Homeless camps being dismantled from Iwilei sidewalks
The city continued its efforts today to rid sidewalks of homeless encampments with the operations centered around the Iwilei area where 38 notices were issued on Wednesday.
City facility maintenance workers spent the morning identifying, tagging and removing tents, suit cases and other items belonging to the homeless who had been warned on Wednesday that their possessions had to be removed by today or they would be taken to the Halawa base yard and stored for 30 days. If they are not claimed, the items will be sold or disposed of.
The cleanup came under a month-old city ordinance that prohibits the use of city sidewalks as a storage area for personal items.
City workers were at Kuwili street and Iwilei Road where all of the confiscated items were inventoried, matching photographs taken the previous day, put in gray garbage bags and then placed in green garbage bins, which were taken the base yard.
Workers also returned to the Moiliili area where seven citations were issued Wednesday to the homeless still camping near Moiliili Field and three near the Old Stadium Park.
During the Jan. 10 operation there were no arrests. City officials cited 25 people at Pawaa In-Ha Park — at King and Kaheka streets — and a total of 19 at Moiliili Field and Old Stadium Park last week.
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The new ordinance, signed by Mayor Peter Carlisle on Dec. 9, prohibits keeping personal items, including furniture and clothing, in public areas.
The first use of the "stored property" ordinance took place on Dec. 30, when the city notified several property owners in Mililani that basketball hoop structures placed on public sidewalks were in violation of the ordinance. All owners promptly removed the structures, the city said.