Officials, individuals, organizations calling on city & HPD to stop homeless ‘sweeps’ amid the pandemic

Even if people have nowhere else to go, the Honolulu Police Department and the City & County of Honolulu have promised to continue giving out citations and arrest those at parks and beaches.

“We call on the leadership of the City & County of Honolulu—and the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) in particular—to stop sweeping our houseless neighbors in the middle of this unprecedented global pandemic. It is cruel, legally questionable (at best), and a threat to public health and safety. Public health experts locally and nationally say this is bad health policy, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has weighed in with the following guidance:

“Considerations for encampments—If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.