The city will kick off a new round of park cleanups this month, with the biggest renovations set for Thomas Square in Honolulu.

The park, where homeless advocates say about 20 people sleep nightly, will shut down for four days starting Aug. 20 and reopen with new hours that close the park at night to discourage illegal camping.

Meanwhile, Mayor Mufi Hannemann and about 80 volunteers will be at Hale'iwa Ali'i and Kaiaka beach parks on Saturday for a cleanup.

Both parks are home to dozens of homeless people, whose numbers have grown as the problem of homelessness has grown on the North Shore.

But Les Chang, city Parks Department director, said no homeless people will be asked to leave the North Shore parks — for now at least.

"On the North Shore, we continue to say, unless we have a good sense on where they're going to go, we just can't kick them out," Chang said.

The city started its park cleanup blitz in March 2006 at Ala Moana Beach Park, forcing about 200 homeless people to find another place to stay. The park shut down for three days, and reopened with renovated facilities and new hours, which shut down the park at night to keep homeless out.

The city completed similar cleanups along the Wai'anae Coast. Chang declined to name where the next park cleanups will be.

Advocates for the homeless have criticized the city policy, while others have applauded it as a means for allowing everyone equal access to the parks.

Darlene Hein, director of the Waikiki Care-a-Van, which helps homeless people islandwide with food, medical care and other services, said the 15 to 20 people who sleep regularly at Thomas Square on King Street have known for months they would have to move out.

She added they will likely move to other parks.

The homeless people at Thomas Square are not families, Hein said, but mostly single, middle-aged people with substance abuse problems or mental health issues.

"It's just difficult to place them," she said.

The cleanup at Thomas Square will run from noon Aug. 20 to 3 p.m. Aug. 24, and include repairs and painting of the bathrooms, fixing picnic tables, landscape maintenance and installing lighting.

After the cleanup, the park will close nightly from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The cleanup at the North Shore parks will start at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, and include picking up trash and painting bathrooms and picnic tables.

Though the city has pledged to allow the homeless people in the parks to stay, service providers are preparing families for an eventual move. And they're looking to the community for help.

"As these closures come down more often, we're looking at trying to find support," said Brother Sage Chee, of the Ohana Family of the Living God Church and vice president of the Windward Homeless Coalition.

Mike Lyons, chairman of the North Shore Neighborhood Board, said many residents want to help their homeless neighbors find housing.

The board dedicated a portion of its meeting last night to discussing solutions to homelessness in Windward O'ahu and on the North Shore.

"They (the homeless) should be moved out of the park because the community has a right to use it also," Lyons said yesterday. "But I also believe we need to have some kind of viable solution."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.