Louise Jane Brown cries on the sidewalk of Kalakaua Avenue as she recounts a recent assault and other horrors that she has experienced living homeless in Waikiki.
"Shut it," yells a nearby homeless man, whose waste-covered feet are swarmed by flies.
While others in the group of homeless people whom Brown calls "family" are more respectful of her plight, none offers any comfort.
"No one wants to live in this situation," said Brown. "It’s horrible. Someone stole my clothes. They’ve taken my ID. I’ve lost everything."
Brown didn’t report the crimes to the police, but city officials say they are well aware that Waikiki is becoming a hot spot for criminal activity, including violent crimes committed by and against the homeless.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha said they are pushing back to make the community safe and accessible for all. In doing so, they say, police have begun to round up hundreds of offenders, some of whom have violated court orders or are committing crimes while living in makeshift communities throughout Waikiki.
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CRIME AND THE HOMELESS
Out of the 439 homeless people surveyed during the Oahu 100,000 Homes Vulnerability Study:
>> 113 (25.7 percent) reported having been in prison.
>> 291 (66.3 precent) reported having been in jail.
>> 114 (25.9 percent) reported being a victim of violence since becoming homeless.
WAIKIKI’S POPULATION
>> The 108 people surveyed in Waikiki made up 24.6 percent of all Oahu homeless people surveyed.
>> A quarter of Oahu’s 100 most chronically homeless individuals — typically those with harder-to-solve health and social issues — were residing in Waikiki.
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Source: 100,000 Homes Hawaii, 2012
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"What’s been happening recently is that we’ve been receiving a lot of complaints about homeless starting to commit more violent crimes," Kealoha said. "We had a couple of homeless-on-homeless homicides this year. We’ve seen some copper thefts, and we’ve seen homeless extort each other."
In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week, Kealoha said the darker side of homelessness turned into a high-profile police issue with the recent deaths of several Oahu homeless men.
Police also began to pay more attention to homeless communities in Waikiki and elsewhere following the discovery during cleanups of the Nimitz viaduct area that a strong criminal culture was mixed into some of the island’s homeless communities, he said.
"Homeless individuals are very, very vulnerable," Kealoha said. "If you look at the recent Kailua homicide, the guy was homeless and ended up getting stabbed."
Scott MacMillan was killed Jan. 13 in Kailua.
Kealoha added that the death of Jullie Stephenson from injuries suffered in a brutal purse-snatching outside her Waikiki condo in February elevated the tourist district to a crime hot spot.
As a result, Kealoha said police, often in plain clothes, have stepped up enforcement against crimes such as defying park closures, sidewalk obstruction, aggressive panhandling, street performing or public drinking.
This allows officers to ask an individual for identification, which they can check against outstanding warrants, he added.
"Our presence and our enforcement actions serve as a warning that we are out there and watching," he said. "We want crime-free streets."
Kealoha said police are casting a wide net, not just targeting homeless.
Police historically have cited more residents than homeless individuals or tourists for violating park closure hours. However, Kealoha noted that in a sweep of Waikiki during a late-April weekend, many of the 195 people arrested were homeless.
"We picked people up for everything from outstanding warrants to drug charges and alcohol violations," Kealoha said. "There’s no law against being homeless, but when you commit a crime, that’s when the police get involved. Don’t commit crimes or you’ll get arrested."
That the high arrest toll occurred in such a small area was significant since on any given day only about 300 arrests are made islandwide, Kealoha said. In comparison, fewer arrests were made during two sweeps conducted with more personnel in a larger region that included Kalihi and parts of the west side, said Deputy Chief Marie McCauley.
"We had 139 arrests in an area that went from Kalihi to parts of Honolulu, Pearl City and Aiea," she added.
Kealoha said a similar effort in all of Pearl City netted 70 arrests and 118 citations.
For Waikiki Neighborhood Board Vice Chairman Walt Flood, the high arrest numbers prove that Waikiki has reached a tipping point.
