Following a series of dog attacks, fires and vandalism blamed on homeless people lining the waterfront, state officials plan to indefinitely close Kakaako Waterfront Park and the adjacent Gateway and Kewalo Basin parks starting at 10 p.m. Sunday.
There is no timetable for when the parks will reopen.
“It’s reached a point where we just can’t manage it,” Jesse Souki, CEO and executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which manages the parks, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It’s not easy to say it, but I want the park to be safe. Right now, with dog attacks and exposed wires and broken plumbing, it’s just not safe. We need to shut it down and take a pause.”
| CENTER A ‘GAME-CHANGER’ FOR FAMILIES
A year ago the state turned a Kakaako maintenance shed into the first-of-its-kind Family Assessment Center, which so far has found housing for 35 out of 38 families.
The center was designed to accommodate 12 to 14 families at a time, or up to 50 people. So far, 184 adults and children have stayed in the center.
They were expected to stay 90 days, but so far they’re averaging stays of 82 days, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator.
And 59 percent of the families have seen their incomes rise as social service workers connect them to public benefits and jobs, Morishige said.
The center is budgeted to cost $1.24 million over 22 months.
In a statement, Gov. David Ige called the Family Assessment Center “a game-changer that is making a difference in the lives of unsheltered families and helping to provide the stability they need to improve their lives.”
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Dan Nakaso, Star-Advertiser
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A complete assessment of the damage needs to be conducted once state sheriff’s deputies sweep the estimated 120 campsites Sunday night, Souki said. But he’s estimating that the cost of repairs could reach $500,000.
“They’ve broken into and exposed wires on about 30 poles,” Souki said. “They’re breaking the metal plates that cover the wiring and splicing extension cords to run TVs and such things in their tents. We also have broken pipes with water leaking everywhere. The number of tents is killing the grass. We’ve had a couple of dog attacks and a couple of recent fires. It’s reached a point where we just can’t manage it.”
The resurgence of an estimated 180 homeless people in 120 reinforced tents in the parks underscores the challenges of state and county officials to reduce America’s highest per capita rate of homelessness — and represents a specific setback for Kakaako Waterfront Park and its adjacent state parks.
In the summer of 2015, more than 300 homeless people crowded into illegal encampments throughout the makai and mauka areas of Kakaako Waterfront Park to create safety and sanitation problems that included an attack on state Rep. Tom Brower (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako).
Federal officials at the time called it one of the largest homeless encampments in the nation.
Brower was taking pictures of the encampment when he was confronted by two teenage boys, who chased him to the front of the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center where he was then beaten by a mob.
This week social service outreach workers estimated that most of the current occupants are homegrown, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator.
“It’s a combination of single adults and couples, and maybe probably one-third of the population are families with children,” he said. “We want to get a better sense of the demographics, certainly. There are people there who are new to the Kakaako area who may have come to the Waterfront Park from other areas of the island. What led them to be in this specific area? If we can find that out, we can try and connect them to the right type of resources.”
Sunday night’s sweep should see the usual combination of sheriff’s deputies enforcing park closure hours, social service outreach workers offering shelter beds and other related services, and a private cleanup crew hired by the HCDA, Morishige said.
“Between now and then we really are going to continue to provide outreach,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to connect people with services.”
As outreach workers warn homeless campers about the upcoming sweep this week, Morishige said “a couple of families” are preparing to move into a shelter or into the nearby Family Assessment Center, which was created out of a maintenance shed to help homeless families get off the street and into permanent housing.
Brower is particularly concerned that so many children are believed to be living homeless in Kakaako again.
As he often does, Brower planned to walk through the area Tuesday night or today.
He said state officials never completely cleared Kakaako Waterfront Park following the attack on him, allowing homeless people to trickle in ever since, set up encampments and ignore park closure hours, leading to the current situation.
“First we see someone camping,” he said. “Then a group comes in. Then comes the graffiti. Then the vandalism comes. Then the theft.”
Brower referred to what’s known in law enforcement as “the theory of the broken window,” which maintains that lax enforcement of minor violations can lead to more serious crimes.
“It’s either our inability or our unwillingness to enforce laws that leads to bigger problems,” he said. “The theory of the broken window has been going on in Kakaako for several years now. I’m sad that people are homeless. I’m sad that some of the homeless don’t look for better options. And then I’m very sad that government can’t enforce its laws.”
At the same time, Brower praised the closure by HCDA officials.
“In some ways we have to commend the (HCDA) because it’s taking action,” he said. “We can agree or disagree whether it’s the right action. But they’re being proactive today when it wasn’t as proactive in the past.”
