Homeless told to vacate as Old Airport Park cleanup starts

KAILUA-KONA — Barbara Kossow can’t recall ever seeing a homeless person during her childhood on the Big Island.

They didn’t really exist then. If someone was struggling financially, a family took that person in, put him or her to work, put a roof over his or her head.

When Officer William Vickery, Kona Community Policing Division, stepped out of the academy and into the streets on patrol 25 years ago, there were only three homeless people in Kona. He’s sure about that number. A quarter century later he remembers all of them.

He remembers because they were a rarity.

Homeless people in Kona today, however, are as common a site as palm trees and the ocean’s blue. Perhaps the clearest example of how the issue has spiraled out of control on Hawaii Island is the Kona Old Airport Park, where dozens of homeless have been residing for months. Even years.

But that all ends today.

For the last two weeks, members of Mayor Harry Kim’s administration like Kossow, various county departments, police officers, and service providers have been prepping the park’s population to clear out in anticipation of a cleanup project slated for Aug. 9-10.

On Tuesday, a small group of police and county employees convened near the playground at 5:30 a.m., commencing their final rounds before today’s deadline to evacuate the park. Police roused sleeping campers and issued 33 notices to vacate within the next 24 hours.

The morning went off “without incident,” said Sgt. Roylen Valera of the Community Policing Division.

Beginning this evening, two private security guards will patrol the park on ATVs from 9 p.m.-5 a.m every night. Camping in parks is expressly prohibited under Hawaii County code and enforcement will now be a higher priority.

Charmaine Kamaka, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said if security happens upon any campers, a simple protocol will follow.

“They will ask them to leave,” she said. “If they don’t leave, (security) will call the police.”

The security contractors have signed a one-year deal with the county.

A new look

Come next week, a host of county workers and volunteers will begin trash collection, painting pavilions and trimming back the brush around the beach to more easily remove refuse.

“It feels good, and where you don’t see trash, you don’t throw trash,” said Kamaka, adding how she envisions the community’s idea of the park once the effort is complete. “That it’s fabulous, that it’s clean, and that it’s welcoming for everyone.”

But some of those getting the boot view the new arrangement as anything but welcoming.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” said Manny, a homeless man now looking for a new place to lay his head. “People are uncomfortable seeing us around.”

It won’t just be the homeless absent from the revamped park. It will also be all of their stuff.

Kossow collected personal information Tuesday morning, passing out removal notices for tents and other belongings. Such notices were posted on people’s property if they were absent.

Starting today, county employees will remove such property and ship it to a county storage facility. The notices provide information on how people can retrieve their belongings. They will have 45 days to claim the property before the county disposes of it.

For some homeless, what they now have is simply too much to move — meaning some of the poor are about to get a lot poorer.

Overwhelmed by the amount of personal belongings he had accumulated over the years, Teddy Cortez sat in an easy chair inside his tent and pondered if he could donate some of his items.

“I can’t take it with me,” he said.

Where to next?

The question of what to do with their belongings is less pressing than the question of where homeless people might live now that the park is off limits.

Even police officers Tuesday morning raised their eyebrows and shrugged their shoulders at the problem. The county has also struggled to find an answer.

“Most of the people, in fact all of them we’ve talked to, they’ve been pleasant,” Kossow said. “They understand … and they’re asking what is the mayor going to do for them? Where can they go?”

Lance Niimi, Hawaii County’s assistant housing administrator, said his department continues to search for a long-term solution and is exploring several potential sites.

Valera indicated there may have been community push back to some of the proposed locations.

“The ‘not in my backyard’ mentality has to shift,” he said. “Many people label the homeless, group them all together. But there’s a difference between the houseless and vagrants.”

Niimi said there were 68 homeless people identified at Old A, adding 62 of them expressed interest in permanent housing solutions. Over the last two weeks, HOPE Services has led the way in placing 17 of those 62 people indoors.

The mayor said the 45 that remained was a number too large to prove palatable. In response, Niimi and his department have set up cots under two canopy tents in the upper right corner of the lot adjacent from HOPE Services’ Friendly Place in the Old Kona Industrial Area — the same lot where 23 micro housing units shelter formerly chronic homeless.

How the business sector, which vociferously objected to the micro units last year, will be impacted by the increased homeless presence bears attention.

The canopies will house 20 of the park’s remaining homeless, providing them with living and social services in an open-air setting until permanent solutions can be found. The canopies bring the total number of housed homeless to 37.

But 31 from Old A still remain on the streets, including 25 that expressed interest in housing. Where they might end up is a question not even they can answer.

Janell, who lived at the park with her boyfriend for roughly eight months, was offered a spot under the canopy. Her boyfriend was not, though, so she chose not to go. Niimi said offers were made using the Housing First model’s vulnerability tool to prioritize the most vulnerable.

Janell was surprised the county allowed her to stay in the park as long as they did, for which she was thankful.

The park offered access to drinking water via a system of spigots, not an easy resource to find. Vickery also said Old A was a calmer homeless camp than others with less crime. It was typically inhabited by older homeless who are often targets of the younger street demographics.

But there, homeless looked out for one another, Janell said.

“We kind of became one big ohana,” she said. “No more, starting tomorrow. But it’ll be OK.”

West Hawaii Today’s Laura Ruminkski contributed to this report