Old Kona Airport Park cleanup prep continues

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 them in, put them to work and put a roof over their head.

When Kona Community Policing Division Officer William Vickery 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 as palm trees and the ocean’s blue. Perhaps the clearest example of how the issue spiraled out of control on Hawaii Island is Old Kona Airport Park, where dozens of homeless have resided for months. Even years.

But that all ends today.

For the past two weeks, Kossow and other members of Mayor Harry Kim’s administration, various county departments, police officers and service providers have prepared the park’s homeless population to clear out ahead of a cleanup 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 day. Camping in parks is prohibited under Hawaii County code and enforcement will now be a higher priority.

Charmaine Kamaka, director of the county 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 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.

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 also will 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 about 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 have is too much to move.

Overwhelmed by the amount of personal belongings he accumulated through 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 also has 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, the 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 might have been community pushback 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 Kona Airport Park and that 62 of them expressed interest in permanent housing solutions. During the past two weeks, HOPE Services has led the way in placing 17 of those 62 people in housing.

Niimi’s department also set up cots under two canopy tents in a lot adjacent to HOPE Services’ Friendly Place in the Old Kona Industrial Area — the same lot where 23 micro-housing units shelter formerly chronic homeless people. 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 Kona Airport Park still remain without another option, including 25 who 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, 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 it 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 Kona Airport Park was a calmer homeless camp than others with less crime. It was typically inhabited by older homeless people. 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.”

Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.