On a recent Wednesday morning at the hula mound at Kuhio Beach, Susan Willick moved through clusters of sunbathers and tourists to a man sitting alone on a grassy rise in the middle of Waikiki’s busiest stretch of sand.

Amid the churn of visitors — families spreading towels, surfers heading out — he remained withdrawn and apart.

Willick, an outreach worker with the Waikiki Business Improvement District, knelt beside him and spoke softly. Minutes later, Dr. Louie Gangcuangco of Waikiki Health joined her, crouching to assess the man as Honolulu Police Department community policing officers provided data support.

As Gangcuangco checked on him, Willick began calling for a shelter bed. The man hesitated, then nodded. Within minutes, he agreed to go — first to Waikiki Health, then to a shelter.

It’s seldom this straightforward, but encounters like this underpin a broader strategy reshaping homelessness in Waikiki’s core. Homelessness there has dropped sharply over the past three years, driven by coordinated outreach, medical care and enforcement — even as encampments grow along nearby beaches, where jurisdictional gaps limit the city’s authority.

A point-in-time count on April 16 found 201 people experiencing homelessness across Waikiki and nearby areas, down from 251 in September 2022, according to WBID and the University of Hawaii. The steepest decline came along Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues and Kuhio Beach, where unsheltered homelessness fell about 91%.

The figures, from a biannual count with UH’s School of Urban Planning, are measured against a multi-agency crime reduction and social services strategy launched in September 2022 through the Safe & Sound Waikiki partnership that includes the mayor’s office, police, prosecutors and community groups.

WBID President Trevor Abarzua said the results reflect layered work combining outreach, healthcare and enforcement.

“When we compare the work we are doing with our mainland counterparts … the progress we are seeing is unprecedented,” he said. “A 91% reduction … is a national feat.”

Many of Waikiki’s homeless are transplants who like any other visitors to Hawaii are drawn there first, Abarzua said. WBID will pay for travel home if a vetted support system is in place.

A key piece is WBID’s street medicine partnership with Waikiki Health, which started a year ago and expanded to twice weekly in February. The program augments WBID’s own outreach programs —Willick is a dedicated outreach worker and some of the programs Aloha Ambassadors also provide similar services.

Gangcuangco said the medical program’s success relies on building trust.

“Some are skittish and walk away. But after they see us week after week … eventually it becomes something like ‘Hey, can you call my mom for me?’”

He connects patients to insurance, medication and care — sometimes treating them on the street. “Housing is healthcare — it’s really very important,” he said.

Willick, who lives in Waikiki and has worked there for more than a decade, said coordination has changed outcomes.

“I often refer to myself as a ‘walking referral booth,’” Willick said, adding that she walks weekly with Gang­cuango and the HPD community policing team, and also works with client navigators from The Queen’s Medical Center

“Ninety percent, yes,” she said when asked how often the homeless individuals that they encounter in Waikiki agree to take injectible psychotic medications. “It’s absolutely amazing seeing the personalities change.”

Waikiki resident John Deutzman, who tracks crime data and partners with the Safe & Sound Waikiki initiative, said the improvements in the Waikiki core are visible and measurable.

“I used to call it ‘area 666’ for a reason, and now it’s like heaven,” Deutzman said. “It’s been a dramatic improvement. The numbers don’t lie, and the University of Hawaii is tracking it in a very scientific way.”

Jurisdictional issues

While Zone 2 — Waikiki’s core corridor — dropped to just 10 people, the April count showed increases elsewhere. Zone 1, including Fort DeRussy Beach, rose to 57 from 49 in October 2025. Zone 6, which includes Ala Moana Beach Park outside the WBID boundary, climbed to 49.

“We’ve seen a 25% reduction in the entire radius, but the biggest reductions are in Waikiki’s urban core,” Abarzua said. “The data shows us where people are going, and we adjust strategy based on that.”

HPD Major Paul Okamoto said the increases reflect displacement pressures and limits on enforcement. Fort DeRussy falls under the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), leaving Honolulu police without full authority to enforce park closures or camping bans.

A prior city-state right-of-entry agreement expired in 2015. Since then, the beach has become a refuge as enforcement tightened elsewhere.

DLNR said in an email that “Complaints about unhoused individuals sleeping and camping on the beach” prompted the original agreement.

DLNR “receives complaints … on a weekly basis from the public and the hotels, ” and has responded with joint operations.

“Since 2024, DLNR has been part of monthly cleanup operations” with state, city and military partners.

Still, DLNR acknowledges limits,”We consider cleanups successful when people move on … however, (we) cannot force people into shelters or programs. Sometimes they choose to return.”

DLNR communications director Andrew Laurence added that, “Governor Green’s administration remains committed to finding effective long-term solutions to aid individuals dealing with houselessness.”

DLNR is now working with the city on a new right-of-­entry agreement. The push for coordination is reflected not just in policy talks, but in how agencies operate together on the ground.

Officials from the Honolulu Department of Community Services (DCS) said in an email that the department “in coordination with other city departments and state agencies along with the Waikiki Business Improvement District and Safe & Sound Waikiki, continues to focus on compassionate triage navigation efforts that connect individuals experiencing homelessness to shelter, healthcare, behavioral health services, outreach, and housing resources … DCS and its community partners remain engaged in ongoing outreach … in Waikiki and surrounding areas.”

Carrot and stick

Okamoto said enforcement is necessary but not enough.

“We’re just one part of the solution,” he said. “In many parts of the country, enforcement is the only solution, and that doesn’t work — all we see is a revolving door.”

HPD officers work with outreach teams and ambassadors, using enforcement to steer people toward services rather than arrest. Six plainclothes community policing officers are assigned to outreach, with two to three on duty each shift.

“The people we come in contact with in Waikiki … are mostly mentally ill or suffer from substance abuse,” Okamoto said. “We need to get to the root of it… now they have hope.”

“Enforcement is important because it creates a stimulus to help people understand that we cannot live on the street … or live in the parks,” he added.

Okamoto said enforcement is done compassionately but meant to push people toward services.

Deutzman said conditions have improved but repeat offenders remain a challenge. “The weak link now is still the judicial system,” he said. “We do have repeat offenders.”

He said about 77% of those arrested in Waikiki show indicators of living on the street and his research of more than 1,000 misdemeanor/petty misdemeanor convictions in Waikiki shows the median sentence is two days.

Joint operations have reduced visible encampments, with tents at Fort DeRussy dropping to about two from 27 on April 16, Okamoto said.

Waikiki’s approach has drawn national attention, with Abarzua set to speak at a policy conference in Washington, D.C.

Still, he said the Fort DeRussy gap highlights the need for aligned authority. “We have service pipelines … But if you are going to say no … you cannot just sit on the sidewalk or live in the park.”

Deutzman said long-term success will depend on consistent enforcement, community cooperation, and deterrent design measures, such as installing dividers on park benches to prevent sleeping, removing picnic tables to discourage loitering, and using trash cans designed to prevent dumpster diving.

He added that relocating the entrance to St. Augustine by the Sea’s food ministry — from across the Waikiki Beach Marriott to a less-trafficked roadway — has created a less-disruptive environment. However, the change has drawn complaints from some residents of the nearby luxury Foster Tower.

“If you eliminate the hangouts piece by piece, the problem goes down … The problem starts to go away,” Duetzman said.

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