Another round of beach cleanups ahead

Homeless people expect to be ordered off of North Shore beaches

Roberta Kuehu-Soberano created a home for her family of seven on the beach. As she looks around to her family's three tents and a makeshift kitchen at Mokuleia Beach Park, she knows that in a few months it could all be swept away.

The city announced April 26 that it will clean and close selected beach parks between Mokuleia and Velzyland in about two months, and Kuehu-Soberano has the feeling that she will be one of the homeless people forced to leave.

Like many who have been in the same position, she asks herself, Where are we going to go?

"I have three kids to support," said Kuehu-Soberano, 37, also a grandmother of two, who has been living on the beach since November. "I have two jobs, and it's still not enough for rent. I've been looking in the newspapers, and I can't find anything. It's ridiculous."

Much attention on Hawaii's homeless has focused on Ala Moana, Waikiki and Waianae. But tucked away on the North Shore is a small but growing number of homeless people -- the next group to be forced to move as the city continues cleaning beach parks across the island.

"No one was really surprised," said Kathy Yamanouchi, who lives in her van with her boyfriend. "We were just waiting for them to come here."

Yamanouchi will receive her bachelor's degree in social work from Hawaii Pacific University this month. She studied often by candlelight and lived off her financial aid, but could not afford rent.

While no one knows the precise figure, an estimated 200 homeless people live on the North Shore, said Darlene Hein, program director of the Waikiki Health Center Caravan Program, which provides outreach on the North Shore.

On the North Shore, many have found themselves camping on beaches or living in their cars because they cannot afford the skyrocketing housing prices. Property tax increases in recent years hit the North Shore the hardest, and new expensive vacation rentals are driving rents up.

Within the last three years, rental prices have almost tripled, said Richard Sterman, chairman of the North Shore Regional Group Realtors. The cheapest price for a one-person studio is about $450 to $650 a month, he said, adding that even those are extremely hard to find.

"I don't know of any affordable housing on the North Shore," said Sterman, who added he would like to see some of the privately owned land in the North Shore used for affordable housing. "This is the most beautiful place in the world with some of the best surf. Rent is not going down."

The number of homeless people on the North Shore has increased recently, Hein said, including displaced homeless campers from Waianae who relocated.

"They cleaned up that side, but they put the problem on this side," said Rosalani "Mimi" Repercio, 35, who lives in a van at Mokuleia Beach Park and noticed an increase of homeless people there who say they are from Waianae.

Last year, the city began shutting down Ala Moana Beach Park at night, forcing many homeless people to move. Seeing the move as a success, the city closed and cleaned Maili Beach Park in Waianae in March, also displacing dozens of homeless people.

Prior to the closing, the state had opened several shelters for homeless in Waianae. In announcing the plans for the North Shore two months in advance, the city is hoping the state, churches and local organizations will do the same.

"We're hoping in that time the state will provide some facilities for the homeless people living in those parks," said Bill Brennan, city spokesman. "We have a model that seems to be working well that began at Ala Moana Beach Park."

However, many homeless people said they do not want to live in shelters because they are crowded, regulated and filled with others they do not want influencing young children.

"They feel like they're in a jail," said Repercio, who said she will likely move her van somewhere else if the city kicks her out of Mokuleia Beach Park.

Finding housing alternatives is left up to the state. However, officials said last week that it had no plans yet for creating shelters on the North Shore.

"We're still trying to finish off the Leeward Coast," said Kaulana Park, the state's point man for homeless solutions. "We're not done yet."

"We don't have any shelters on the North Shore," said Sandy Miyoshi, homeless program administrator with the state's Housing and Community Development Corporation. "We're trying to see if (our outreach agencies) can get the homeless into shelters already existing in other areas so they don't lose their belongings."

The city has said it will delay cleaning the parks in the North Shore until alternative housing is set up.

Meanwhile, other local organizations are looking for ways to help. Ron Valenciana's Once a Month Church provides weekly food bags for needy people out of his Haleiwa office.

Sadrian "Brother Sage" Chee, pastor of Ohana, Family of the Living God, set up yurts -- tentlike structures -- in Hauula for families to live in temporarily. He is trying to get more land to set up similar facilities in Haleiwa and Kahuku as well as the Windward area.

Already, there is a waiting list of 90 people, he said.

But everyone agrees the answer is working together.

"We have to pull together," Kuehu-Soberano said. "What are we going to do? A lot of us, we're here because there's nowhere else to go."