EDITORIAL
Fencing out the city's homeless is no cure

Given the conditions they have encountered, it is no wonder the state has moved to close off informal homeless "shelters" that have sprung up under freeways and bridges.

Still, a familiar lesson remains: By putting up razor wire and fencing around these spots, the state is simply moving the homeless somewhere else. And will that somewhere else be even less acceptable to the public?

Among the first places to be closed off is a settlement under a freeway ramp at Ke'ehi Interchange near the airport. Rubbish, stolen items and human waste litter the area where a number of homeless people have been living. Nearby businesses have complained that the homeless people are a nuisance.

But Transportation Department official Scott Naleimaile — whose unenviable job it is to deal with this — put his finger on it: "We are doing this because we have public complaints. But where are they going? We are doing our job, but realize these are people that need help."

Some of that help may be coming in the form of a new $6 million centralized homeless center proposed by Mayor Jeremy Harris in the current budget. But that will not be built for at least a year.

The people living under freeway overpasses and bridges are choosing those spots as the best of a bad list of options. When we eliminate that option, we are doing nothing to solve their homelessness; we are simply forcing them to choose something worse.