[ OUR OPINION ]
Homeless problem
can’t be swept away
by brooms and mopsTHE city's problem at Ala Moana Beach Park isn't so much about dirty bathrooms and trash, but the chronic issue of how to help the homeless people who inhabit public areas because they have no place else to go.
THE ISSUE The city has begun thrice-weekly sweeps through Ala Moana park to clear homeless people from the area.
Herding indigent individuals from one place to the next merely defers solutions. Finding answers requires provisions on a number of fronts, including mental health services, long- and short-term housing, drug and alcohol treatment and compassion for those who have fallen on hard times. Hawaii's leaders must find the political will to confront the issue instead of continuing to evict the homeless from beneath bridges, parks, beaches, store fronts and freeway underpasses.
Community organizations such as the Institute for Human Services do what they can to feed, house, clothe and counsel people, but the homeless oftentimes need more help than these groups can provide. Many have mental health and substance abuse problems that require long-term care. Others shun shelters already jammed with people.
Among the homeless are many who lost their jobs after the terrorist attacks. An exact counting of indigent people is elusive, but they are believed to number at least 3,000 men, women and children on Oahu alone. After the city cleared Fort Street Mall, Aala and Waimanalo parks and other areas where homeless people had gathered, many moved to Ala Moana. At times, scores set up sleeping bags along the walkways or huddled under trees and bushes.
City officials say park users complained that the homeless created unsanitary conditions in restrooms, monopolized the grounds and intimidated them. "We're not going to turn our public beach parks into homeless villages," said managing director Ben Lee, explaining why the city will be running midnight sweeps through Ala Moana three times a week during the next six weeks. "We must send a message that they can't monopolize park facilities."
Lee says the city is "still working on long-term solutions." That's well and good, but the administration that has occupied City Hall for eight years has primarily focused its efforts on shuffling the homeless from here to there and back again. Last year, a study by two national homeless advocacy groups chose Honolulu as one of the 12 "meanest" cities in the country for its treatment of the indigent.
The city disputes that label and says it has provided funds for IHS and other programs. However, city officials have done little to address the root causes of homelessness. Without focus and leadership, they will have to continue the midnight shuffles.
Related article:
Illegal campers, homeless spur sweep of park
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Keep cruise ships free
from hotel room taxHAWAII legislators tempted to tax anything that moves have been able to resist the urge to commit piracy on the high seas by imposing the state hotel room tax on cruise ships. Some hotel companies are under the flawed impression that the ships compete with them for guests. Instead, the ships are an addition to Hawaii's tourism industry that should be welcomed at the ports, not slapped with excessive taxes.
THE ISSUE A proposal to require cruise ships to pay the state's hotel room tax is rejected.
The state Senate Tourism Committee voted to kill a measure that would have made cruise ships pay the state's 7.25 percent hotel room tax. On the same day last week, Congress approved a bill allowing Norwegian Cruise Line to sail foreign-built ships under a U.S. flag in island waters without having to stop at a foreign port. Senator Inouye successfully tucked the measure into a federal spending bill.
Norwegian's first U.S.-flagged ship is expected to create 700 jobs and bring $85 million a year in wages into the state. In a short time, Norwegian will operate three ships interisland, producing 3,000 seafaring jobs and generating millions of dollars in payroll taxes. Norwegian Star, Hawaii's only year-round home-ported ship, pays about $60,000 a week to the state in port entry, dockage and other fees, according to the state's shipping agency. In addition, cruise ships pay state fuel taxes and general excise taxes.
A room tax would be difficult if not impossible to apply to cruise ships. The $600 to $1,300 that guests pay for seven-day cruises includes not only the room but meals and entertainment. No other state that charges a room tax on hotels has tried to apply the tax to the cruise industry, according to Tom Smyth of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Cruise ships in Hawaiian waters compete with cruises in the Caribbean, Mexico, Alaska and elsewhere, not with Hawaii hotels. Cruise passengers generally spend several days in the islands before and after their cruise, staying at hotels.
"I think that people who want to go on cruise ships will go on a cruise," said Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, chairwoman of the Tourism Committee. "If we tax them out of the market and they don't come anymore, it'll affect everybody."
Related article:
Cruise room tax dies
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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