Report says Honolulu
has a mean streak

A study takes the city to task for
the way it handles the homeless

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Honolulu has been named one of the 12 "meanest" cities in the country for its treatment of homeless people, according to a study released yesterday by two national homeless advocacy groups.

The National Coalition for the Homeless and The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty studied 80 communities across the country and found 80 percent had laws prohibiting camping and sleeping in public areas, even though none of the communities had enough shelter beds to meet demand.

Their report is called "Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States."

Representatives from Honolulu's Affordable Housing Alliance and Health Care for the Homeless commented for the study.

The advocacy groups used as examples unsuccessful attempts by Hawaii lawmakers to pass laws that would make it illegal for people to camp or sleep on benches in city parks and state facilities.

The report also pointed out that many people were displaced when Aala Park was closed for renovations and the airport began cordoning off areas where many homeless people had slept.

" I think the comments are unfortunate and unfair and don't reflect (Mayor Jeremy Harris) administration's long-standing commitment to help the homeless find housing, social services and job training," said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.

Costa said the city Department of Community Services will be sending a letter to the advocacy groups expressing its sadness that it was not given the opportunity to comment on the study before it was published.

Harris was criticized for trying to build a shelter outside Honolulu and away from social service agencies and refusing to sign a lease for a homeless services building near downtown Honolulu, but Costa pointed out that his administration has put millions of dollars toward homeless services.

Examples include providing funding for the Institute for Human Services emergency shelter's building and expansion, an outreach program for the homeless run through the Honolulu Police Department and shelters for mentally ill and women and children.

The report alleged that homeless people have also been treated as criminals through the city's "Weed and Seed" programs, in which homeless people are cleared out of an area or arrested.

Costa said, however, that the program is targeted at drug users, not the homeless.

The Weed and Seed program won a national Best Practice Award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, she said.

The report was intended to show a pattern of civil-rights violations and unconstitutional behaviors by local government authorities that have economic, social and individual costs for the homeless but do nothing to alleviate the root causes of homelessness.

The so-called "12 Meanest Cities" also included New York; Atlanta; San Francisco; Salt Lake City; Jacksonville, Fla.; Pontiac, Mich.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Baltimore and Palm Beach, Fla. The advocacy groups deemed California the meanest state.

To view the report, visit www.nationalhomeless.org.