The city approach to homeless encampments in recent years has followed a somewhat zigzagging path. First, under then-Mayor Kirk Caldwell, the efforts were aimed at clearing them from public spaces, a policy that continues to draw protests from civil-liberties defenders.

The current administration, under Mayor Rick Blangiardi, migrated to a program deploying its Crisis Outreach Response and Empowerment (CORE) teams to address health care and social-service needs.

But the challenge of managing the homelessness crisis in Honolulu — in any city, for that matter — is one of striking a balance among competing demands and limited resources. The Honolulu City Council is now grappling with the imperative to bring another interest group, the schools, into city calculations.

The Council’s Public Safety Committee last week advanced a resolution seeking to expand enforcement of the so-called “sit-lie” ordinances — which enable law enforcement to clear public sidewalks in defined, high-priority zones — to school perimeters.

The measure would also seek expansion of the city’s “stored property” law enforcement near schools, thus discouraging encampments from forming there.

The move was prompted by reports from parents who have encountered threatening circumstances while dropping off children on school campuses. In one startling case, the threat came from a homeless couple wielding a knife near Waipahu Elementary School.

There is a rational basis for some form of Resolution 22-253, one that ensures public safety, to get full Council approval.

The proposal is for a pilot program to give safe passage to children surrounding public school campuses. Separately, stiffer penalties also are being proposed, including jail time for homeless people obstructing walkways or threatening pedestrians in Waikiki and other parts of the city.

The case has yet to be made that making the law more expressly punitive would be either justified or effective, especially for lesser offenses such as obstructing pathways. The point, though, is that the public needs and deserves safe and free passage in public spaces, and the city does have a public interest in providing greater safety to more critical areas.

The Council asks in the resolution that the city managing director collaborate with the Honolulu Police Department to provide a written plan for stepping up enforcement of the sit-lie and stored-property ordinances near Oahu’s public schools, from preschools to high schools.

Not surprisingly, state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi supports the idea. Tapping state funds for a city enforcement program could be problematic, especially given the Department of Education is a statewide system and funding an Oahu-only program would be seen as inequitable.

But the state should find some way to support the program — perhaps by amplifying surveillance of problem areas, or through some other collaborative means. For starters, the Council’s proposed initiative underscores the importance for lawmakers and the new governor to provide resources for more homelessness shelter capacity, where those camped out could be directed.

More important: It also appears there’s some concurrence from the Blangiardi administration, which is a hopeful sign. Anton Krucky, director of the city Department of Community Services, testified that enforcement of the ordinances is defensible as a matter of public health and sanitation.

He added that more resources are needed for expanded enforcement, and that increased outlay of funds would be clearly warranted.

The pursuit of long-term solutions for homelessness take time, but the safety of children heading to and from school demands attention, now.