About 30 homeless “beach people” breakfasted on scrambled eggs and Vienna sausages at Kahe Point Beach Park this morning after spending a chilly night in a pavilion at the park.
The people returned to Kahe Point Beach last night, just hours after the city had cleared away the remnants of their tents and makeshift shelters and evicted them from the park.
They slept last night on old mattresses and blankets placed on the concrete floor of the pavilion. Their only other possessions were picnic coolers.
The Rev. Lei Sexton of Na Kokua Ministries, a supporter of the beach people, said police checked on them several times during the night, but “They didn’t come out and hassle us.”
No beach people returned to Keaau Beach Park further up the Leeward Coast where the city also evicted campers yesterday.
The beach people say they went back to Kahe Point last night because they don’t want to camp at the Makaha site the city has set up for them and have no place else to go.
“It’s more like a survival thing that we have got to do for ourselves,” said Daniel Kealohanui this morning.
Sexton said the people intend to stay at Kahe Point “until the good Lord opens up the place that he’s got ready for us.”
The beach people yesterday went to City Hall to ask that they be allowed to set up their tents at the parks again.
City Managing Director D.G. “Andy” Anderson yesterday refused to back down on the city’s decision to close the beach parks. However, he advised police to make arrests only as a “last, last, last resort and only on provocation.”…
Mayor Frank Fasi…
ordered Kahe Point and Keaau parks closed at midnight Monday and police arrived before dawn yesterday morning to remove the remaining tents and barricade the park entrances.
The parks are to be closed for the next couple of months for maintenance. As an alternative, the city has set aside land at Makaha for temporary camping. But the beach people say the land is not safe.
