Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he intends to sign into law a bill approved Friday by the Honolulu City Council expanding the city’s contentious "sit-lie" ordinance into more than 15 business and commercial areas around Oahu.
Caldwell said that an ordinance banning sitting and lying on sidewalks 24 hours a day in Waikiki has been effective since Honolulu police began enforcement Sept. 26. "Sit-lie is working, and I believe it will work in other communities, whether it be in Chinatown or other communities around this island, as long as it is focused in a commercial area or business district where it has the support of the community."
Bill 48, which passed 7-2, would impose restrictions on sitting and lying on sidewalks between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily in business and commercial areas that are identified in 15 maps, broken down by blocks.
Generally those areas are in Chinatown, downtown Honolulu, McCully-Moiliili, Kailua, Wahiawa, Ala Moana-Sheridan, Pawaa, two sections of Kaneohe, Waimanalo, Kapahulu, Waialae, Kahala, Aina Haina and Niu Valley, and two sections of Hawaii Kai.
With homeless advocates decrying the measure as a move to criminalize being out on the streets, and legal issues still up in the air, the measure is almost certain to face legal challenges in court as have previous sidewalk-related ordinances intended to keep people from camping out on sidewalks.
Council members Brandon Elefante and Kymberly Pine voted no, stating they agree with opponents who say the bill criminalizes being homeless.
A majority of Council members, however, said the bill is necessary to ensure city sidewalks are clear for all Oahu residents and assure that businesses are not affected by those blocking access to their shops.
The Caldwell administration lobbied hard for the Waikiki restriction but initially told Council members it wanted to see how the prohibition worked in Waikiki before expanding it into other areas, where it could lead to constitutional concerns.
Similar concerns were raised by Councilman Ron Menor, the bill’s author, who has stated repeatedly that the additional areas added into the bill by his colleagues could make the measure unconstitutional.
Caldwell more recently has changed his tone, stating he would consider signing an islandwide measure if city attorneys were comfortable with it.
On Friday he again spoke of the need for Corporation Counsel Donna Leong’s office to sign off on the bill. "If they say it’s OK, I will sign it into law. I want to sign it into law."
Caldwell said if it were possible, he would expand the sit-lie ban to all of Oahu’s sidewalks, be they in commercial or residential neighborhoods. "As much as I’d like to see it go islandwide, I think we’re constrained by our constitution."
"The bills that have succeeded in challenges around the country have been focused in commercial and business districts … where people are walking a lot to and from, on sidewalks to get to businesses, to get to restaurants, to do their regular business activities," he said.
Council members spent only 20 minutes in session before reaching their decision Friday, after spending hours taking oral testimony and discussing procedural issues on the bill two days earlier.
Elefante, in his first major vote since taking office Wednesday, said, "This bill is bad policy. It does not address the root cause. All it is doing, just like the sit-lie bill in the Waikiki Special District, is move around people. We need to put people in homes with the Housing First program, but it’s going to take time."
The Council approved $45 million in capital improvement funds and $3 million in operating funds earlier this year for Housing First and other homeless and affordable-housing initiatives.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson, who chairs the Zoning and Planning Committee that moved the measure out, said the bill is about equality. Each Honolulu resident "is entitled to free and clear access to sidewalks in our public places," he said. "No one, homeless or not, has more of a right to access our public places than anyone else."
He urged state lawmakers to provide more funding for state hospitals to help those with mental health issues. "I would argue that it’s much more compassionate to have somebody taken to the State Hospital, committed there if necessary, where they can receive the services that they need" than to leave them on the streets, he said.
Menor pleaded again with his colleagues to provide more protection from constitutional attacks. After previously urging other Council members to persuade constituents to submit testimony showing the need for a sit-lie ban in their respective areas, Menor said "we still do not have any testimony on the following areas: Ala Moana-Sheridan, Kaneohe, Waimanalo, Waialae, Kahala and Aina Haina-Niu Valley."
Menor said he believes "it would be sufficient" constitutionally if Council members representing those areas offered comments indicating they have received communications from constituents telling them of disruptions to businesses in their respective areas.
But only Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who represents the Ala Moana-Sheridan areas, spoke specifically about concerns from businesses and residents in her part of the island complaining about people blocking access.
Kobayashi said she feels obligated to support the business owners and residents in her district who’ve been crying out for help. Some business owners have had to hire security, she said. "Even though I don’t like this bill, I have to support it because I must listen to the concerns of the constituents in my area."
Homeless advocate Kathryn Xian, who heads the nonprofit Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said about 80 more people have begun camping in the lower Kakaako region since the Waikiki sit-lie law took effect. That’s proof that rather than pushing people into shelters, the law has forced them into other neighborhoods like Kakaako.
A large encampment of more than 150 people in Kakaako, just makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, was uprooted by a city sidewalk enforcement action Thursday morning. By Friday afternoon most had returned.
ON THE NET:
» To see the final version of Bill 48, go to bit.ly/Bill48FD1.
