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Homeless campers have built a village on the sidewalk between busy King Street and Stadium Park. The strip of concrete is filled with tents.

But the tents — and their occupants — will be gone not long after the Thanksgiving holiday, the city hopes. Honolulu police and other city workers plan to dismantle the encampment on Tuesday, Nov. 29. They will clear away any remaining belongings, power wash the sidewalk and pick up trash in the park.

State homelessness coordinator Marc Alexander called the sweeps a “tough love” approach. The cleanups are a coordinated effort by city and state officials. The goal, he said, is to pressure homeless to leave the streets and move into shelters.

“We kind of want to make things uncomfortable for those who refuse to access services,” he said. “People have been offered help. And there is space in our shelters for them.”

The state’s latest says there are 981 transitional housing units and 582 emergency shelter beds on Oahu.

Darlene Hein, the director of community services at the Waikiki Heath Center, described the sweeps as part of a cycle: a homeless encampment grows, neighbors complain, service providers reach out to encampment residents — and finally the city clears them out. Some homeless return, and the cycle starts again.

Waikiki Health Center checks in with homeless regularly, and visited Stadium and Pawaa Parks on Tuesday handing out flyers warning residents about the upcoming cleanup and telling residents where to find shelters and medical help.

But Hein called the cycle of outreach and sweeps an incomplete solution, saying the state needs more low-income housing and mental health services.

“It’s dealing with the surface problem,” she said. “It’s not dealing with the underlying problems.”

Hein and Alexander have been working closely since Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed him homeless czar in January this year. In May, the governor launched a 90-day push against homelessness.

And while sweeps like these have been happening for years, Hein said Alexander’s efforts have the city and state working together instead of pointing fingers.

“We’re guardedly optimistic, because for the first time we have all the players saying (homelessness is) everybody’s problem and now we need to work on it,” she said.

Homeless on the Move Since APEC

The King Street cleanup comes on the coattails of sweeps prior to the APEC summit, which pushed people out of encampments near Nimitz Highway and Kalakaua Avenue across from the Hawaii Convention Center.

At Pawaa Park on King Street, near Kalakaua, at least two homeless people living there said they moved out of their old camps as the city prepared for APEC.

Erick Jepsen, 55, said he left Ala Moana Park when the city closed roads around the convention center.

Jepsen said he’ll be gone long before the cleanup next week. He said he thought the cleanups did a disservice to the homeless — and to the city workers who have to throw away homeless’ possessions.

Fleming Bascar, 49, said he used to live on the sidewalk along Kalakaua across from the convention center. He was cleared out Nov. 2.

He said he’s been homeless for two years and is tired of being pushed from place to place.

“It’s like a migration,” he said. “Why they got to treat people like animals? They’ve been doing this for years.”

Now, he said, he plans to head toward Waianae.