MA'ILI — People camping outside permitted areas at Ma'ili Beach Park have relocated so the community and city can hold a Sunset on the Beach event this weekend, including a fireworks display that was considered hazardous to the campers.

The last camper of about a dozen at the park was expected to move last night after he returned from work, said Patty Teruya, city special events coordinator and Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board chairwoman.

A weekend of activities and movies planned from noon to 10 p.m today and tomorrow at Ma'ili Beach Park. Many of the activities are free, including a movie each night.

A fireworks display tomorrow at dusk posed a safety issue for the homeless campers. For about a week, police and homeless advocates have been asking the people to move until the event is over, Teruya said, adding that everyone cooperated.

"We didn't want to come in and sweep them out and do an event," she said. "That's really not the pono way."

The campers had been concerned that the city would use police force to clear people from the beach in preparation for the event, just as the city had done at Ala Moana Beach Park in March when it kicked out an estimated 200 homeless people for a park renovation project. The park remains closed at night.

Since then the state has established a homeless shelter and appointed Kaulana Park as homeless solutions team leader for Leeward O'ahu.

Park announced at the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board meeting last week that a new shelter at Kalaeloa would open by Oct. 1, Teruya said. The state has a building there that could house 200, she said. Another 300 could be placed in another building there in November, Teruya said.

"Hopefully the state will get the plan in order so we can start moving some of these women and children off the beach," she said.

In the meantime, Mayor Mufi Hannemann has said illegal campers wouldn't be kicked out of a park until the state has prepared a location for them, and that included at Ma'ili, where the Sunset on the Beach is taking place.

Mark Matsunaga, city spokesman, said the mayor personally went to the Wai'anae beaches, including Ma'ili, to ask the campers to move for the event and they complied. The fireworks will be near where the campers were staying, and they could be endangered by the display, Matsunaga said.

With a population of 70,000 to 80,000 on the Wai'anae Coast, thousands of people should be attending the free event, Matsunaga said.

"People are looking forward to the event so they were happy to do what's necessary to make this event occur," he said.

Police Maj. Michael Tamashiro said HPD has been working with Hannemann's office to deal with homeless campers along the Wai'anae Coast.

He said both Hannemann and Police Chief Boisse Correa have taken the position that officers can cite for illegal camping and make arrests for observable criminal violations.

Otherwise, he said, until the state has established somewhere for the homeless beach dwellers to live, police have been told not to move any illegal campers from the beaches.

However, Tamashiro said area community service providers and homeless advocates had recently asked campers living on the beaches along the eastern end of Ma'ili Beach Park — near the location of this weekend's Sunset on the Beach event — if they'd mind relocating to the western end of the park during the festival.

The park's far western end — where permitted campsites are allowed except on Wednesday and Thursdays — is one of the largest homeless encampments along the Wai'anae Coast.

Tamashiro said that in the interest of public safety, police have "been tasked with doing much of the same in the area where the fireworks are going to be held."

He said as a safety measure, police officers have asked east-end campers if they would move temporarily until the fireworks have ended tomorrow night.

"What we've asked them to do is to relocate their campsite further west," said Tamashiro. "But we're not pushing anybody out — although we have the legal authority to because of the permit."

Carlos Lopes, one of the park's eastern campers, said police told him and others they would have to move out of the area by noon Thursday.

"If not, they said we could get arrested and that they could take all our stuff," said Lopes, who like all but one east-end campsite dweller, had relocated to the park's west end by yesterday morning.

Other campers who had relocated said their experience had been similar to Lopes'. However, all agreed that police had told them they could return to the east end after the Sunset event had ended.

They prefer the east end to the west, they said, because it's shadier, less crowded, and quieter.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com and Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.