The U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling upholding a ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors may prove difficult for homeless populations in some states.
But in Hawaii it aligns with efforts that, so far, have attempted to strike a balance between protecting public access to public places and providing for proper shelter that homeless people desperately need.
The high court’s ruling originates from a challenge of a camping ban enacted in Grants Pass, Ore., but it applies to municipal governments across the nation.
That includes Hawaii cities — but it should not be read as a directive against the more humane approach that Honolulu, for one, has adopted.
In a 6-3 vote, with its conservative justices in the majority, the high court held that ordinances such as those in Grants Pass do not violate the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion that the ban criminalizes the act of camping outdoors, not homelessness. “It makes no difference whether the charged defendant is currently a person experiencing homelessness, a backpacker on vacation or a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building,” he wrote.
That assertion is countered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who argues that the effect still would strip protections from society’s most vulnerable, effectively punishing people for being homeless. The Grants Pass ban authorized fines and potential jail time for “sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow,” she wrote.
What’s needed is both protection of the general public and support for those in dire need.
Honolulu has been grappling with this problem for many years and has made its share of mistakes. Confronted with homeless encampments that had overtaken walkways and various public spaces, the city tried sweeps of these areas. Legal challenges yielded some protection for the homeless: their belongings taken during clearing of sidewalks after a notice period, for example, had to be stored.
The neighbor islands began forging their policies later. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has advocated for the homeless for years here, in March won a Hawaii Supreme Court decision affirming the rights of homeless people to due process from Maui County to reclaim possessions lost in a sweep.
And the issue is working its way through Oahu courts as well. In July last year, the ACLU filed another challenge of policies such as “sit-lie” bans on public spaces, camping bans and property storage in state Circuit Court.
Regardless of the SCOTUS decision on Friday, it’s clear that simply chasing the homeless from public spaces is not the solution.
The homelessness crisis in Hawaii arises from a constellation of problems that are being addressed in myriad ways. There have been the city’s outreach programs in target areas such as Chinatown and Waikiki, health triage clinics and various versions of homeless “kauhale,” or villages.
The latest of these will be unveiled in the coming days in and around the downtown First Hawaiian Bank building. The project will provide 30 tiny homes outside and 30 beds inside where all of the homeless residents can get help from a “fully staffed medical team.” Additionally, 100 more beds will be provided in the Iwilei Center.
“We need to make the streets safe for everybody,” said Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
Right. And even as the court rules that restricting camping in public spaces is justifiable, accommodating those without a roof over their head is just as imperative.
