City park crews, under the watch of Honolulu police, began cleaning up the northern portion of the sprawling Ulehawa Beach Park yesterday, less than 12 hours after a 10 p.m. Sunday deadline for homeless to move out.

Only two people had stayed overnight and were actually camping at Nani Kai Beach, at the northern end of Ulehawa at 7:30 yesterday morning when police arrived and asked them to leave, police Maj. Michael Moses said.

"There were only a couple of stragglers, and they were in the process of packing up their belongings," he said.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced in December that the area would be cleared to allow park crews to conduct extensive maintenance to the areas, specifically Nani Kai and Surfer's beaches.

About 35 city park workers hauled away about six truckloads of garbage and debris from the two Ulehawa sites yesterday.

The action was part of the city's effort to reclaim beaches on the Wai'anae Coast dominated by the homeless and came nearly a year after a cleanup of Ma'ili Beach Park, which is considered the model for such operations. That cleanup led to the relocation of more than 150 people.

Further such cleanups are anticipated.

Nani Kai and Surfer's will remain closed the next three days as the city crews finish maintenance, city Parks Director Lester Chang said. They will reopen at 3:30 p.m. Friday, at which point they will be closed nightly from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Ulehawa technically stretches south all the way to Princess Kahanu Avenue in Nanakuli. Chang said there are no immediate plans to clean and move out the homeless from those areas.

Lautoa F. Atisanoe Jr., project coordinator for the state Department of Human Services Hawaii Public Housing Authority, estimated there were 120 people at the two Ulehawa sites three months ago. Thanks to the combined effort of service providers, the city and the state, that dwindled to 72 during the past two weeks.

"I think it went well during the weeks (leading up to the deadline)," Atisanoe said.

"All the service providers came out ... so there was a whole big effort ... to try to get providers to come in and service our clients here on the beach."

As a result of the efforts, about 40 percent of those who left went to area shelters, Atisanoe said. Some of the others have gone back to their families, but others remain at other beaches along the coast, he said.

Addressing that larger problem will take time.

"Trying to force people to move and not finding a place for them to go is the hardest thing to do, especially when the city and state are just starting to buy into the idea ... of being part of the solution," Atisanoe said.

Anthony K. Aila Jr., 45, who has been living at various Leeward Coast beaches the past two years, was the last holdout at Nani Kai yesterday morning.

"I'm not going to stay. I'm not going to get arrested today," said Aila, who nonetheless insisted that it his right to sleep on the beach.

Aila said he is moving his belongings to a beach known as "7-Eleven's" because it is across Farrington Highway from the Ma'ili 7-Eleven store. "As long as we're not seen by the public, then we not goin' be bothered," he said.

7-Eleven's is just across Ma'ili Stream from Surfer's Beach, where park crews began their work yesterday.

Elijoe Kaahu, 48, who has been at Surfer's Beach two weeks, said she watched as the city crews began picking up debris and razing what was left of the encampment there.

Kaahu worries that 7-Eleven's will be next and that she and her boyfriend will be displaced again. She said the couple was at Ma'ili last year when the city began its evictions there.

For a brief time after that, she said, the couple and two older children — one an adult and the other in high school — rented a Waipahu apartment for $1,400 a month.

But the boyfriend's construction work became spotty with the downturn in the economy. "Jobs got short, and the company he was working for, the guy closed down," she said.

The couple ended up on the beach while the two boys went off on their own, renting a room in a house in Wai'anae for $800 a month. "The older son has custody of his brother," she said.

Like others, Kaahu said she and her boyfriend won't go to the shelters because of the rules imposed on them.

That's the case with Bert Beaman, 46, who along with wife Marianne broke down their 20-by-20-foot tent at Nani Kai on Sunday in anticipation of yesterday's actions.

Beaman said he doesn't drink and he doesn't use drugs, but still does not like the idea of having rules imposed on him. The couple will look for another beach or live out of his van.

"There's too much rules; it's like prison," he said. "That's not right. You guys are there to help the people, not make them feel like they're in prisons."

Employed as a mover, Beaman said the couple doesn't want to stay on the beach but has no choice. "We want to find a place, we want to get off the beach, but the house rents are too high, and we either make too much or not enough."

Ed Lauer, general manager of the new 800-home D.R. Horton/ Schuler subdivision Sea Country, applauded the city's effort.

"This is a fantastic thing," Lauer said, noting that about 50 Sea Country residents have adopted the two sections of Ulehawa Beach Park and intend to clean it twice a month.

As for the homeless situation, Lauer said, the state should find tracts of land where tents with lighting and kitchen facilities can be set up as temporary shelters until more permanent solutions can be found.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.