"It’s really bad news to hear about so many criminals hanging out in Waikiki," Flood said. "I have never been to a resort destination filled with such filth, trash, homeless yelling and intimidating pedestrians, and such absolute indifference by law enforcement."
And some in the area are unsatisfied that enough is being done.
Mark Howard, a Waikiki resident and principal broker and president of Hawai‘i Americana Realty, said he’s been frustrated by the lack of response from government officials and police to neighborhood complaints.
"My neighborhood is Kalakaua and Kapahulu," Howard said. "I go to Starbucks and the ABC Store, where there is a constant stream of drunken homeless individuals buying alcohol. I literally have to step over them when they are passed out in the street, and just recently I saw a rat run out from a homeless individual’s belongings on Kapahulu. Where is the enforcement? And why does it take the city’s Department of Facility Maintenance two weeks to respond in Waikiki, the state’s crown jewel?"
Those sentiments were echoed by Patrick Springer, a frequent visitor to Oahu, who said his most recent March visit to Waikiki was frightening.
"My wife and I live in Boston, so we aren’t strangers to the challenges of urban life," he said. "However, the number of individuals sleeping rough or permanently camped was mind-blowing. But the thing that struck us was the ambivalence of other residents and the lack of concern from elected officials."
It might be just a start, but Caldwell said he’s seen a difference since police expanded their efforts, just one aspect of the city’s initiatives that are mostly centered around the Housing First plan. The multimillion-dollar program focuses on getting the state’s most chronically homeless individuals into permanent housing and providing the services to keep them there.
State Homeless Coordinator Colin Kippen commended Caldwell’s Housing First push but said he’s unsure about the overall effectiveness of this latest enforcement strategy, which whisks homeless people from the streets and into the court system.
"My understanding is that it costs $47,000 a year just in housing costs for someone to be in jail in Hawaii, while you could house someone in an apartment for less than $14,000 a year," he said. "If you were to look at some of the warrants, some of the reasons that they might be issued are for homeless — doing things like urinating in public and other activities — that reasonably should be expected because they are unsheltered."
While Caldwell acknowledged that enforcement isn’t the solution to homelessness, he views police as the means to getting the city to a better place.
"Recently I’ve seen the more highly visible areas of Waikiki start to look better, and I give the credit to our men and women in blue to a large part," he said. "They are going to where there is a criminal element, and they are moving because they don’t want to be caught, bothered, cited or arrested."
Other city enforcement strategies include campaigning for new laws against public defecation and urination and a new variation of the defeated Bill 59, a measure that was patterned after San Francisco’s sit-and-lie bill, which gave police the tools to ban sitting or lying on sidewalks during certain hours.
"We’ve been working closely with the Mayor’s Office to strike a legal balance that allows us to keep our public sidewalks open for all the public to use," said City Councilman Stanley Chang.
Caldwell and Kealoha say Honolulu’s current laws and resources are limiting. For instance, Honolulu does not have laws against loitering, vagrancy or public intoxication, although there are laws prohibiting public drinking and disorderly conduct.
And while Honolulu has a law against aggressive panhandling, it applies only if the behavior happens within 10 feet of an ATM, a facility with an ATM or a check-cashing business.
But Kealoha said police are working with the city to find creative ways to address these issues.
"For the police department to say that there’s nothing that we can do is unacceptable," he said. "We have to work collectively to see where the barriers and challenges are, and we have to find solutions now. We can’t wait until we pass laws."
Still, expanded laws and more housing opportunities would make a difference, Deputy Chief McCauley said.
"As the mayor suggested, a sit-and-lie law would help. Right now they have to totally obstruct the sidewalk for us to move them. We can check on welfare and suggest that they move out of the way, but to keep people from lying down on the sidewalk, we need something legislated."
McCauley said officers do refer homeless people to places where they can get help, but many don’t like the shelters or rules.
"If they had another place to go like Housing First, it might help," she said.
