City officials voiced optimism that homeless sweeps that started Tuesday around Blaisdell Park in Pearl City will help restore the park’s popularity — while preparing for the possibility that the homeless will return or set up camp somewhere else.

Tuesday’s sweep represented the first of three phases to clear the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail of dozens of homeless encampments — from Hawaiian Electric Co.’s Waiau power plant toward Aloha Stadium — while repairing the bike and walking path and adding signs and other improvements. Blaisdell Park, on the mauka side of the path, remains closed through Aug. 31 for landscaping, painting and repairs.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Ross Sasamura, director and chief engineer for the city’s Department of Facility Maintenance, were clear that Tuesday’s sweep, by itself, will not end homelessness for the people who for years have been living untouched on Navy land along the shoreline in front of Blaisdell Park.

“The work that the Department of Facility Maintenance does with respect to the enforcement of the stored property ordinance and sidewalk nuisance ordinance is really not intended to be the solution for homelessness,” Sasamura said. “Our objective, our mission, is really to keep infrastructure clear to allow people to traverse sidewalks and use public spaces freely, as they should be able to, without having other folks infringe on the use of these public facilities or the normal activity that goes with it.”

The city estimates that 50 people were living along the shoreline around the park before Tuesday’s sweep, with another 120 to 150 farther townside in areas that will be swept in the next two phases. The timing of those phases is still being worked out.

While some homeless who were cleared out Tuesday might return, Caldwell said, the city needs to keep homeless encampments from growing — as did the one in Kakaako that swelled to more than 300 people in the summer of 2015, bringing with it crime and health and safety concerns.

The city had no jurisdiction in Kakaako to clear the state-owned land that belongs to the Hawaii Community Development Authority and eventually moved in after reaching an agreement with state officials.

In Kakaako, there was a “criminal element that was preying on the homeless who lived there and the danger it caused for women and children,” Caldwell told reporters. “That’s unacceptable. If we don’t enforce, a place like this grows larger and larger and larger and those who need help are preyed upon. And those who live here and pay taxes are denied a place that was built for everybody. Enforcement is part of the action. You say it’s not the solution to homelessness. But I can promise you that if we did nothing, we’d have a bigger problem that you’d be covering and it would be a very tragic and sad problem and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Terri Murphy, outreach housing coordinator for U.S. Vets — which runs the city’s Housing First program — said three families comprising 18 people agreed on Monday to move into the Waianae Civic Center homeless shelter.

Many others living along the shoreline — mostly single adults and couples — have been homeless for years and are reluctant to go into shelters, which each month have 500 to 600 vacancies.

“A lot of them are locals,” said Phil Acosta, executive director of Alea Bridge, a nonprofit service provider trying to help people around Blaisdell Park. “They’re hesitant to go into a shelter.”

Tuesday’s sweep by the city followed three years of efforts to reach an agreement with the Navy to enforce city rules on federal land.

Councilman Brandon Elefante, who represents the area, brokered the memorandum of understanding between the city and the Navy.

He said he hopes the people who were cleared out Tuesday — and those who will be cleared in the next two phases — will take advantage of ongoing offers of assistance, including shelter beds or, possibly, long-term housing.

“It is quite sad to see the condition that some of these people are living in,” Elefante said.

At the same time, he expressed hope that the sweeps clear the way for Blaisdell Park — “a beautiful gem,” he called it — to be restored.

“We really want to create that safe space and access where people can bring their children, their grandchildren, as well as grandparents, who want to access this precious area,” Elefante said.

Bunny Boisjolie, 64, had been living in the area for more than two years. Until Tuesday’s sweep by the city, Boisjolie said, “Federal (Navy officials) gave us a break.”

Boisjolie said she has few housing options, especially since she recently adopted a pitbull mix puppy named Cleopatra that had been abandoned at the park.

“What else can we do?” she asked. “I guess we gotta go.”

But Marc Alexander, executive director of the city’s Office of Housing, later told reporters that pets are allowed to stay in kennels at the Waianae Civic Center homeless shelter; as are service animals at the Institute for Human Services; and inside clients’ housing units at the city’s Hale Mauliola transitional community on Sand Island made of converted shipping containers.

Jeff Garcia, 40, set up camp along the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail less than a year ago after getting out of Halawa Prison.

With no money, Garcia ended up next to dozens of other tents and tarps along the bike and walking path because “there was nothing good,” he said. “It’s a last resort.”

As he packed up his belongings Tuesday, Garcia said his identification that he needs to get a job and housing was stolen.

Asked what he’ll do now with no job, ID or housing, Garcia reflected the next step for many of his neighbors when he said simply, “I don’t know.”