The city Department of Enterprise Services is cracking down on homeless encampments at the Ala Wai Golf Course with new signage marking the grassy perimeter — where homeless encampments have existed for years — as private property.
The new signs went up on Aug. 4, reflecting that the site, hosting at least a dozen tents, is under the jurisdiction of the DES and prohibits trespassers. This sign replaces one that previously identified the spot as a park.
The area is regularly swept by the Honolulu Police Department, removing campsites and redirecting the inhabitants to shelter resources, but many return to the site shortly after clearing out.
While some campers say they keep to themselves, finding the site a comfortable and quiet place to sleep, neighbors and community leaders express growing concern about the encampment’s close proximity to the local library and recreation areas. They say the new restrictions highlight the need for more outreach and support services to get people permanently off the street.
The number of unsheltered homeless people on Oahu rose nearly 12% between January 2023 and the latest census conducted on Jan. 23, 2024, for a total islandwide homeless population of 4,494, according to the Partners in Care Point In Time Count.
Some homeless people like Melissa, 63, who has lived next to the golf course for two years, aren’t interested in living at a shelter.
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“Some have such strict rules, it’s like you’re on probation,” Melissa said. “I’ve never been in a shelter here because of the stories I’ve been told. Big bugs, thievery, nasty conditions.”
Melissa and her 3-year-old pup — a Jack Russell, pit bull, Chihuahua mix — live in a tarp-covered collapsible camping tent just a few feet from the newly installed sign.
She said that many of the people camped around her are not dangerous and just want a place to live peacefully. But she opined that their homeless state produces an automatic reaction in some people, who think that “homeless people are unsafe, they’re all drug addicts and thieves.’”
Melissa wrestled a miniature bear stuffed animal with her dog, Marco, and reflectively added, “For the most part, anybody is just one natural disaster or one stock market crash away from being out here like this.”
Melissa said that Honolulu Police Department officers notified the campers of the site’s new regulations.
“Just before the signs came up, they cited some people and told them that once the signs were changed they wouldn’t be writing citations anymore, they’d just be arresting people on the spot,” she said. “I’m gonna move out of here to a different spot because I don’t like jail too much.”
HPD is currently coordinating enforcement for the area with Department of Facility Maintenance.
Alina Lee, HPD public information officer, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email, “As far as enforcement, officers will attempt to educate first and gain voluntary compliance from anyone within the signed area.”
“When changes like this occur, officers will look for ways to educate and help people before enforcement,” she said. “Other social service entities such as the CORE (Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement Program) continue to monitor areas such as this as part of the City’s holistic approach to serving the houseless.”
Staff at the Waikiki-Kapahulu Public Library say that homeless visitors are removed from the property at least once a week for disruptive behavior, but that not all homeless people who use the library cause issues. A library security guard will assist the librarians when someone is found sleeping or in a unsanitary condition in the library if the person is resistant to leaving.
Jeffrey Merz, a longtime Waikiki Neighborhood Board member and Waikiki resident, said the area next to the golf course has long been a place where people camp.
“It’s certainly getting worse as they’ve become more attentive to homelessness in Waikiki, that’s an obvious area for them to go to,” he said. “I know that residents of Waikiki have said that they feel unsafe walking on that side of the canal over to the golf course.”
Merz said that he likes to ride his bike around the Ala Wai Park Trail, a bike path that runs next to the encampment area.
“It’s a wonderful bike path, and I love riding it all around the golf course,” he said. “I haven’t had many encounters, but then again I’m on my bike and I kind of speed through that area. That’s the beauty of bikes.”
Roy Miyahira, City and County of Honolulu’s director of homeless solutions, said that transitioning to living at a shelter or accepting resources isn’t always easy.
“The longer people have been out on the streets, the more resistant to change they’re going to be,” Miyahira said. “After six months of living on the street with all of the trauma that they’ve gone through, they’ve probably lost their way and can’t think as straight as they used to. It’s really hard to make that decision to go back to a rules-based type of shelter.”
Miyahira said that the new sign could inspire people to pack up and look for a new place to live, giving his team at the Department of Community Services an opportunity to help anyone open to transitioning get off the streets.
“Our outreach has to be more robust because folks are gonna move to another spot,” he said. “Those are the people that we now have to wrap our arms around and get them to a spot where they have permanent housing, but we have to get them to trust what we’re doing.”
He said that outreach is most effective when services are offered early on, not years down the line after robust homeless encampments have already been established in a specific area.
Resources are most effective when “responding quickly to those experiencing homelessness,” he said. “Identifying neighborhoods where encampments are starting to blossom, that’s when we have to start.”
By the numbers
12%
Increase of unsheltered homeless people on Oahu between January 2023 and the latest census conducted Jan. 23 2024
4,494
The total islandwide homeless population according to the Partners in Care Point In Time Count