Kathy Neizmen, who is homeless and was forced out of her campsite near Kalaeloa Park in May along with more than 100 people, agreed with the report.

"They are mean here," said Neizmen, who now lives with her three sons in a camp carved out of the trees near Onelua Beach Park.

Neizmen said her family is not even allowed to use the beach any more and are chased off by police if they return.

"The police come and harass us," she said. "They tell us to leave and we are not setting up a camp. We are just there to enjoy the beach."

Sandra Miyoshi, the homeless program administrator for the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i, said there are many private and public groups in the state working toward a solution to homelessness. She said a statewide homeless forum will be held next week to work on the problem.

"I think we are closer to a solution than we have ever been," said Miyoshi. "I don't think we are any meaner than any other jurisdiction."

Miyoshi said other positive measures taken here include the city's providing $5.3 million for a homeless transitional housing project in Wai'anae, which is expected to begin construction later this year, and Gov. Linda Lingle's creating an Affordable Housing Task Force in August after a private consultant's report said the state is lacking 30,000 affordable homes.

A lack of affordable rentals is cited as one factor in the rise of Hawai'i's homeless population to more than 6,000 people on any given night. Nationally the number is about 750,000.

The coalition's report found Little Rock, Ark., to be the meanest city for its treatment of the poor and homeless and California the meanest state.

Honolulu moved up from the 19th meanest city last year to ninth in 2004. Hawai'i is listed as the third meanest state after the Legislature this year passed Act 50.

Act 50 has drawn national attention as one of the severest penalties to discourage people from living on public property. The law charges an individual with criminal trespass in the second degree if a person enters or remains on public property after receiving a written request to leave.

The law bans individuals for a year from public areas where they are cited. Violation of the ban can lead to arrest and a $1,000 fine or up to 30 days in jail.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Circuit Court lawsuit to have the the law declared unconstitutional.

State Sen. Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), who introduced the law, said that it is directed at squatters who have lived on the beaches of Mokule'ia, but the law applies statewide and makes no specific reference to Mokule'ia.

Michael Stoops, director of Community Organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless, said Honolulu is considered one of the meanest cities because homeless people are forced to move from one area to another and there is only one emergency shelter that takes takes in homeless people on O'ahu and it is overflowing with needy people.

Their belongings are thrown away by park maintenance workers during the day if they are out looking for work, and barbed wire was placed under highway bridges and around the Nimitz viaduct to keep homeless people from living there.

"Having a state Legislature passing what we consider to be an anti-homeless law put Hawai'i in that mean-state category because we don't want to see that trend continue in other state Legislatures," Stoops said. "There needs to be an end to the patterns of discrimination we have seen repeated in many of these cities, year after year."

For the entire report by the coalition, visit www.nationalhomeless.org.