HONOLULU — As states and municipalities across the country push forward with sweeps of encampments in the month after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling granted officials new authority to police homelessness, the city says enforcement actions conducted on O‘ahu should not be deemed to be the same thing.
“The city does not conduct homeless sweeps,” Scott Humber, the mayor’s director of communications, told The Honolulu Star- Advertiser via email.
Instead, Humber said the city follows its stored property ordinance, which “is a sanitation action, not a homeless enforcement action, and we generally do not target any geographic area.”
Likewise, Anton Krucky, city Department of Community Services director, said that “it is important to recognize that the city and this administration do not consider the enforcement and cleanup activities a homeless program.”
“They are enforcement of city street ordinance, park rules and an effort to maintain sanitation in our public areas,” Krucky said. “We do not target any geographical area or individuals.”
He added that “most are driven by citizen complaints and regular maintenance of areas.”
And Krucky asserted there’s no plan to ramp up any enforcement programs on O‘ahu. “We have the same resources and schedules for these at this time,” he said.
However, he noted that the city is in partnership with the state of Hawai‘i to enforce laws.
“In terms of the enforcement and cleanup activities, we do partner with the state, especially where the locations involved include both state and city property,” Krucky said. “More importantly, we are in an unprecedented time of cooperation between the state and city.”
He added from January 2024 to January 2025, “our goal will be to bring 1,000 bed usages into service, with services of different kinds to help individuals and families in their journeys and out of dangerous living situations.”
“Most of our services are in urban Honolulu,” Krucky said. “We are constantly looking at distributing these services around the island. We want to bring the services to where the people are.”
He said the city is “looking at creative solutions for beds of many varieties to get individuals and families off the street and into clean sheets.”
“We analyze locations, bed types and personnel needed to oversee each of those solutions,” he said. “Examples would include HONU at Blaisdell Park, future locations in Wahiawa at 360 California Ave., Hauula; and more services are being planned for the Waianae and Nanakuli area.”
The Star-Advertiser previously reported that based on the latest Point in Time Count data released in May, the number of homeless people on O‘ahu increased for the second year in a row — to 4,494 in January — with the greatest increase among those considered “unsheltered,” meaning they were not staying in homeless shelters.
The latest figure represents an 11.6 percent jump from 2023’s count.
