Why It’s So Hard For Homeless People To Collect Seized Belongings On Oahu … Civil rights advocates say the storage warehouse is too hard to reach and homeless people should be allowed to keep possessions needed to survive.
Georgette Preston and Jared Castro know the drill after living in a Honolulu park for the past four years.
They sleep in their tent with their possessions on the sidewalk, then move it all into the Moiliili Neighborhood Park for the day in a bid to adhere to a city rule that people can’t be in the parks between 10 p.m and 5 a.m.
But still city maintenance crews and police swept the area on Tuesday, detaining the homeless couple for violating park rules and seizing their belongings. Preston’s sister arrived just in time to grab her wheelchair because she’s been unable to walk for nearly a year.
To make matters worse, it rained as the crews hauled away tarps, suitcases, bedding, clothing, chairs, a table, a solar panel, coolers, tool boxes, carts, hand trucks, dishes, a washing machine and more. The items, which filled up two trucks, were listed on a handwritten receipt that read like an invoice from a moving company.
