Take care in enforcing camping ban in parks

THE ISSUE The City Council has approved a proposed repair of an ordinance to let police enforce a ban on camping in city parks.

Honolulu police have been hamstrung in trying to enforce a city ordinance that prohibits camping in city parks and beaches without a permit. Flaws in the ordinance have been corrected, but police and the city Parks Department will need to use discretion to avoid creating chaos among the homeless.

The state Supreme Court struck down the old ordinance that banned camping because it wasn't precise in what was meant by using a park illegally "for living accommodations." The City Council added language last week aimed a defining the illegal activity more clearly, although it might be challenged in court.

The city allows camping with a permit at 15 locations, but Kapiolani Park is not one of them, and the number of tents seen at that park has increased from 20 to 50 in the past two months, according to Waikiki resident Mark Dougherty. The city has closed some parks at night to prevent the homeless from using them as dwelling places but does not want to do the same at Kapiolani.

Shelters have openings for homeless families but not for singles, and homeless men appear to be the prime residents of Kapiolani Park. Police action evicting them from the park is "just gong to chase them from one place to another, and they're just going to pick up and move," Utu Langi, manager of H-5, which provides services for the homeless at Kakaako emergency shelter, told the Star-Bulletin's Leila Fujimori. "They just don't have anywhere to go."

The city and state will be challenged to find homeless shelters for those who continue to stay overnight at Kapiolani Park, with nowhere else to go.