hunterbishop.com

Councilwoman Emily Naeole, who often stakes out a position in defense of the downtrodden, has suddenly introduced an anti-homeless ordinance that would ban panhandling anywhere in Hawaii County.

A similar ordinance is already in effect for downtown Hilo where it is largely unenforced, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald article by Jason Armstrong, which also reported that "the Pahoa Main Street organization" asked for the ordinance to help downtown businesses attract tourists. But whether the Main Street Pahoa Association endorses the effort was questioned by Rob Tucker, vice president of the Main Street Pahoa Association, who said the non-profit organization has neither called for nor endorsed the ordinance.

Naeole aide Tiffany Edwards Hunt said there may be a division in the MSPA that she's unaware of but two members told her that it wanted the panhandler ban.

Most surprising is that Councilwoman Naeole would be this hard-nosed toward the needy.

"The most common law that targets homeless people is some version of a panhandling law, whether it's aggressive panhandling or saying you can only panhandle in certain areas of a city,"

-- Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the national homeless coalition in 2005

I took the above quote from one of dozens of stories found with a quick Google search that document the struggles of advocates for the poor and homeless trying to stave off similar laws around the country.

Naeole herself often speaks of her experiences being poor, and even recently she couldn’t pay an unexpected bill for a newspaper ad she ran during the holiday season and took a friend's personal loan to avoid a possible ethics violation. It's not quite the same as panhandling, granted, but sometimes people do need help. No harm asking.

When asked about the anti-homeless nature of the proposal, which seems to run counter to Naeole's instincts, Hunt testily defended her boss, saying that whenever the Councilwoman responds to a community concern she gets flack from people like Tucker and me, and that she doesn't like to be panhandled either.

To me, a panhandler is just another person you meet in public to whom you have the option of saying no and moving on. Asking a question of another person is not, and should not, be a crime in a public place even if it’s “hey, can you give me money?” That’s not harassment.

Harassment is already illegal. And if a panhandler aggressively pursues, badgers, insults or otherwise tries to intimidate people to give them money on the street, then it's a crime. The key is enforcement. Until we have more patrol officers in Puna, enforcement is unlikely. And until we have more police officers, I'd rather they not be burdened with one more nuisance complaint like panhandling.

Anti-panhandling laws have become popular in U.S. cities in the past 15 years. Yet they are no solution to homelessness, poverty, drug addiction, or to any other reasons that panhandlers ply their trade. A panhandling ordinance masks the underlying problem, as though wishing and legislating will make it go away. It treats the symptom while ignoring the cause, and the consequence of driving panhandlers off the streets could be more home burglaries and thefts from cars.

Councilwoman Naeole would do better to continue concentrating on helping the poor and needy, one of her strengths, than promoting an unnecessary, unenforceable, potentially counterproductive panhandling ban. Making criminals out of the poor and destitute is not helping.

And what do you do with panhandlers when they're arrested, fine them?