADVERTISER / APRIL 24
A homeless man sits in his encampment across from the state Capitol and near Washington Place in Honolulu. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai’i today filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court asking for an order that Honolulu’s “anti-houseless” laws be ruled illegal, alleging they violate Hawaii’s state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

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STAR-ADVERTISER / APRIL 24

A homeless man sits in his encampment across from the state Capitol and near Washington Place in Honolulu. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai’i today filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court asking for an order that Honolulu’s “anti-houseless” laws be ruled illegal, alleging they violate Hawaii’s state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai’i today filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court asking for an order that Honolulu’s “anti-houseless” laws be ruled illegal, alleging they violate Hawaii’s state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

The lawsuit follows a victory this month in Washington by a sister ACLU organization that got Seattle’s homeless ordinances ruled unconstitutional because they violated Washington’s constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, said Jongwook “Wookie” Kim, legal director for the ACLU of Hawaiʻi.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made similar rulings in Idaho, Kim said.

Among a host of Honolulu laws, the ACLU particularly wants the city’s sit-law ban, park closure hour rules, prohibition against camping in city parks and the 11-year-old Sidewalk Nuisance and Stored Property ordinances ruled illegal in Circuit Court.

“These laws are routinely weaponized against houseless people,” Kim said.

In 2014 the ACLU failed in U.S. District Court to overturn the city’s homeless sweeps.

Today’s lawsuit asks for no monetary award.

It was filed on behalf of five homeless people, two of whom appeared at an ACLU press conference.

Faimafili Tupola teared up and said she’s been trying to save money for a permanent place to live but the constant seizure of her personal property makes it even harder.

Jared “Spider” Castro said sweeps have cost him wheelchairs, two mopeds, a vehicle donated by a nephew and medical supplies that left him to push his late wife in a shopping cart to get medical attention, which he called “very demoralizing.”

If they had the money, it would cost Castro $200 to rent a truck to retrieve their seized belongings, he said.

City spokesperson Ian Scheuring wrote in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that, “We understand that a lawsuit has been filed and the Department of Corporation Counsel is reviewing the allegations and cannot comment at this time.”

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