The law in a nutshell: Fine people who attempt to camp in a public area. This will probably not get very far in Hawaii, but other states are trying out the idea. I have yet to see an encampment in the Hawaii Kai area, but we now have security guards in certain shopping complexes, like the Safeway/Longs mall off Keahole Ave. Sooner or latter, the quality of life will degrade enough that the homeless will be everywhere. In town, the homeless are already on Nimitz Highway and Punchbowl street. Rumors are circulating that TX is sending their homeless to Oahu. We can't relocate these invaders back to the mainland, but we can send them to American Samoa, by bribing the local government. Prior to the 20th century, governments arrested the unwanted, and hit them with enough fines so they became debtors. The liberals would likely oppose such laws.

cool story, bro...

Have you checked your 401k lately Doc? That could be you out there soon.

Public spaces are for the enjoyment of everyone.  It's hard to take the family camping or go to a park to fly kites and toss Frisbees if there is a Hoovervile there 24/7.

I have plenty of sympathy for the homeless who didn't get that way by choice.  If we could weed out the chronics, put them in mandatory treatment facilities for their addictions and/or mental problems, the rest of the homeless might be a manageable number for temporary housing and shelters to accommodate.

Unfortunately, the Liberals decided rather than spend the money on the terminally addicted or mentally challenged, they would turn them out on the streets under the guise of "civil rights."

This problem started with Kennedy, and the Democrats made it permanent when Reagan cancelled the Kennedy Federal mental health programs.  The states decided to not fund the programs again -- as they had before Kennedy -- just to twist the fed's arm to keep the money spigot open.  That ploy failed, so now we have no place to really house these folks unless they get locked up for a crime -- which Hawaii seems to have an aversion to as well.

Public spaces are for the enjoyment of everyone.  It's hard to take the family camping or go to a park to fly kites and toss Frisbees if there is a Hoovervile there 24/7.

I have plenty of sympathy for the homeless who didn't get that way by choice.  If we could weed out the chronics, put them in mandatory treatment facilities for their addictions and/or mental problems, the rest of the homeless might be a manageable number for temporary housing and shelters to accommodate.

Unfortunately, the Liberals decided rather than spend the money on the terminally addicted or mentally challenged, they would turn them out on the streets under the guise of "civil rights."

This problem started with Kennedy, and the Democrats made it permanent when Reagan cancelled the Kennedy Federal mental health programs.  The states decided to not fund the programs again -- as they had before Kennedy -- just to twist the fed's arm to keep the money spigot open.  That ploy failed, so now we have no place to really house these folks unless they get locked up for a crime -- which Hawaii seems to have an aversion to as well.

nan desu ka?

nan desu ka?

Kennedy had the feds take over mental health institutions (asylums) to try to build new facilities and improve conditions across the country for inpatients.  Reagan saw that the program was not living up to its promises (1963 - 1980 and further is a long time to keep funding something that's not even close to working), so he worked to have Congress cut the program within the federal budget.  The onus fell back on states to continue funding and implementing the programs, but the largest states with the largest populations of mentally ill residents (Democrat controlled states) simply refused to pay for services they now felt the Feds should continue paying for.

Carter actually signed the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 just before leaving office which provided even more grants to community mental health centers.  The Omnibus Bill of 1981 was signed by Reagan, and the MHSA law was for the most part repealed.

President Kennedy had a child with mental defects, so this issue was important to him.  It's why he tried to take on such a massive publicly funded program at all.  Based on my reading, the plan never reached half the goals he set, and more money was never going to fix it. 

The Community Mental Health Act was the last bill President Kennedy ever signed into law. 

[The bill was] meant to free many thousands of Americans with mental illnesses from life in institutions.
It envisioned building 1,500 outpatient mental health centers to offer them community-based
care instead. The bill would be the last piece of legislation Kennedy would ever sign; he was
assassinated three weeks later.

Only half of the proposed community mental health centers were ever built, and those were
never fully funded. Drastic cuts were made to the remaining community mental health centers
at the beginning of the Reagan administration.

The lack of access to community-based care leaves nowhere for the sickest people to turn, so
they end up in hospital emergency rooms, homeless shelters or prison. "The three largest mental
health providers in the nation today are jails: Cook County in Illinois, Los Angeles County and Rikers
Island in New York," the Deseret News reports.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/10/23/community-mental-health-kennedy

Basically, the Dem-run cities with the biggest problem played a game of "Hot Potato," hoping someone other than their state legislatures would get left holding it.