The ACLU has issued a letter to Hawaii County demanding that it stop evicting homeless encampments without providing adequate shelter space — or face legal action.
In a letter sent Friday to Mayor Mitch Roth, Police Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz, Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina and Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance, Wookie Kim, legal director of the ACLU of Hawaii, criticized the county’s decision to forcibly evict nearly two dozen homeless people May 24 from the Hale Halawai beach park in Kailua-Kona.
In the letter, Kim cited the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case Martin v. Boise, which ruled that such law enforcement actions are unconstitutional when the county cannot provide adequate shelters.
The eviction, which the county in a press release described as a “park rules enforcement operation,” removed 23 people from camps around the beach park in order to address safety and health concerns.
The sweep took place after signs were posted in the park earlier that month enumerating park rules, which police said gave them the ability to enforce those rules. Police told West Hawaii Today they warned people at the beach park camps about the sweep weeks in advance.
According to a statement from Roth’s office at the time, homeless outreach specialists offered services to the people involved.
The statement claimed that “approximately half of the individuals will be open to accepting the offered services.”
“We understand that enforcement cannot always be the answer, but we also have to ensure that our parks are safe for our local families, especially our keiki, to enjoy,” Roth said in the statement.
According to Kim’s letter, a similar operation is planned for June 7 near the Kona Community Aquatic Center.
Kim called the county’s actions “constitutionally problematic,” stating that legal precedent has affirmed that municipalities cannot criminally sanction homeless people for sleeping in public outdoor spaces when no alternative shelter is available.
“Here — when houseless people in the county have no safe place to go without being subjected to the county’s laws that punish sheltering in public spaces — enforcement actions like the Hale Halawai sweep and the planned sweeps (if the county chooses to move forward with them) violate the mandates of the U.S. and Hawaii constitutions,” Kim wrote.
Kim noted that there are an estimated 725 homeless people on the island on any given night, but there are generally zero vacancies at West Hawaii’s emergency homeless shelters on any given day.
The letter also muses that other county actions — notably the seizure and destruction of homeless people’s personal property during the sweep — also could have violated their constitutional civil rights.
“In light of this, we write with a demand,” Kim’s letter went on.
“The county must stop the planned sweeps unless and until the county either stands up emergency shelter spaces that can adequately house Hawaii County’s houseless community, or designates a safe space where houseless community members can exist without being subject — every single day and every single second — to county enforcement actions.”
The letter concluded that the ACLU has challenged similar enforcement actions on neighbor islands, and requested a response from the county by the end of Monday.
Neither Roth’s office nor Strance’s responded to requests for comment Monday in time for this story.