After sweeping encampments along portions of Nimitz Highway and the H-1 freeway in July, the state Department of Transportation is now preparing to go beneath the H-1 viaduct — home to one of Oahu’s biggest and most hardcore groups of homeless people.

An estimated 200 people live in and around an area where many have built floating wooden shelters directly into the concrete support beams below the freeway, accessible only by homemade ladders.

Others have built on the ground, including Fale Mauga, 48, who erected four wooden structures beneath the viaduct to include a shower and a 12-by-12-foot sleeping area for him and his girlfriend, Rose Marie Gacho, 33.

Mauga outfitted their sleeping quarters with electric lights, a DVD player and a laptop — all powered by three car batteries. They bring in fresh water from nearby Keehi Lagoon Park to take showers.

The couple’s shoes and rubber slippers were neatly lined up on a carpet outside their bedroom Friday.

“We don’t look fo’ make trouble,” Mauga said as the incessant sound of vehicle traffic roared overhead.

Asked what he’ll do when DOT crews move in, Mauga said, “Break it down and move.”

DOT spokesman Tim Sakahara offered no start date for the upcoming sweep, but said it will be conducted in tandem with law enforcement and social service outreach.

In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Sakahara wrote, “The schedule is dependent on the resources of all partner agencies to ensure proper survey and outreach into the area, availability of supportive services and shelter for all displaced, sufficient resources to carry out the enforcement properly and timely, and scheduled maintenance actions to keep the area clear after the enforcement action.”

The areas in and around the viaduct — from Nimitz Highway on the mauka side to Keehi Lagoon on the makai side — are home primarily to single adults and couples who, so far, have shown little interest in moving into a shelter.

The area includes a notorious “gaming room” below the viaduct that outreach workers say attracts illegal gamblers from as far away as Chinatown.

It’s all part of the City Council district represented by Councilman Joey Manahan, who has walked through the area many times and met with the homeless occupants.

“It’s pretty intense,” Manahan said. “Some of the folks I’ve encountered down there either have some kind of chemical dependency or alcohol dependency. Others might have mental health issues. For whatever reason, they are not ready to go into permanent housing at this point. That’s the majority of folks. It’s not a great situation.”

Tons of debris need to be removed, along with an unknown number of abandoned and working vehicles, Manahan said. Homeless people routinely light fires below the freeway, sometimes inches from the concrete foundation.

Manahan isn’t sure how DOT officials can prevent people from returning.

“It’s probably the largest encampment we have, and it’s been down there for years despite efforts to clean up the area,” Manahan said. “People do tend to come back. To keep the area free and clear would require a lot of maintenance.”

Chain-link fences erected around the H-1 viaduct have proved worthless at keeping people out.

But in July the DOT launched a new approach aimed at keeping encampments from springing back up on DOT land by regularly dispatching sheriff’s deputies to keep squatters out after cleanup crews clear out debris. Before the sweeps began, social service outreach workers offered a range of homeless-related services, including housing.

SCOTT Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator, previously said that the DOT’s July sweeps resulted in several people getting into shelters and even permanent housing. Morishige was unavailable Friday to provide an updated number of people who found housing through the July sweeps.

All of the homeless people around the viaduct who spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Friday said they’ve been swept plenty of times before — and returned every time.

Larry Jetson, 59, has been living below the viaduct for eight years and estimates that he’s been swept “at least 10 times already. I’ve lost all my stuff plenty times.”

Jetson was rebuilding Vespas and other scooters Friday and said he understands that he and the others are living illegally on public property.

“It’s not like we own the land,” he said. “But where are we going to go?”

There seem to be plenty of options in Manahan’s district, which already includes Hawaii’s largest homeless shelter; the city’s Hale Mauliola transitional housing project on Sand Island, made out of converted shipping containers; and a four-story building that the city is converting to become the state’s only combination hygiene center, navigation center and transitional housing project.

And just makai of the viaduct, near Keehi Lagoon, businessman Duane Kurisu is erecting 18 two-bedroom and 12 one-bedroom prefabricated units to house 150 homeless families by the end of the year.

Mauga originally built his structures on the edge of Keehi Lagoon, where some homeless people live in homemade houseboats and use elaborate pulley systems to catch fish in large nets.

But Mauga said construction workers asked him to leave to make room for Kurisu’s project.

Vanda Meheula, 61, has been living in the area for 15 years and said she was swept as recently as two weeks ago from her encampment on the mauka side of Nimitz Highway, leading her to walk just a few yards back under the viaduct with her 59-year-old brother and her 17 dogs. Her other brother, 53, lives in another encampment just off of Nimitz Highway, Meheula said.

“Not everybody’s got some place to go,” she said.

Meheula has every intention of returning after the DOT begins sweeping below the viaduct once again.

“We’ve been doing this for years,” Meheula said as she hugged one of her 17 dogs, Coco. “We’re not going to change now.”