State and city officials are promising to work together to ease a growing homeless population in Kakaako, where an estimated 500 people are living in tents and makeshift structures.

Calls to address homelessness on Oahu — Kakaako in particular — have stepped up following the June 29 assault on state Rep. Tom Brower by homeless teenagers near the Children’s Discovery Center.

The Hawaii Community Development Authority, which oversees development in Kakaako, heard from people on the homeless issue Wednesday.

After the meeting, HCDA Chairman John Whalen said the board is agreeable to working with the city to improve conditions for both the homeless and organizations with buildings in the area.

City Council members and Mayor Kirk Caldwell have said they want the agency to ease jurisdictional tensions with the city. Caldwell said the multi-jurisdictional nature of Kakaako, as well as a lack of shelter options for the homeless, are why the city has temporarily stopped enforcing sidewalk laws there.

Whalen said the HCDA is happy to oblige.

“It’s clear that we need coordination between the city and the state, and social service providers, and be smart about how we address the specific needs of people who are homeless because they’re not all alike,” said Whalen, a one-time land utilization director under Mayor Frank Fasi.

“I don’t think there’s any desire to continue the status quo,” he said. “There has to be better conditions for people … not having to live in tents on the street. It’s not safe, it’s not sanitary, so we really have to develop a plan in partnership with the landowners, the city and the state.”

Discussions have already been underway with interested parties for a new shelter in the area, Whalen said. One area being looked at is a parcel next to the Next Step Shelter at 591 Ala Moana Blvd.

“That would make some sense because it’s still within that district and it doesn’t conflict so much with other public uses,” he said. “And it’s possible to focus the social services there because there’s already a shelter there.”

Whalen emphasized, however, that the site is not the only location being discussed.

During Wednesday’s HCDA meeting, board members received pleas from a nearby children’s museum, restaurant and medical school for help dealing with safety issues. A manager from a wedding planning company says a bride’s dress was spray-painted by a homeless camper.

“The violence in the area has escalated to the point where no one is safe,” said Loretta Yajima, chairwoman of the board of directors of the Children’s Discovery Center, who described people urinating on the museum’s premises while children were doing an art project outside.

Safety issues are threatening the future existence of the University of Hawaii medical school, said Virginia Hinshaw, a professor at the school.

“We are not lacking in empathy for the homeless,” Hinshaw said. “However, our patience is exhausted after many years of trying to fix it and watching this problem escalate in Kakaako.”

Tabitha Martin, who has lived in the Kakaako encampment for two years with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, said the camp has grown rapidly in recent months since the city began sweeps as part of its bans on sitting and lying down in Waikiki and other areas. Attention to the camp was heightened during the attack on Rep. Brower.

Martin said she and her husband try to police the area, but that some things are out of their control.

“No matter where you’re from, you’re going to have some bad seeds,” Martin said in an interview. “We just try to make it livable for everyone.”

HCDA is a redevelopment agency, not a social service agency, so it has limited resources to address the problem, said Aedward Los Banos, asset manager for the agency.

It also doesn’t have the authority to remove the homeless people’s belongings from the sidewalks, he said. But the authority could consider allowing tents outside the shelter or work with service providers to consider expanding shelter services in the area, creating a child care facility or offering tutoring and mentoring for kids, he said.

A landscape architect who attended the meeting, Jennifer Appel, proposed a community of container homes in the area’s parking lots.

“We can turn anything ugly into something beautiful,” Appel said.

Two City Council members, at Kapolei Hale for their monthly meeting Wednesday, said they met with Gov. David Ige for nearly 90 minutes Tuesday to discuss ways the state could help the city tackle homelessness in Kakaako.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin said he’s also met with officials from both the HCDA and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which has substantial holdings there.

The Council members want the state and city to settle jurisdictional issues so that the city “could be more pro-active” in enforcing sidewalk, camping and parking laws in the area, Martin said.

Martin said he and Councilman Ikaika Anderson also spoke to Ige about giving the state temporary authority over Kakaako Waterfront Park and about using available land in the area and elsewhere that could be used as temporary housing for the homeless.

Anderson said he and Martin contend it is best for state agencies to hand over enforcement authority in the area over to the city because both the Department of Facility Maintenance and Honolulu Police Department are city agencies.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell and his staff have also been meeting with Ige, state officials and Kakaako stakeholders about the Kakaako homeless issue, said Jesse Broder Van Dyke, the mayor’s spokesman.

“We’re open to new partnerships and we’re open to more help,” Broder Van Dyke said, adding that officials with HCDA, OHA and Kamehameha Schools worked with the city during previous enforcement of sidewalk laws in the area.

The city has stopped those actions at Kakaako, temporarily, not just because of jurisdictional issues and lack of shelter space, but also because homeless complaints are prevalent in other areas such as Waikiki and Kapalama, Broder Van Dyke said.

In related news, the City Council moved a step closer to adding additional areas to the island’s sit-lie ban Wednesday.

The Council voted 6-2 to give the second of three needed approvals to Bill 46, which makes it illegal to camp, erect a tent or conduct other activity along city-owned streams and stream banks.

Additionally, the Council voted 6-2 to give second reading approval to Bill 44, which would include College Walk Mall and Kila Kalikimaka Mall (between College Walk Mall and Aala Street) in the sit-lie ban.

Council members Brandon Elefante and Kymberly Pine, who have voted against sit-lie bills in the past, were the two “no” votes on both bills.

The measures now go to the Zoning and Planning Committee.

A slew of homeless advocates testified against the two bills.

Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Y.K. Pang and Associated Press reporter Cathy Bussewitz contributed to this report.