Question: Auwe! Letting homeless people get away with living in the drainage canals and under bridges has got to stop. Every time it rains hard, their stuff goes downstream, and then heavy resources are spent cleaning it up. Not to mention the flooding risk when streams are blocked with tents, tarps, shopping carts, etc. Not to mention there’s only so many hours a day crews can work, and there’s other stuff they need to do. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s got to stop.
Answer: City and state crews tried to get ahead of this chronic problem before Thursday’s thunderstorms, by clearing out numerous areas on Oahu where homeless people live under bridges, in drainage canals and culverts and along streams.
By Wednesday evening state Department of Transportation crews had cleared more than 20 areas, including along waterways that feed into the Ala Wai Canal — a choke point for storm debris runoff — as well as a viaduct in Kaimuki/Kahala known to carry a lot of man-made debris to Kahala Beach. Those are two areas you mentioned later in your Auwe and about which Kokua Line receives frequent complaints. DOT crews also cleared multiple culverts under Nimitz Highway, along Nuuanu Stream at the H-1 freeway, and at Waipahu Canal Bridge, among other areas. Go to 808ne.ws/3PXWfdW Opens in a new tab to read the full list of homeless sites DOT crews cleared ahead of the storm.
Likewise, city crews cleared areas under their jurisdiction, especially in the urban core and including along Makiki Stream, where homeless encampments generate continuous complaints from nearby residents and businesses worried about flooding, crime and litter — some also express concern for the people living outside in inhumane conditions.
Besides clearing health and safety hazards from that stream on Wednesday, city crews “were also at places like the Manoa Stream and the Hausten Drainage Ditch near Kapiolani. I was personally at the Manoa Stream near Kaimuki High School with our crews yesterday and can attest to the amount of trash and debris they cleared away,” Ian Scheuring, a spokesperson for the Honolulu mayor’s office, said Thursday in an email.
City crews clear Makiki Stream of debris multiple times a year, he said.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, a contractor installed a second debris trap in the Ala Wai Canal as a temporary measure to divert debris into the permanent trap on the opposite side of the Ala Moana Bridge, according to a news release from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The permanent trap, which catches only about a quarter of the debris flowing downstream, was cleaned out. Officials hope these measures will reduce the amount of storm debris runoff that reaches the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and the Pacific Ocean.
Although all the debris that sullies the canal and harbor after big storms doesn’t come from homeless encampments upstream, some of it does, along with green waste and other rubbish dumped in or near waterways — all of which gets swept downstream in high winds and heavy rain.
As for your broader complaint, most of the people on Oahu who don’t have a home live outside, rather than in homeless shelters, and the problem has gotten worse, according to the most recent census of the homeless population. Of the 4,494 homeless people counted in Oahu’s 2024 Point in Time survey, 2,766 were unsheltered, meaning they were living in streets, parks, beaches, cars and other places not meant for human habitation, including under bridges and in or along streams, culverts and drainage ditches. The number of unsheltered people was up 17% from the year before. Read the full report at 808ne.ws/42z815Q Opens in a new tab.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
