WAI'ANAE COAST — City parks officials expect to close part of Ma'ili Beach Park today as they push forward with the cleanup of Wai'anae Coast parks that began last month — a move generally praised by the community but one that worries those who have been living there.

A cluster of tents dot the shoreline in Ma'ili. Some shelters appear new, neat and tidy; others are barely kept together with worn tarps and duct tape, spilling blankets, clothes and pots of food into the sand. The latest statistics from Wai'anae Community Outreach estimate at least 840 people are living on the beach in the area but others involved say that number climbs when you include the area all the way north to Kea'au.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced in June that he was moving forward with a long-promised cleanup of the Leeward Coast parks. He said he wants to be sensitive to the homeless while making the beaches more welcoming to the rest of the community.

Darnel Fernandez of Waipahu spent some of last week camping at Ma'ili on vacation with her boyfriend. She believes the city should clean the parks and fix the broken restrooms but she understands some of the problems of the homeless after sharing the beach with them.

"My heart goes out to the people living here. It's hard for them," Fernandez said. They had picked up a permit to camp at nearby Lualualei but she said they didn't feel safe there and headed for the beach.

Fernandez said those who live on the beach have become their friends. "Everybody watches everybody's things," she said.

But Fernandez also got a midday surprise when a police car drove up to their tent as part of the city effort to warn people that the cleanup would push people out of one side of the sprawling park.

'PUSHING DIRT AROUND'

Police last week periodically came through the area reminding all the campers that they will be asked to leave after tonight, in the southern end. Their message was polite but firm: "We're just letting everybody know. We don't want anybody to get hurt with the heavy equipment coming in here. We don't kick anybody out. We're just asking."

Some of those living in the park already moved their belongings to the northern end of the park, slated for the second round of cleaning.

Dino Palisbo, 39, has lived in the park nearly a year. He and his girlfriend, Christie Kealoha, keep their campsite clean; their hammock hangs between two coconut palms nearby. The grass is greener because Palisbo waters it.

Palisbo said he served in the Air Force and did some time in jail. Now, he looks ahead and thanks the social-service agencies and churches trying to shape a better future. Sometimes he cleans the crumbling city bathroom near his campsite.

"I wash and scrub that place from time to time," he said.

He's interested in training and other resources that could be available at the state's planned shelter in Kalaeloa as a possible solution.

What won't work, he said, is simply forcing the homeless from one area to the next. "That's just pushing the dirt around," he said. "That's not cleaning the house."

Hannemann spokesman Bill Brennan said the city is working with the state and cleaning up the parks in sections to avoid displacing people abruptly.

"It's not like we're going to be shutting down the whole Wai'anae Coast and say, 'Everybody's got to get out of here,' " Brennan said.

"If we ask you to move from section one then you may have to move to section two, which is going to be right next door to where you stand right now anyway. So it is not an effort to sweep people out.

"The only time we would start to ask people to leave the beaches is if and when the state has something up and running that's able to take them in."

Gov. Linda Lingle appointed Kaulana Park as homeless solutions team leader for Leeward O'ahu. Park is on loan from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

TACKLING A 'HUGE' ISSUE

Park said he believes the number of Wai'anae Coast homeless is much bigger than what people have thought, at least closer to 2,000 people with less than half of them on the beaches. "We're not sure what the actual number is, but it is huge," he said.

Park said the governor made a commitment, and so has the city and a number of social-service agencies and churches. He said they have named the effort HEART, for Homeless Efforts Achieving Results Together.

He's encouraged by the number of homeless working toward a better life and reaching out for available assistance.

"I wouldn't recognize them as homeless if they were walking down the street," he said.

Park said the state hopes to begin work next month on a three-story building at Kalaeloa that can be adapted to serve as transitional housing for the homeless, starting with about 140 people and adding more.

"We're going to work as fast as we can," Park said. "I'm hopeful that this is a good start."

He said the large numbers — including families with young children — make the challenge bigger. "It's not like Ala Moana, where you're dealing with a couple hundred people."

Hannemann said he heard the criticism that the city didn't give enough warning to the homeless and agencies that help them at Ala Moana Beach Park and gave months of notice this time.

Nita Kamakea, personal fitness instructor at Ke Ola Mamo, the Native Hawaiian healthcare system, lives and works in the Wai'anae Coast community. She has lived in Nanakuli for 20-plus years and works toward health and wellness improvement for Hawaiians of all walks of life, including some homeless.

Kamakea said the cleanup is a good step, one that's "overdue" for the community.

But she said there are no easy answers to a longer-term fix for the parks. She said it's more than a budget issue.

From the government, the community needs some commitment of continuing care, she said. "We need maintenance — not just come, fix and go away.

And the community needs to make a commitment to helping. She said she paddles canoe and each year her organization helps sponsor a Father's Day canoe regatta, which she calls "one of the best" in many ways, serving up such treats as home-cooked food and shave ice and a big family-style event.

Despite the effort, Kamakea said she is embarrassed by the restrooms at Nanakuli Beach Park. "The restrooms are pilau, very dirty," she said.

In the past, they've seen cleanups and fix-ups ruined by people who tear down what's been fixed, breaking fixtures and emptying supplies. "How do we stop that vicious vandalism?" she asked.

PUBLIC INITIATIVE URGED

Hannemann is encouraging the community, church groups and citizen patrols to help take on this part of the issue.

If private groups and the community take some responsibility, it helps the community, Brennan said, and "it helps stretch the taxpayer dollar."

Joseph Galvan, 56, said he lives on the beach because he can't afford a house on the $1,000 a month he earns. He said open-heart surgery and other medical issues forced him to retire.

Galvan said building more affordable housing is part of the long-term solution. "We're doing what we can do to stay alive," he said.

He lives a short distance from Joe Menke, who shares his tent with his four children, ranging in age from 2 to 9. Menke said he has been on the beach for three months, since he got kicked out of his house in Waipahu.

He said losing the house also cost him a job cleaning at Ala Moana because he couldn't easily commute to town from the coast. "I'm not working now," Menke said. "I'm waiting to go to the shelter," he said, hoping the state will offer him a chance to get back to a more normal life for his family.

City parks worker Alvin Adams nods his head in appreciation of the work done last week to clear the brush and trash from Tracks Beach Park, revealing a spectacular view of the ocean. "It looks real nice," he said.

Adams hopes the government will help find working solutions. He lives nearby and grew up in the area, so he understands some of their frustrations. "We're all born and raised here," he said.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.