By the end of the year, the state hopes to open a 300-bed emergency homeless shelter in Wai'anae and 400 transitional apartments in Kalaeloa to house some of the hundreds of homeless people sleeping on beaches from Nanakuli to Makua.

The state will spend $6 million to build the Wai'anae shelter and a total of $3 million to renovate two facilities in Kalaeloa for transitional apartments.

The proposals have garnered widespread support from residents and homeless advocates, but some want the state to come up with more space before the new year.

"It's a wonderful plan," said Patty Teruya, chairwoman of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board. "But I would like to see another."

The state is evaluating other potential sites for shelters on the Leeward Coast, examining infrastructure and proximity to bus lines and schools. And officials are under a tight deadline: The city is closing beach parks on the Leeward Coast for maintenance, forcing hundreds of homeless people living in tents to move elsewhere.

Ma'ili beaches have been cleared, and crews are expected to move farther along the 16-mile Wai'anae Coast this month. The city has said the beaches are being cleaned by sections, and in each area the homeless will be allowed to return once work is done.

Kaulana Park, who is the state liaison charged with opening the homeless shelters, said several Leeward O'ahu service providers are attempting to keep track of homeless families as they move from beaches.

The providers will refer people to the shelters when they open their doors. A recent survey by a nonprofit agency conducted from Kahe Point to Ka'ena Point indicates the number of homeless people living in beach parks along the Wai'anae Coast is between 725 and 850, far short of the 4,000 that some government and social agencies have estimated.

The emergency shelter in Wai'anae is planned as a temporary structure, which officials plan to move from the site in five years. Park said the state has asked architects for designs, and crews already have cleared the vacant land of brush and grass.

Once completed, the shelter will house families, couples and single homeless people and have space for administrative offices. Park said officials hope to offer daytime classes and other programs for those homeless people who don't work. The hope, he said, is they will be able to quickly move into nearby transitional shelters.

"Part of the rationale is to get programs and services on site," he said.

APARTMENT SPACES

Meanwhile, renovations expected to cost about $1.5 million started in July at a three-story former military building on Belleau Woods Street in Kalaeloa. Two-thirds of the building will be opened to homeless families by the end of the year.

Park said the families will live in small apartments, and be responsible for their own meals. The remaining one-third of the building will be finished by early to mid-2007.

And work on a nearby, similarly sized building, which is owned by the University of Hawai'i, is expected to start soon. Park said the university is attempting to transfer the building to the state. The transfer must be approved by the federal government, he added, because the facility was given to the university by the U.S. Department of Education. Renovation of the building is estimated at $1.5 million.

Park presented his plan for an emergency shelter in Wai'anae on Tuesday at a neighborhood board meeting, and members gave him rave reviews. Just three years ago, residents were up in arms about a proposal to build a tent city for homeless at nearby Wai'anae Boat Harbor. What's changed? Everything, Teruya said.

In 2003, the state wasn't behind the grassroots coalition, known as Community Area of Responsibility, which wanted to set up a tent city for the homeless on five acres.

And, Teruya said, the homeless population in Wai'anae wasn't as big as it is now.

"I think it's different," said Teruya, who was a proponent of the tent city plan. "The state failed to jump in back then, now the state is being responsible. I see this as a temporary facility. We want to enable these people."

Neddie G. Waiamau-Nunuha, also a member of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board, agreed that the proposed site for the shelter was perfect — within walking distance of schools, shops, service providers and a city bus stop.

"It's a little different" from the Camp Hope proposal, Waiamau-Nunuha said.

But mostly, she added, "Wai'anae woke up."

LESSONS LEARNED

As Park works to set up the Leeward Coast shelters, he is in continuing discussions with workers at Next Step, the state's emergency homeless shelter in Kaka'ako. Park said he hopes to avoid some of the early frustrations experienced at the Kaka'ako shelter.

Those problems ranged from no place for children to play to not enough social services, said Laura E. Thielen, director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, which oversees operations at Next Step.

"We've learned from our experience," Thielen said. "Probably the biggest thing that needs to be incorporated into all of these is community involvement. We have gotten such a huge amount of volunteers."

There are 300 people at the Kaka'ako shelter, many of whom were living at Ala Moana Beach Park when the city decided to institute a night-closure policy. Of those at the shelter, 100 are children. She said it's been "extremely difficult" to get those at the shelter into transitional or permanent housing, mostly because of the hot housing market.

"The bottom line is, there's not housing for them to go to," she said. "The expectation that people will move out in a month or two months is pretty unrealistic."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.