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Pairs of unarmed, private security guards Thursday began rotating among nine city parks around the clock to clamp down on illegal homeless activity. Read more

Pairs of unarmed, private security guards Thursday began rotating among nine city parks around the clock to clamp down on illegal homeless activity.

The city is paying $44,000 to Hawaii Protective Association for a one-month pilot project to see whether the guards can reduce homeless-related complaints in the parks and protect against vandalism, which Mayor Kirk Caldwell said has cost the city “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in repairs to sprinklers, bathrooms and landscaping.

“Then the taxpayer pays to fix it, and then it’s repeated all over again,” Caldwell said. “People demand that they be safe in our parks and on our sidewalks, and I’m not going to stop fighting for their safety.”

Caldwell announced the pilot project at Old Stadium Park in Moiliili, which reopened Thursday after the city closed it and nearby Moiliili Neighborhood Park, Crane Community Park and Pawa‘a In-Ha Park on Sept. 5 for “maintenance,” which spread the parks’ homeless people into various neighborhoods.

The four parks now will see security guards from Hawaii Protective Association, along with Aala Park, Kamamalu Neighborhood Park, Mother Waldron Neighborhood Park, Ala Wai Community Park and Ala Wai Neighborhood Park.

Caldwell said the parks were chosen in response to neighbors’ complaints.

“People are asking to be safe,” he said. “We’re trying everything we can with the power we have.”

The pilot project follows the city’s hiring of American Guard Services Inc. in April to lock park bathrooms and gates at night. That project has since expanded to 41 city parks across the island following more than 600 acts of vandalism to city parks in three years.

On Thursday, soon after the orange, nylon fencing came down at Old Stadium Park, a handful of homeless people reappeared, including Richard “Richie” Ugarte, 44.

Ugarte has been homeless for nearly 20 years and said his addiction to crystal methamphetamine is his underlying reason for being homeless and jobless. He was accompanied in the park by his three dogs, which is a park violation.

Ugarte said he has 11 warrants for failing to pay citations including violating park closure hours and violating the city’s sidewalk nuisance ordinance.

He estimated that 20 to 30 homeless people had been living illegally in Old Stadium Park before the city shut it down.

“We pretty much scattered,” Ugarte said.

Asked what closing the park since September accomplished, Ugarte said, “The grass is greener again. That’s about it.”

Frederick Kaeo, 76, sat nearby on a park bench and said he welcomes the new security guards.

Kaeo said he rarely visits Old Stadium Park for one reason: “too many homeless.”

“These people have no respect for the park,” said Kaeo, who lives in Hauula. “As soon as they (get swept), they come right back.”

Marc Alexander, executive director of the city’s Office of Housing, said the private security guards will be accompanied by ongoing social service outreach to get more homeless people off the street and into medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment.

So far this year, Alexander said, the outreach efforts are on pace to see more than 4,300 homeless people get housed.

Caldwell called the one-month, $44,000 contract with Hawaii Protective Association “expensive.”

If it continues beyond the pilot project, “we have to look for more money for the future months,” he said.

At the same time, Caldwell suggested that more ideas to curtail illegal homeless activity could follow.

“Our administration is going to keep trying new and different things to see what works, and we’re going to be rolling out different things in the future,” Caldwell said. “No mayor in this country, that I know of, has solved homelessness … but I’m not going to stop pushing.”