While strolling through Waikiki on Tuesday night, real estate broker Mark Howard said he encountered about seven homeless campers passed out at Waikiki Beach pavilions edging Kuhio Beach.

"The smell of urine permeated the humid air — and blood from a visible foot wound had been washed into a pool on the ground with a discarded Band-Aid," Howard said.

Inspired by this scene and by his mounting frustration over worsening conditions at the pavilions, Howard created a WordPress blog and YouTube video site and has started posting daily updates with plans to continue until the pavilions regain suitability for public use.

Howard said overall conditions in Waikiki have improved since the city banned sitting and lying on Waikiki sidewalks last year. However, that anti-loitering law doesn’t extend to the pavilions or the grassy areas around them. Police may clear pavilions of loiterers only between 2 and 5 a.m., when park-closure laws are in effect. As a result, Howard said, the pavilions have become the last bastion for a small group of homeless people who don’t want to move into shelters or accept services.

Howard, principal broker and president of Hawaii Americana Realty, said in January he sent a mass email complaint to about 70 elected officials and Waikiki stakeholders, and doesn’t believe that lawmakers are doing enough to ensure that the pavilions are safe and accessible to all.

"I see the pavilions abused daily, but something just clicked on Tuesday after I saw urine and blood on the ground — that has to be a boundary that should never be crossed," Howard said. "I talked about the experience with some other concerned citizens in Waikiki, and now I’m spearheading an effort to ensure that the pavilions are returned to the public. It’s an urgent situation that should be rectified immediately."

Since launching the blog and YouTube sites, which can be accessed at 808ne.ws/1J2l3az and 808ne.ws/19QoPqM, Howard has documented people urinating in the bushes and grounds, getting drunk, fighting and swearing. He’s hoping his posts and videos will inspire change.

"To me, this isn’t a homeless issue, although some of the people at the pavilions are homeless. This is about returning a public amenity back for the use of all in a clean, safe and sanitary condition," he said. "In my view, the city is acting negligently because they are aware of the abuses at the pavilions and they aren’t doing enough to stop it."

The city’s sit/lie ban applies only to sidewalks in Waikiki and various other business districts. As of Sunday, enforcement efforts in Waikiki have tallied 665 sit/lie warnings, 148 sit/lie citations and three arrests. There also have been 33 citations and four arrests under the ban on public urination and defecation.

City spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said, "There were numerous highly visible encampments throughout Waikiki in past years that are now gone. Dozens of formerly chronically homeless individuals are now making a new start in Housing First units through the city’s contract with IHS (Institute for Human Services) and partnerships with other service providers."

Kimo K. Carvalho, IHS director of community relations, said the nonprofit is serving 150 homeless individuals from Waikiki. Of those, the agency has moved 42 into shelters and 15 into housing and assisted 14 with out-of-state relocations.

"Enforcement measures were successful with an initial homeless population that was older, chronic homeless and who were motivated by these laws to change their behaviors, find new incentives, and develop better lifestyles," Carvalho said.

However, Carvalho said, more recently IHS has been less successful with a growing network of panhandlers and the pavilion crowd, which includes substance abusers.

"These aggressive homeless individuals have no incentive to work with service providers and partners if they’re safe and comfortable with their current lifestyle, and so IHS has become unsuccessful with these particular groups," he said. "We must continue to adapt and develop new policies that compassionately disrupts this type of thinking and behavior in order to allow IHS and other partner agencies to be successful."

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Jeff Merz said it’s no surprise that more homeless people are spending more time in the pavilions, where there is less chance of being hassled.

"I was surprised, however, by how gross and graphic that some of these individuals can get as evidenced by Mark Howard’s blog and videos," Merz said. "More people need to get outraged and do something about it."

Broder Van Dyke said there’s no easy solution to the pavilion problem. "If sitting and lying were prohibited at Kuhio Beach Park, for example, no one would be able to put their towel in the sand and sunbathe," he said. "The park is closed to everyone after 2 a.m., so no one can be in the park overnight."

Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, endorses extending a city pilot program that last spring transformed Kuhio Beach public pavilion No. 1 from a daytime homelessness hangout into a charming beach eatery called the Waikiki Grass Shack Bistro.

Broder Van Dyke said, "The pavilion café pilot has been highly successful." He added, "Mayor Caldwell is greatly appreciative of the vendor, Service Systems Associates, whose employees’ presence effectively result in the monitoring of the pavilion and helps to prevent incidents."

But Waikiki resident Steve Abrams said while the pilot keeps the pavilion accessible during the day, it can be "gross at night." He asked, "Do you really want to have your grandson eating cookies on those tables after someone covered in their own filth has been sleeping on them all night?"

Howard said he doesn’t want to see the city convert more pavilions into food shacks since such a move blocks public use. However, he maintains that the city should extend its sit-lie ordinance to the pavilion grounds. He also favors transfering the pavilions to a private entity such as the Waikiki Business Improvement District so that enforcement could be more discretionary.

"I would like to see some type of ‘three strikes and you’re out’ enforcement for individuals who receive the same citation, in the same area, for the same offense — even if it only applies to the Waikiki pavilions," Howard said. "Constantly issuing citations to the same people for the same petty crimes, in the same place, and expecting a different result would be one definition of insanity."