Rights & public space
Sidewalk and park rules, property sweeps, court rulings, eviction protections and students' rights.
- Behind on rent in Hawaiʻi: the ten-day notice and free eviction mediation
Since February 5, 2026, Hawaiʻi landlords must give tenants ten calendar days' notice for unpaid rent and send it to a free mediation center. How Act 278 (2025) works, the deadlines that matter, and what tenants and landlords should do.
- Belongings and sweeps in Honolulu: the stored property and sidewalk nuisance ordinances
What Honolulu's stored property ordinance and sidewalk nuisance ordinance allow, the notice and storage rules, what court cases and a 2016 settlement require, and practical steps to protect and recover belongings.
- Sidewalks, parks and sit-lie rules in Honolulu: a plain-language guide
Honolulu regulates who may sit, lie, sleep or keep belongings in public places through sit-lie bans, park closure hours, a lodging ordinance and sidewalk obstruction rules. Where they came from, what they cover and the debate around them.
- Students without stable housing in Hawaiʻi: rights under the McKinney-Vento Act
Hawaiʻi public schools identify about 4,800 school-aged students experiencing homelessness each year, most of them doubled up with other families. Who counts as homeless for schools, the rights to enroll, stay in the same school and get transportation, and how to reach a school liaison.
- The Grants Pass ruling and Hawaiʻi: what the Supreme Court changed about camping laws
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court held that enforcing public camping bans is not cruel and unusual punishment, overturning the Ninth Circuit rule that applied in Hawaiʻi. What the decision says, what it left open, and which protections still apply on Oʻahu.
