HONOLULU — The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday approved several measures aimed at moving homeless people out of tourist hotspots, including one that bans sitting and lying down on sidewalks in the popular Waikiki neighborhood. ADVERTISING HONOLULU — The Honolulu
HONOLULU — The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday approved several measures aimed at moving homeless people out of tourist hotspots, including one that bans sitting and lying down on sidewalks in the popular Waikiki neighborhood.
A bill prohibiting urinating and defecating in public on the island of Oahu also passed, but the push to prevent homeless people from resting on sidewalks throughout the island failed.
The council was under pressure from the tourism industry to act, with hotel representatives saying visitors complain often about safety and waste.
Alan Naito, general manager of Ohana Waikiki East Hotel, said he regularly sends his employees to clean up urine and feces in a nearby park where he recently saw someone drop their pants in broad daylight.
“It’s a very important photo-op area with the Princess Kaiulani statue,” Naito said of the heir to the throne of Hawaii’s monarchy when it was overthrown in 1893.
But critics said the proposals will criminalize homelessness instead of providing assistance to vulnerable people.
“We’re helping the public to view the homeless as faceless people — not even people, but objects to sweep away,” said Councilman Breene Harimoto, who voted against all the proposals except the ban on urinating and defecating in Waikiki. “I’m very disturbed by this.”
The city also is planning a temporary legal campsite on a remote, mostly industrial island far from resorts. Some of Oahu’s estimated 4,700 homeless people would be allowed to camp on Sand Island, which was used during World War II as an internment camp for Japanese-Americans and is home to a wastewater treatment plant and former dump.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration is planning to implement Housing First, a program that will provide permanent housing units for the chronically homeless on Oahu. But it will be about a year before people can move into permanent housing, said Caldwell spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke.
The approved bills now go to Caldwell for his approval.
