DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Under the Wahiawa Bridge, where he has lived for more than three months, Alberto Rodrigues, right, woke up from an afternoon nap yesterday amid a clutter of beer cans. The 50-year-old native of El Salvador said he lost nearly all of his belongings in a state sweep on Friday but reclaimed his spot anyway.

Bridge over
troubled squatters

Homeless people promptly return
to their concrete sanctuary
in Wahiawa

CORRECTION Thursday, March 3, 2005 » An eviction of homeless people is scheduled for today at Keaau Beach Park. Page A1 articles that ran on Monday, Tuesday and in yesterday's final edition misspelled the park as Keeau Beach Park. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

Go ahead, arrest him.

Godfrey Kaowili keeps coming back.

The 60-year-old has been living under the bridge at the entrance to Wahiawa for three years. He boasts three arrests for refusing to leave and was back at the site yesterday -- just two days after increased community pressure spurred the state and police to evict him and about 20 other people who call the concrete shelter home.

Two other regulars had also returned to the spot -- for good, they said -- by yesterday afternoon.

"The people from outside think we're stealing from them. They think we're drug dealers," Kaowili said after raking up trash that was left behind by the Friday sweep. "Let these people rest. They're not doing nothing."

The state and police, though, have confirmed reports of drug use under the bridge and thefts from nearby neighborhoods. They said the health and safety of the community are in jeopardy if the homeless are allowed to stay.

"We kind of had to take some sort of action," said Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa. "It's not something I take joy in doing."

He said the Wahiawa homeless were offered social services, including help with finding shelter, food and medical care. Ishikawa also said the bridge residents were notified two weeks before the sweep so that they would have time to plan.

Some chose to relocate on their own, he said.

"I'm sure there's a lot of good folks" under the bridge, Ishikawa said, "but if we let them stay, it gives the troublemakers an excuse to return."

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Alberto Rodrigues, left, scavenged for valuables yesterday under the Wahiawa Bridge, where he found $8 and some costume jewelry. Godfrey Kaowili, right, returned to the rain-protected shelter despite being evicted by the state on Friday. Their persistence seems to bear out observations that government evictions of the homeless achieve only temporary results.

Many Wahiawa residents, who had voiced concerns for months about the homeless situation under the bridge, were relieved to hear about the sweep. "It is difficult, and these people have nowhere to go," said Sheri Bentley, a member of the Wahiawa Neighborhood Board.

"But I know that they need to be taken out of there."

The board's chairwoman, Kathleen Masunaga, said there was also concern from Lake Wilson tour operators.

"If we are going to be marketing ecotourism ... it's not really scenic to have a shantytown there," she said. "For us in Wahiawa, Lake Wilson is really our natural jewel."

Meanwhile, community leaders are raising concerns about the practice of evicting the homeless.

A group of pastors, including former state legislator Rev. Bob Nakata, and others will gather at the state Capitol today to push for a moratorium on homeless sweeps.

The rally comes as three homeless evictions are planned this week.

The city Parks and Recreation Department will sweep Ewa's Oneula Beach Park early Wednesday. There are similar evictions planned for Pokai Bay and Keeau Beach Park on Thursday.

And along with the Wahiawa bridge sweep, the state also stepped in last Thursday to move 15 to 20 homeless people living near Dillingham Airfield, Ishikawa said. He said the homeless people had lived on a beach at Mokuleia but moved after production of the show "Lost" started in the area.

The homeless group was asked to relocate from the Dillingham site after there were several reports of children playing in the street, Ishikawa said.

Darlene Hein, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, assisted the Wahiawa homeless before the Friday sweep, offering them information on support services and suggesting places to stay. She agreed that the homeless should not be living under the bridge, but also said that kicking them out of any area will not solve the island's homeless situation.

"The truth is that they'll go away, then they'll go back," she said. "We're chasing the homeless around the island. We're spending a lot of energy spinning our wheels."

Back under the Wahiawa bridge, Alberto Rodrigues is just waking up from an afternoon nap. Strewn around his sleeping mat are more than a dozen beer cans -- the product, he says, of having a friend to commiserate with and some extra cash in his wallet.

"Oh, this beer," he playfully whines, as he props himself up and draws his dirt-stained cotton blanket close around his chest.

The 50-year-old, who was born in El Salvador, said he lost nearly everything in the state's Friday sweep: He went to work in Honolulu, and crews threw all his belongings away because they had not been claimed.

"I have nothing here," he said. "No more nothing."

Rodrigues said he has lived under the bridge for three to four months. During that time he has been able to plant banana, cassava and avocado at its base.

He has also made friends of a few ducks and some stray cats, which, like him, seek shelter there.