The city has begun collecting personal items of the homeless from public sidewalks that they have turned into encampments. City officials started warning squatters last week that they needed to move their items and began impounding those that remained the following day. Abrupt as it might seem, the action is important in reclaiming public areas such as sidewalks and parks for all to use, as intended.
"I understand it is an emotional subject," City Councilman Tulsi Gabbard said a month ago after Mayor Peter Carlisle signed her proposal into law, allowing officials to remove personal property stored in public areas.
The effort includes important, needed measures that provide help to the homeless. Campers were given pink, wallet-size "Oahu Homeless Help Card" listing numerous social services agencies and phone numbers where they can find shelter, medical and mental health care, housing and alcohol or drug counseling.
The bottom line is that people have found it disturbing to walk on sidewalks and enjoy city parks because of tents and shopping carts that discourage their intended use. Previous proposals to ban people from sleeping or lying down on public sidewalks ran into problems describing specific, unintended activities to be banned.
Ideally, those affected by the dismantling of homeless camps would be directed to shelters where they can recuperate and receive help to achieve at least temporary housing, but that is not always easy.
After camping in front of Old Stadium Park for the past year and a half, having being evicted from an apartment, laid-off tour driver Van Apolo told the Star-Advertiser’s Gregg K. Kakesako that he and his girlfriend are on a five-week waiting period for housing at the Next Step Shelter in Kakaako. Among other things, he must find a place to store his personal items.
Campers were given notices that their impounded property would be inventoried, with matching photos taken the previous day, put in gray garbage bins, taken to the city’s Halawa base yard and be kept there until claimed.
However, a provision of the ordinance requires that the owner pay for "moving, storage and other related fees and costs" of their impounded property. The items are to be "disposed of" if not claimed within 30 days. Those items can be precious, sometimes needed for job interviews or medical care but difficult for a homeless person to carry around.
The threatened disposal of personal belongings is a questionable part of the ordinance. Programs in various mainland cities have recognized the importance of providing storage of the personal belongings of the homeless, even maintaining access, as they struggle to reenter society.
That provision might warrant a second look. Otherwise, the ordinance stands to be beneficial in keeping public spaces sanitary and clear — while nudging the homeless toward temporary shelters, transitional housing and help toward recovery.
