As the state prepares to open its first 24-hour emergency homeless shelter today in Wai'anae, the city has given notice to homeless beach dwellers at Ma'ili Beach Park that they have until March 27 to tear down their tents and remove their possessions.

After that, no overnight camping will be permitted anywhere in the park, one of the largest and most publicized homeless encampments on the Wai'anae Coast.

"Effective March 27, 2007, all sections of Ma'ili Beach Park will be closed daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m," begins a note on a green sheet of paper taped on Monday to every tent in the park.

The notices make good on the city's pledge to move illegal campers out of the beach parks after the state has a place for them to go, Bill Brennan, spokesman for Mayor Mufi Hannemann, said yesterday.

The order was not unexpected by those living on the beach, said Alice Greenwood, who became one of them on July 15 after her landlord sold the apartment she had rented for 30 years.

"People here were saying, 'I hope we get into the new shelter before that — otherwise, what we going to do?' " she said.

Hannemann pledged last year to clean up the beaches and parks on the Wai'anae Coast and reclaim them for use by the general public.

Now that the state is in the process of opening its first round-the-clock emergency shelter — the 300-bed Civic Center facility in Wai'anae — the city can proceed with maintenance and repairs to the park, Brennan said.

"This is part of our agreement with the state," he said. "As they provide shelter for the people who've been living on the beach, then we would go in and take care of our responsibility, which is to make improvements to the parks."

Stung by criticism for not giving enough notice to homeless people living at Ala Moana Beach Park before they were displaced last March, the city notified Ma'ili Beach tent dwellers a month in advance, Brennan said.

"The bottom line is that these people don't want to live on the beach, in a park, in a tent, in the rain," he said. "They do it because they have to. ... It's just no place to be living."

The city's notice concludes: "Please remove all personal property. The city will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage to personal property left unattended."

Greenwood said most of the people living at the park are hopeful that they'll be able to navigate any red tape involved in the application process for the new homeless shelter.

However, she said a few homeless people seem resigned to the idea that they'll simply have to find some other place under the stars to pitch their tents.

"Their attitude was, 'Well, here we go again,' " she said.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.