Maui community members are calling for changes to homeless encampment sweeps.
Maui lawmakers this week shelved Bill 111, which proposed a more "empathetic" approach to relocating homeless individuals in encampments on county land.
The Maui County Council on Thursday deferred the drafted set of rules, including those that would have required the county to give notice to residents and outreach providers before encampments were removed, and inform those displaced about shelters and “safe zones” where they can stay.
Councilmember Gabe Johnson, who introduced the bill, said the ultimate goal is to find housing for homeless individuals by including providers and other organizations, such as the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi and the Maui Homeless Alliance Continuum of Care, when the county decides to remove encampments.
“The goal is to create a process in which the administration or their designee takes the unhoused, finds places for them and then cleans up and stores their belongings … and also to include the nonprofits that are helping them,” he said.
Public testimony for the bill was largely in favor of the proposed changes.
“I've seen the decline in mental health in just the spirits of these people, and I know the public opinion on houseless is that they're all drug addicts and that they don't want help. But that is so far from the truth. These people do want help. These people do have so much to offer,” said Julie Checknita during the council meeting.
Checknita and some friends have provided support to those who live in encampments.
“I think it's time that we … stand up to help our community because with the cost of living in this state, many of us are a few life disasters away from also being on the street with them,” she added.
The council deferred the bill after the County of Maui Department of the Corporation Counsel expressed concerns over the legality of some of the bill’s proposals, including language on the county storing private property recovered from the sweeps.
Bill 111 can still be heard by the council, although it will include changes to the bill’s language.
