Honolulu Not Alone in Trying to Move Homeless from Sidewalks
The Honolulu City Council is expected to vote this week on a that would ban people from storing their belongings in public spaces. The bill would allow the city to impound anything left on sidewalks for more than 24 hours or in a park after closing.
If council members give the measure the green light in a scheduled Dec. 7 vote, the city will join a growing list of municipalities that have passed laws affecting homeless living in tents and sleeping bags on the sidewalk.
National advocates for the homeless say cities across the country have passed measures in recent years restricting homeless from living in parks and on sidewalks. But Honolulu鈥檚 type of proposed ban 鈥 on storing property in public 鈥 is less widespread.
鈥淚 would say it鈥檚 not common, but it is a growing trend,鈥 said Heather Johnson, a civil rights attorney for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
The advocates say property storage bans have become part of a tool kit of laws cities have used to keep homeless from settling in parks and sidewalks. Another popular measure is the so-called “sit-lie” law, which prevents people from sitting or lying down on the sidewalk.
Council member Tulsi Gabbard, who sponsored Honolulu’s sidewalk property storage bill, told Civil Beat in October that the measure would affect more than just the homeless 鈥 such as businesses that store goods outside and people who leave motorcycles in public places for weeks.
But in , the ACLU called the law an “attack on the homeless.”
Here’s a list of other cities that have passed laws aimed at keeping homeless from living on certain sidewalks:
| City | Year Passed | The Law |
|---|---|---|
| St. Petersburg, Fla. |
After giving 36 hours advance written notice, the city may property left in public places and throw it away if not claimed in 30 days. Panhandling also prohibited downtown and in a variety of other places. | |
| St. Petersburg, Fla. |
2007 | People sleeping on sidewalks may be for a violation if an officer knows of available shelter space in St. Petersburg or within three miles of the city. If there is open space, a police officer may “afford the person the opportunity to be transported to the shelter.” |
| Reno, Nev. | 2010 | People from sitting or lying down on sidewalks in the city’s downtown. |
| Portland, Ore. | 2010 | Between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., no person the eight-foot-wide “pedestrian use zone” of a sidewalk for anything but walking. |
| San Francisco | 2010 | No person may on a public sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Violators receive warning on first offense, $50 to $500 fine on subsequent violations or possible jail time. |
| Anchorage | 2011 | People sit or lie down on the sidewalk in the downtown district between 6 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on weekdays, and between 6 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. on weekends. Violators face a fine up to $100. Panhandling also prohibited in downtown district, bus stops, sidewalk cafes or near ATMs. |
San Francisco and the ‘Sit-Lie’ Ordinances
San Francisco became a battleground for one such ordinance last year, when voters considered a ballot proposition that banned people from sitting or lying on the sidewalk.
Many merchants in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood 鈥 a hub for tourists and homeless 鈥 supported the proposition, according to and homeless advocates.
Voters approved the measure November 2010.
Bob Offer-Westort, a community organizer with San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, said the law was just the latest to impact the homeless in the city.
鈥淭here was very little that it made illegal that wasn鈥檛 already illegal,鈥 he said. 鈥淧olice have had 鈥 for many years 鈥 enough laws to keep homeless people moving along on a constant basis.鈥
Between January and September, San Francisco police issued 198 citations for violations of the new ordinance, police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak said.
Police reported 832 incidents connected with the new rule, which Andraychak said could include both citations and warnings.
Advocates say these ordinances don’t help homeless leave the streets for better lives, but instead feed them into jails for missed court dates and unpaid citations.
In other cities, “sit-lie” laws are even older. A to the Los Angeles municipal code reads, “No person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public way.”
Legal Challenges
That’s not to say such laws aren’t controversial. Several have been challenged in court.
In June, a federal judge issued an injunction stopping Los Angeles from confiscating a homeless person’s property from the sidewalk unless it is abandoned, considered a threat to public health or is evidence in a suspected crime, according to Johnson, with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Johnson said plaintiffs argued the law violated the Fourth Amendment protection against search and seizure and the Fourteenth Amendment’s promised due process rights.
She said the ruling will now go to the 9th Circuit.
The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty challenged St. Petersburg’s property storage ban in court. The suit made it to the , which upheld a lower court ruling that left the law untouched. But the court allowed the center to move forward on a related challenge involving an ordinance that allows city employees to issue trespassing warnings to people in public places.
