The state for weeks warned homeless people camped out along the Kakaako shoreline that they would be removed in sweeps that were to begin as soon as Thursday, but it’s now unclear when or how that will happen after no takers were found in the search for contractors to come in and do the work.

The encampment is the second major one to suddenly spring up in Kakaako, mere blocks from where the city just finished spending weeks clearing the streets surrounding the University of Hawaii’s medical school and the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center as the state deals with the highest number of homeless people per capita nationwide.

Without a plan from the state, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi — who represents Kakaako — worries that more homeless people will flood the area and create the same health and safety concerns that occurred just a few yards away in the so-called “Kakaako makai” homeless encampment where 911 calls and assaults skyrocketed, including a June 29 attack on state Rep. Tom Brower (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako).

“It’s going to keep expanding,” Kobayashi said. “It’ll be like before, when they were on the other side near the Children’s Discovery Center. As people start living close to each other, it sometimes creates animosity. And people can’t jog or ride their bicycles in that area. It’s really no good.”

Even though there’s now no plan or date to start sweeping the encampments on state land owned by the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the HCDA’s Lindsey Doi said, “I wouldn’t say the pressure’s off at all. I would say the pressure is only increasing. We know the issue is growing, and we want to address it as quickly as we can but in the right way.”

The now-cleared Kakaako makai encampment had been around for years but exploded in size earlier this year as the city began enforcing laws that prevent blocking sidewalks or illegally storing property across the island, and sleeping or lying down in financial centers such as Waikiki, downtown and Chinatown.

A special city crew spent six weeks methodically cleaning out the encampment, which in August grew to include 293 people. Service providers and outreach workers successfully found shelter for many of them, including a number of families.

However, many of the displaced simply walked next door to state-owned land at Kewalo Basin Park, Point Panic and Kakaako Waterfront Park, where the largest group set up camp in the amphitheater next to the UH Cancer Center. In October outreach workers counted 130 homeless people in the encampments.

Last week there was no updated head count, but outreach workers counted 110 tents — 81 in Kakaako Waterfront Park and 29 in Kewalo Basin Park, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator.

HCDA asked eight private companies to submit bids on how much they would charge to clear out the encampments, but all declined, Doi said.

“We solicited for our contractor to actually remove the physical belongings left behind, trash, that sort of thing,” Doi said. “None of them were willing to take on the job. A lot of it had to do with staffing.”

Doi acknowledged that some of the companies might not have wanted the high-profile publicity of clearing out a homeless encampment, which includes the possibility of a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

“That could have played a part of it,” Doi said. “No one actually made a bid.”

The state also asked for assistance from the city, which had just cleaned out the Kakaako makai encampment, but was turned down.

“The city Sidewalk Nuisance Ordinance/Stored Property Ordinance (SPO/SNO) Enforcement team is responsible for enforcing these city ordinances on city property and rights-of-way across Oahu,” Ross Sasamura, director and chief engineer for the city’s Department of Facility Maintenance, wrote in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Our SPO/SNO enforcement resources are limited and remain focused upon responding to reports from the public to keep city sidewalks and public spaces free and accessible for all.”

The state Department of Transportation twice a year has its maintenance crews clean out homeless encampments on DOT land.

But DOT spokesman Tim Sakahara said cleaning up the Kakaako encampments is “not our jurisdiction. That’s HCDA land.”

The state is also looking for a facility to preserve personal property it will come across during the sweep. The city is being sued for allegedly not storing people’s property from the Kakaako makai sweeps so it could later be reclaimed.

“The state is being prudent in being concerned about its abilities to store a homeless person’s property,” said Kristin Holland, an attorney with the Honolulu law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.

Her firm has joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii in asking a federal judge to prevent the immediate destruction of homeless individuals’ property.

“These ordinances, according to the city and the state, aren’t directed at the homeless,” Holland said. “So if the city takes property, they have to store it so you can get it back.”

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor refused to grant the ACLU’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt city sweeps. She’s scheduled to hold a hearing Monday to set a briefing schedule for the ACLU’s follow-up motion asking the city to store seized property instead of destroying it.

Holland emphasized that “our case is not about fighting for people’s right to live on sidewalks. That’s not acceptable. We’re fighting for people’s basic human rights and due process.”

Last week the City Council approved $100,000 to hire the Honolulu law firm McCorriston, Miller, Mukai and Mackinnon to help the city’s office of Corporation Counsel defend itself against the ACLU’s challenge.

Holland said the money would be better spent finding permanent, so-called “Housing First” rental apartments and units for homeless people instead of sweeping them from one neighborhood to the next.

“The real solution is housing,” she said. “Sweeps are not a solution.”

While the state tries to figure out what to do next in Kakaako, Kobayashi continues to receive complaints about growing homeless encampments in her district as city and state officials push homeless people around the island.

“I’ve always been concerned that there’s nowhere for these people to go,” Kobayashi said. “Permanent housing is the permanent solution, not moving people around.”