While the Department of Land and Natural Resources swept dozens of homeless encampments from the slopes of Diamond Head last week, campers are already returning.
DLNR announced on April 25 that it had cleared 45 individual encampments from lands makai of Diamond Head Road during a quarterly cleanup operation involving the department’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement and the Hawai‘i Department of Law Enforcement and more.
But many new camps will likely take their place soon.
“I drove by [Sunday] night,” said Keoni Kino, co-founder of community cleanup group Kuilei Cliffs. “I already saw some folks moving back, people moving back up the slope.”
Kuilei Cliffs sends volunteers every Saturday to clean up the ands around their namesake beach park. But after five years of operation, Kino said he hasn’t seen the homelessness problem improve.
“I think it’s gotten worse,” Kino said. “We see more people, either going higher up the slope or further down.”
Kino estimated there might be more than 300 encampments about the entire crater, and that there are 15 to 20 of them within a quarter-mile of Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park. He also said that last week’s sweep was a major effort, the first real collaboration between state and city forces on a single sweep.
“They put real time and energy into this one,” he said.
DLNR homeless coordinator Pua Aiu told Aloha State Daily via email that the previous quarterly cleanup cleared 46 camps, although that cleanup covered a different area of Diamond Head so comparisons are fuzzy.
While Kino said the camps usually do not impede Kuilei Cliffs’ cleanup work — “they’re aware of the work we do, they know when we’re coming and they’ll usually move” — he added that the beach park’s shower is a constant meeting place for Diamond Head's homeless.
“They don’t cause problems for us,” he said.
But Kino noted that the homeless camps themselves can pose a significant ecological risk to the area.
“(DOCARE) said they were looking for wildfire hazards, which sounds extremely plausible to me,” Kino said, explaining that he has seen potential firestarters such as old gas stoves and candles at abandoned encampments around Diamond Head.
At the same time, DLNR’s Friday statement mentioned that health and safety concerns prevented DOCARE contractors from removing human waste left behind on the slopes —“and no one knows if this material will flow into the ocean during rain,” the statement added.
Aiu reiterated to ASD on Monday that DLNR does not address the human waste issue.
Prior to last week’s sweep, homeless care providers offered services among the camps, while DLNR offered assistance programs to those displaced during the sweep. But Aiu mentioned in DLNR’s statement that there are not enough beds to support all the homeless on Diamond Head.
“We know it can’t all happen overnight,” Kino said. “But it’s been a problem for a long time."
