It’s important to think outside the box, especially when things seem perpetually stagnant and boxed in — as with Oahu’s homeless situation. 

We welcome the city’s hiring of a pair of private security guards to rotate among nine newly cleaned urban parks, including Moiliili Neighborhood Park and nearby Old Stadium Park. The city just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few months to close the parks for repairs and restoration — so maintaining conditions will be an ongoing challenge for those known homeless havens.

But here’s where some out-of-the-box thinking comes into play: In addition to the two guards, tasked with curbing illegal activities during this monthlong pilot patrol, let’s start getting transitional-homeless people to become part of the solution.

Homelessness afflicts a wide range of people — and many are not chronically addled but down on their luck, priced out of affordable homes or simply needing a boost to earn a living. Surely some can be enlisted — via training or employment — to help keep the parks clear. Such a bootstraps path might also help ease a growing “them versus us” defiance between homeless campers and government officials.

The mayor on Thursday hinted at more upcoming efforts to curtail illegal homeless activities; they’re eagerly awaited for the good of all. Let’s add this idea to the mix: Engaging able-minded homeless, or just-out-of-homeless, people to be part of the solution would truly be the ultimate in — as the mayor often says — “compassionate disruption.”