HONOLULU — Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has expanded the city’s sit-lie ban to commercial districts outside Waikiki, signing the bill in Chinatown surrounded by business owners who welcomed the change.
The bill prohibits sitting and lying down on sidewalks in commercial districts including downtown Honolulu, Chinatown, Kaimuki, Kapahulu, Kailua, Kaneohe and Waipahu.
“This bill is about keeping our sidewalks open for people to do their business, for pedestrians to walk on and for businesses to get their deliveries made; to use them for the intent they were designed for — not to sit on, not to lie on, but to walk on,” Caldwell said.
The bill, which went into effect Tuesday, prohibits reclining on sidewalks between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. It follows a ban passed for Waikiki in September that Caldwell said has “worked miracles” in the tourist hot spot.
The police department will begin enforcing the law in Chinatown and downtown, two areas that have received the most complaints from business owners, Caldwell said, starting with a two-week education phase. Business owners have complained that they’re unable to open shops in the morning because of people lying across the entryways and that they’ve had to clean up human waste in front of their stores.
“This is a great first step for cleaning up the area for businesses to prosper and rejuvenate again,” said Howard Lum, representing the Chinatown Community Center Association.
Advocates for the homeless said they fear that the law will make it harder for homeless people to get out poverty, pushing them into different areas and sometimes leaving them with fines they can’t afford to pay.
An estimated 80 to 100 additional homeless people are living in Honolulu’s Kakaako neighborhood since the Waikiki ban went into effect, said Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery. The prohibitions are making it harder for homeless families to find stability and services, she said.
“It doesn’t give them any incentive to take shelter or give any services,” Xian said. “It just hurts them.”
In Waikiki, 262 warnings and 72 citations have been issued since the ban there went into effect, and two people were arrested, Honolulu Assistant Police Chief Clayton Kau said. The citations carry a fine up to $1,000 and up to 30 days in jail, but penalties are at the discretion of a judge, said Donna Leong, corporation counsel for Honolulu.
“We can’t speculate as to how people are going to pay for fines,” Caldwell said. “This happens every day. People are cited for violating our park-closure rules. The process is much the same.”
The city estimates that more than 4,700 people are homeless on Oahu, and about 1,600 are without shelter. But the number of shelter beds available nightly falls well below the need, advocates said.
“I’m confident as we go forward there will be enough space,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell’s administration is pushing hard for Housing First, a program that will provide permanent housing units for the chronically homeless on Oahu. The city is working to find housing for 115 households in Chinatown, Downtown, Waikiki and the Waianae coast, said Jun Yang, executive director for the city’s Office of Housing.
It’s using limited resources and shelter space in hard-hit areas and encouraging people to seek help at shelters, Caldwell said.
“Seven homeless killed seven homeless in the last 12 months or so,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”