Ige seeks more funds for sweeps
Gov. David Ige will ask the state Legislature for money to beef up the state sheriff’s office and create permanent teams to help cope with homeless encampments that continue to spring up on state lands.
In an interview with Honolulu Star-Advertiser editors and reporters Friday, Ige said he will ask lawmakers to establish programs similar to the existing city programs for conducting homeless sweeps, including “a community policing group that would help with enforcement on state lands.”
He said he will also pursue a process for storing property belonging to the homeless, and a system for disposing of trash left behind at cleared encampments.
“We do know now that pretty much like the city, we have to go through and on a consistent basis enforce laws on state property,” he said. Homeless people often know which lands are state lands, and sometimes avoid city sweeps simply by moving to state property, he said.
The state currently uses temporarily assigned transportation workers and sheriff’s employees to clear and clean encampments, but Ige said he plans to establish two teams that would essentially work full time doing enforcement and clearing state property.
He declined to be more specific, saying state officials are still working out details such as how many workers will be required and how much the effort will cost.
Ige said one of his focuses is “to ensure that we have shelter space available before we go through ‘compassionate disruption,’” using a term that city officials use to describe their efforts to clear homeless camp sites.
“We want to make sure that we have an offer for each and every homeless (person) of somewhere to go,” Ige said.
Ige’s proposal to create the new teams as part of a strategy of “compassionate disruption” was immediately criticized by Victor Geminiani, co-executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice.
He said efforts to push homeless people from place to place have not been successful and do not have the support of social service providers or the public.
“They have centered on ‘compassionate disruption,’ which may be disruption, but there’s not a lot of compassion from the perspective of the person that’s being moved from place to place to place, nor for their kids that are being moved from place to place to place,” Geminiani said.
“Who supports this except a few politicians looking for an easy out, a way they can say they’re doing something?” he asked. “And they’re going to come back, and a year from now you’re going to have the same problem you have today; it’s going to be just as visible.”
Geminiani said there will be a continuous stream of homeless forced into Hawaii’s parks and public places as long as the cost of living and housing are among the highest in the nation and wages are among the lowest after factoring in cost of living.
“You have some basic structural issues that the government, the Legislature, the administration have to really start to grapple with in a serious way,” he said.
Daniel Gluck, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, said there are still nearly 2,000 men, women and children sleeping outdoors in Honolulu every night, and only a handful of shelter beds.
“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem, and simply shuffling people from place to place — while seizing whatever meager shelter and belongings they have — helps no one,” Gluck said in a written statement. “The people of Hawaii would be better served if the state invested its limited resources in proven solutions like emergency shelters, transitional housing and low-income housing, rather than trying to criminalize the status of homelessness with heavy-handed and unconstitutional practices.”
Ige said he is not planning to copy the city’s controversial sit-lie ban, which prohibits people from camping out or sleeping on some public property, and stressed his administration is pursuing other ways to help the homeless.
Those include providing new temporary shelters such as a Kakaako maintenance shed that is being overhauled to create a new shelter, and extending contracts with service providers to deliver more resources, he said.
Ige said the state is also considering partnerships with the city and private citizens to establish hygiene stations where the homeless can shower, use the toilet and access lockers for storage. Those approaches have worked in some other jurisdictions, he said.
He also pointed to the state’s recent homeless summit to encourage landlords to rent to the homeless, which drew 80 property owners who are willing to step up to the task. He also suggested he plans to announce an initiative next month to cope with mental illness, which is a significant contributor to homelessness.
The long-term challenge is to build more affordable housing or affordable rentals, he said.
“We know that we still have shelter space available in existing providers, so it’s not really a lack of shelter space per se that’s the challenge,” Ige said. “It’s really about getting out and talking with them and making sure that they understand that there are alternatives to being out on the street.”
He added, “Homelessness is a complex challenge. Some of them just flat-out will not move into a shelter even if offered that opportunity. It’s not illegal to be homeless.”
16 responses to “Ige seeks more funds for sweeps”
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Need more cops to deal with homeless, move in the right direction. As Honolulu becomes more of a welfare state, other states will send them here. Warm weather all year round, large distance between Hawaii are big selling points. Other states that have criminals with outstanding warrants will not extradite if not boarding state that issue the warrant. Hawaii does not boarder any. Bet lots of homeless from the mainland have warrants and state that issued will not extradite. Crimes also include welfare fraud, theft, burglary…..mental institution escapees…..kind of like the guy that ranaway from Kaneohe mental hospital, made his way to the Big Island, laid low for a few years then killed his roommate. Yup going need more cops at both the State level and County level.
How are we supposed to arrest our way out of increasing poverty, a nonliving minimum wage, and zero affordable housing? That’s absurd. You are blaming the victim and lion zing the abuser.
I am referring to out of State people and take it any way you want…outsiders and useless are a burden to the rest.
You sound like a socialist, may I remind you that we are capitalist, no like go it, some place else.
lol, We are not a purely capitalistic society. Socialism was added to our economy long ago. So perhaps it is you who needs to move? Good luck in finding a purely capitalistic society worth living in.
Nah, just gotta wait it out, big cities are headed down the pathway of self destruction. OBAMA got a rude awakening when he went to Roseburg, Oregon and saw all the gun supporters telling him to go home, I5 up to the campus. I was there. Same attitude on the outside Islands.
They’re called vagrancy laws, and they should be enforced and applied to all.
Governor Ige says it is not a crime to be homeless. So why do you need more cops? It’s because though they breezily assert it is not a crime to be homeless, government is making it a crime to be anywhere while poor. So as long as you do not need to sleep, sit, feed or clothe your kids, eat, or take a pee, it is not a crime to be homeless. It’s literally kafkaesque, and a sad day for Hawaii.
No, but homeless steal, who you think is stealing all the copper ? Go check under the Nimitz highway, they even got moped chop shop there. How about increased theft, burglary, and criminal tampering(guys dumping s… in U.S. mail boxes).
Honolulu needs more homeless from the mainland. At least I can count on them to speak English. Between the Japanese tourist and the other immigrants from around the world, it is harder and harder to find any one here that speaks it.
More cops are always not the answer. Very poor prosecutors (if they even bother to prosecute and then run to a plea deal), very poor judges who give out probation like candy are the problem. Many of our criminals have 30 or more arrests and convictions and are still running around. There are 4 convicted cop killers released on Oahu right now walking the streets. Cops do a good job generally but are let down after arrest.
Let’s have Honolulu continue to impose more fees upon us, such as the HI5 soda can fee, and the proposed moped safety check fee. Both of these fees are just a disguised as to help the community and the environment, when it really is only about the revenues.
Instead of duplicating city efforts and programs, the state and city should be pooling their available resources and working together toward the common goal of ending homelessness in Hawaii.
Ige is always looking for ways to direct more taxpayer money to the special interest groups that support him. In this case it’s the public worker unions, a group that is never satisfied and always looking to expand pay and membership at the expense of everyone else.
Before Ige is given one cent of taxpayer’s money, he must answer these questions:
– Define “Permanent homeless cleanup team.” If you are talking more state employees hired, sorry, not going to happen. Least thing we need is more state workers on the dole. Solve it with temps so no long term liability to the state.
– Check with the courts if the state can charge the homeless a “Fair storage fee” to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the storage facility. Everyone must pay their fair share to include homeless. Payment can vary by each person’s ability to pay.
Good start but a loooooong way to go.
Is a Meow an acceptable answer from our elected one?
State could always jack up the HI5 fee to a HI10 fee?