A chain link fence on the outskirts of Chinatown has literally disappeared in the last six months. Tarps and tents now blanket the fence-line. But that may soon change. The first tents along Beretania Street across Aala Park surfaced several months ago.
"This has been going on almost six months right now," said Kalihi-Palama neighborhood board member Roland Louie. "They gradually get more and more and more, now all the way to Aala Street. This ridiculous!"
Now the chain link fence that separates the sidewalk from a private parking lot is nearly covered with tarps and tents for an entire block.
"There's so many of them and they're so big that they've pushed all the way out to the edge of the sidewalk where if you're on a wheel chair there's no way you can get by," said State Rep. Karl Rhoads who represents the Chinatown area. "Even sometimes just walking is difficult to get by you have to step out past the curb into the street."
Homeless advocates have reached out to the homeless encouraging them to find shelter at the Institute for Human Services. Most have declined.
This sidewalk is outside an area that falls under the city's sidewalk ban, so police could not evict them. A private landowner may have found a solution.
"My understanding is he's going to take the fence down," said Rhoads. "If they're just parked in the middle of the sidewalk that's a different issue than if they're actually attached to a private property which is a trespassing situation."
The land is owned by HighMark Investments LLC, a Seattle-based company that purchased the 65-thousand square foot lot in 2006. At the time, HighMark announced plans of building a medical office center on the property.
"There's a commercial parking lot and my understanding is they're going to re-stripe probably do pave over parts of it that are not already paved," said Rhoads. "And then they're not going to put the fence back up."
"I think it's very good," said Louie. "I think we should start doing that right now before APEC comes around."
State and city officials say the landowner wants to be fair to the homeless and will alert all parties before the fence comes down. The company's owner could not be reached for comment on when this will happen.
"The city office of housing, the state homeless director - we're all working very closely together on trying to find real permanent solutions to this," said Honolulu City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard. "The bigger issue for the community as a whole is still there on how to we try to help people who need homes and who need housing and that's something that we have to continue to remain vigilant on."
"I think we're doing a good job of trying to keep the balance between being humane and at the same time making it a livable community for everybody else," added Rhoads.
