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Hawaii News

City crews to return to Kakaako to clear homeless people’s items

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
The city cleared out the sidewalk that homeless people once occupied on Ohe Street and Cooke Street on

The city on Thursday morning will launch the second phase of its enforcement action targeting the Kakaako homeless encampment.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced Monday that the city’s sidewalk nuisance and stored property ordinances will be enforced on Forrest Avenue and Keawe Street between Ilalo Street and Ala Moana Boulevard Thursday starting at about 11 a.m.

The enforcement action — announced Monday after a meeting of the Governor’s Leadership Team on Homelessness — follows the city’s initial sweep last week on Cooke Street and Ohe Street between Ilalo Street and Ala Moana Boulevard.

City officials said the enforcement will continue in phases in the following weeks on other blocks of Kakaako makai of Ala Moana Boulevard.

Notices have been posted and handed out throughout Kakaako Makai in Chuukese, English, Marshallese and Samoan, officials said, and additional notices will be handed out Tuesday morning within Thursday’s target area.

After distributing advance notices for the first sweep, only three tents were left behind when the homeless encampment was cleared a week ago. Workers also hauled out car tires, a broken box spring and a variety of tarps, metal poles and lots of abandoned personal items.

The city previously obtained a formal “right of entry” from the Hawaii Community Development Authority, allowing the city to enforce its laws on the sidewalks throughout Kakaako.

During the enforcement sweeps, staff members with the city Department of Facility Maintenance are accompanied by state sheriff’s deputies, officials from the HCDA and the Honolulu Police Department’s Community Policing Team, as well as representatives of surrounding landowners.

A head count of Kakaako last month found nearly 300 people occupying the encampment of wood-reinforced tents and tarps. The population there swelled as homeless people were forced out of Waikiki, Chinatown and downtown by the city’s “sit-lie” ban, which prohibits sitting or lying in commercial districts.

Caldwell has said it will take months to clear out all sections of the encampment and find enough shelter space for everyone.

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