Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park temporarily closed after city crews clear homeless camps and haul away 2.52 tons of trash

On Thursday evening, people rousted from their campsites on the seaward slopes of Diamond Head Crater could be seen sitting and lying, some with piles of their belongings, on and around the whitewashed wall between the roadside pedestrian path and the grassy meadows, forests and paths of the city’s Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park, which descends to the beaches makai of Diamond Head Road.

Staff from the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation had notified campers and park visitors that the park was closed for a cleanup from Thursday until 5 a.m. Saturday and that enforcement would start Friday, DPR spokesman Nathan Serota said.

The purpose of the closure is to remove illegal campsites and trash that have accumulated in the city park, which occupies the meadows, sea cliffs and beach makai of Diamond Head Road, in coordination with a state cleanup on its lands in the Diamond Head State Monument, mauka of the road, Serota said.

Members of the public are free to traverse the park to access the ocean during the closure but cannot linger in the park, he added.

Early Friday morning, Honolulu Police Department squad cars, a Hawaiian Humane Society truck and a couple of mobile dumpster trucks were near the park entrance.

More than 50 city workers from HPD, DPR and the city Department of Facility Maintenance were deployed in the area, Serota said.

City crews, wearing gloves and face masks, hiked through thorny underbrush and over slippery, eroded dirt slopes, removing tents and makeshift shelters, and personal belongings and trash that had been left behind in improvised campsites. Human and animal waste lay out in the open in places, and the air was thick with dust and flies.

After this kind of day, you needed three showers when you got home from work, a crew member said.

Thirteen removal notices were issued Thursday, and by Friday afternoon four cubic yards of metal had been recovered, 2.52 tons of trash had been collected and hauled away, and nine bins of stored property were being kept by DFM, Serota said.

Four arrests of illegal campers were made, for a combination of park violations and outstanding warrants, he added.

People wanting to reclaim any property they believe was taken can call 768-3585.

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Honolulu Star-Advertiser photographer Cindy Ellen Russell contributed to this story.