Dozens of homeless people scattered following the city’s unprecedented sweep of state-owned parks in Kakaako on Monday night, but city and state officials were pleased that a family of four and two adults agreed to move into nearby shelters.
“Six from that group is really good,” said Marc Alexander, the city’s executive director of housing. “That was six more than I was expecting. We were happy with that.”
Kalihi-Palama Health Center outreach workers led by Jennifer Tehotu had offered housing and services to the estimated 80 — mostly chronically homeless — people who were living in and around Kakaako Waterfront Park and its sister parks long before Monday night’s sweep, Alexander said.
BY THE NUMBERS:
80
Number of people estimated to be living around Kakaako Waterfront Park in the weeks leading up to Monday night’s sweep
5.12
Tons of trash collected
11
Number of bins used to store personal items of homeless people. Each bin can hold 90 gallons of material.
|
Jason Espero, director of homeless services for Waikiki Health, which runs the Next Step Shelter, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Next Step knew that there was going to be a sweep, so we purposely reserved our last two spots anticipating people affected by the sweep will want to move into Next Step. Kalihi-Palama was already working with several people from the campsite and inquired about space at Next Step. They were certain that they could fill the last two spots in our shelter.”
The family of four was housed in the state’s Family Assessment Center on the edge of Kakaako Waterfront Park, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator. The center’s staff works to find permanent housing for homeless families while teaching skills such as budgeting and parenting.
It was unclear Tuesday where the other homeless people from Kakaako ended up.
“To be honest, we don’t know,” Alexander said.
Monday night’s sweep represented a new strategy between the state and city after multijurisdictional landownership helped spur the growth of one of America’s largest homeless encampments in the summer of 2015, when it swelled to more than 300 people and led to a spike in crime, emergency calls and sanitation problems around Kakaako.
Monday night’s sweep was the first for the city in the nearly 30-year history of the state-owned parks and was the result of the Hawaii Community Development Authority granting Honolulu police and a special city cleanup crew “right of entry” into the parks, which are surrounded by city sidewalks.
Honolulu police ensured that people swept out of the state parks did not set up camp on city sidewalks. And state Department of Transportation officials made sure they did not move to nearby Ala Moana Boulevard, which is owned by the state and lines Kakaako Makai Gateway Park, Morishige said.
“Everything was to be expected, and there were no surprises or no issues that we weren’t otherwise prepared for,” said Ross Sasamura, the city’s director of Facility Maintenance.
Officials at the nearby University of Hawaii medical school were pleased with the sweep.
Tina Shelton, the medical center’s spokeswoman, said Ilalo Street, Kakaako Mauka Gateway Park and Kakaako Makai Gateway Park were clear of tents and tarps — at least for Tuesday.
“It was right in front of our school,” Shelton said. “Last week on Ilalo it was really bad. Lots of tents. Lots and lots of tents and lots of garbage. But today it was all clear. There was a little bit of trash, but everybody was gone. It looks clean.”
Shelton and the medical school saw plenty of homeless sweeps before, only to see encampments pop back up.
She’s hopeful that a proposal to turn the state parks over to the city will lead to lasting, meaningful change.
“Finally,” Shelton said. “They want to make the parks where they can be enforced.”
At the same time, Shelton was discouraged that only six people accepted housing and help.
“Only six?” she said. “Oh, my goodness. Where did everybody else go?”