The sooner city and state government officials, community and faith leaders and the general public confront that fact, the sooner a workable solution that serves all interests can be forged.
While the city is correct to clear homeless "campers" from an oceanside stretch of Kapiolani Park that has become increasingly inhospitable to tourists and other Oahu residents, doing so does not address the root causes of the problem. It simply relocates the population, just as earlier sweeps of Ala Moana Beach Park spurred the homeless people farther east into Waikiki and the heart of Hawaii's economic engine.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann is correct in his assessment that those occupying Kapiolani Park and other public spaces are not forced there by a lack of shelter space. There are beds available on Oahu. The Institute for Human Services alone says it could accommodate about 50 more men and 40 more women at its shelters in Iwilei every night.
It seems the desperate individuals so visible on the streets and in the parks mainly represent a small but growing subset of the overall homeless population: chronic street people who resist shelters and may be mentally ill, drug addicted or otherwise impaired.
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