“It’s time to declare a war on homelessness, which is evolving into a crisis in Honolulu… we cannot let homelessness ruin our economy and take over our city,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell recently wrote in the the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii’s leading local news source.
Last year, there were 6,335 homeless people in Hawaii out of a total population of 1.4 million, according to federal statistics. Sixty six percent of the state’s homeless people are unsheltered, making Hawaii’s population of unsheltered individuals second only to California’s on a national scale.
According tothe New York Times, the rate of homelessness in Honolulu rose 32 percent over the past five years, a statistic that helped prompt a harsh police crackdown.
Some Hawaiian civic leaders contend that the problem of homelessness – or rather, visible homelessness – could lead to the financial downfall of the island state because the Hawaiian economy relies so heavily on tourism.
“When visitors come here, they want to see their paradise,” Caldwell said in an interview with the Times. “They don’t want to see homeless people sleeping in parks or on sidewalks or on the beach.”
Honolulu officials report that they regularly dispose of tons of unclaimed property left in public places by homeless people in an attempt to clean up the city’s image. Officials also regularly ticket the homeless with fines.
In addition, officials have implemented new public park hours and banned tents and other temporary shelters in public spaces.
Jerry Jones, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the crackdown in the state of Hawaii, typically known for its easy-going nature and friendly disposition, is “as bad as we’ve seen it recently.”
Last month the city council authorized a $47 million low-housing program to relocate the homeless population to homes in less popular tourist destinations. It also debated legislation that would enable officials to rouse any person sleeping in a public space.
“We haven’t eliminated the visual impact of homelessness… I want to do this in a constitutional way, a human way, but I want to do it. We need to do it,” Caldwell said.
