Honolulu City Council pushes fines, jail for shopping cart violations
Ian Bauer, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
5 min read
Sep. 10—The Honolulu Police Department would be tasked with enforcing the proposed ordinance if it is approved in subsequent bill readings.
The Honolulu City Council is considering legislation proposing fines and imprisonment to keep supermarket shopping carts on store properties rather than out on city streets, parks or sidewalks.
Introduced by Council member Calvin Say Aug. 28, Bill 49 would see any person convicted for unlawfully using shopping carts on public property fined $500 or sentenced to up to 30 days in jail.
To that end, the City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to pass on first reading the measure, which would prohibit "any person to use, place, leave, or in any other manner, situate a shopping cart in public places."
The Honolulu Police Department would be tasked with enforcing the proposed ordinance if it is approved in subsequent bill readings.
Prior to its vote Wednesday, the Council did not discuss the measure. However, during public comment, resident Natalie Iwasa said she opposed Bill 49.
"Oh gosh, this is clearly intended for the homeless, " she said. "And I'm surprised the (American Civil Liberties Union ) isn't here."
Iwasa added, "Not everybody who has a shopping cart on public property is being a nuisance, " recalling how years ago a local supermarket chain donated a shopping cart to the tennis team at Kaiser High School—a public institution—so that they could more easily pick up tennis balls.
"If this were to become law they wouldn't be allowed to use that shopping cart, " she said. "Now, I don't think that's the intent here, which means we would have selective enforcement ; that is not good public policy."
After the Council meeting, Say told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that his proposed bill was not about the homeless but rather about improving safety in public spaces.
"The bill is not targeting the homeless population or any specific class of individuals ; it is targeting illegal conduct and activity, " Say said via email.
He added that local media reports previously cited businesses who say it costs around $150 to $250 a cart "as some individuals are walking around with multiple carts."
"If we saw anyone walking around with approximately $150 to $500 worth of easily identifiable stolen (goods ), I would hope that law enforcement would enforce that as well, " Say said. "If someone walked out of a retail store without paying for their goods, I believe that should be enforced."
Say acknowledged the state already had a law on the books—Hawaii Revised Statutes 633-16—deeming it illegal to remove shopping carts from store premises.
"This bill supports that existing law once the cart has illegally been removed, " he added. "Shopping carts, when used illegally, create hazards in our public spaces where residents need to have ample and accessible space to walk on our sidewalks and traverse public spaces including parks and to recreate safely."
And Say stressed his bill was not a "solution to the homeless residents " on the island either.
"Those solutions will need to be a multi-agency approach at the state, county and even federal levels that include implementing housing and wrap-around support services for all of the city's vulnerable populations, " he added.
Although he was not immediately familiar with Say's proposed measure, Jongwook "Wookie " Kim, legal director for ACLU Hawaii, told the Star-Advertiser that city legislation—like Bill 49—which attempts "to address issues associated with houselessness through criminal penalties and punishment " is unwarranted.
"We know that criminalizing poverty and homelessness does not keep our community safer, does not help houseless people get housing, it only makes their situation worse, " Kim said.
Meanwhile, Kim noted his organization's legal challenge against the city's treatment of the homeless—including homeless sweeps to remove them from various parts of town—continues.
On Aug. 18, the ACLU filed a legal motion claiming use of such sweeps constitutes cruel or unusual punishment under Hawaii's constitution and should therefore cease immediately via a court order. The motion for a preliminary injunction seeks immediate relief from irreparable harm the ACLU claims is caused by the city's targeted enforcement actions against what the complaint calls "houseless " people, its preferred term.
Scheduled to be heard by the court on Oct. 4, the motion adds to a lawsuit ACLU filed in July challenging enforcement actions that it says also violates the rights of the homeless under the state's constitution.
Filed in 1st Circuit Court on July 26, the ACLU's lawsuit alleges that in the absence of sufficient shelter space, enforcement of "anti-houseless " laws—which include public sleeping bans, park closure rules, displacement laws, sit-lie bans and restrictions on keeping personal belongings and animals—criminalizes what the organization calls "acts of survival that houseless people have no choice but to perform in public spaces."
The lawsuit itself asks for no monetary award.
The suit, filed by the ACLU and California-based civil rights law firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian &Ho, names five homeless plaintiffs but is also aimed at protecting Oahu's more than 2, 300 estimated unsheltered homeless.
Kim also noted the ACLU's lawsuit followed publication July 24 of a Star-Advertiser report detailing how the city tripled its workforce that clears homeless encampments across Oahu day and night, Monday through Friday, with some cleanups on weekends.
At the Oct. 4 court hearing, Kim said plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit will testify before a judge to their "lived reality " as homeless, living unsheltered day to day on Oahu. The city, he added, is expected to counter with its own testimony to the same judge over its handling of the island's homeless population.
"And this idea that every single person who's homeless is a drug addict, is a hardened criminal, is stealing shopping carts for fun, we hope that this will be an opportunity for people to see that not every houseless person is like that, " Kim said.------Star-Advertiser staff writer Dan Nakaso contributed to this report.------
