The owners of a Kalihi home with makeshift additions that partially collapsed in October, leaving at least 50 people homeless, have hired a contractor to haul the illegal structures from the property.

A judge has given the owners until Jan. 19 to finish the work.

The owners of the home were listed in Honolulu property records as Loida Santos, Grace Santos and George Jenkins.

If they miss the deadline, or if progress isn't being made, the city has the option to return to court "to seek further action," said Henry Eng, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting. He said city permitting inspectors are monitoring work at the 1732 Gulick Ave. home daily.

The cleanup comes more than a month after the home partially collapsed, sending debris into Kalihi Stream that continues to wash away with heavy rains.

But neighbors say that so far work at the property has been slow.

No crews were at the home this week, though a large container had been brought in to haul away trash. Before the contractor was brought in, property manager Daniel Cunningham had been doing the cleanup by himself.

Jay Young, who lives next to the collapsed home, said he and others continue to question why the city hasn't acted faster to clean up the property.

"Nothing has happened" since the collapse, Young said.

The conditions at the Gulick Avenue property were thrust into the media spotlight on Oct. 26, when an illegal structure attached to the home collapsed.

The home has several attached illegal structures, all constructed with little more than tarpaulin, metal bars and plywood. Some are as high as four stories.

The structures housed dozens of tenants, including families with kids, who paid $250 to $750 a month for bedrooms and shared two bathrooms and a stove.

On Nov. 28, after Cunningham repeatedly had barred city crews from entering the Gulick property to take away the illegal structures, city attorneys sought court permission to demolish the partially collapsed structures.

In a complaint, city attorneys said the makeshift structures were being constructed on the property as early as March 2005. "At its peak," the complaint said, illegal structures stood "25 feet wide, 50 feet and 40 feet high at its center."

$53,000 IN FINES OWED

The city also said that the collapsed and standing portions of the illegal structures "are hazardous and unsanitary" because they are constructed with an accumulation of junk, debris and garbage, create potential rat harborage, collect stagnant water and ... constitute a fire hazard, health hazard and safety hazard."

When the illegal structure partially collapsed, loads of debris went into Kalihi Stream behind the property and were strewn across the area. In the complaint, the city asked to raze the property and recoup the costs.

Eng said in granting the owners the chance to clean up the mess, the court also "indicated that if there is no progress that the city can return to seek further action."

Meanwhile, the city is also still pursuing action against the owners to get more than $53,000 in fines issued since 2006 for the illegal structures.

The owners of the home declined comment this week.

Cunningham, a former mayoral candidate who is not listed on property records as an owner of the home but said he was given a portion of the home, has said that he built the illegal structures and took in so many residents because they had no other place to go. In an interview last month, he also said that he wanted to clean up the property so that he could sell it.

No one is allowed to live on the property, since the city posted "notice of unsafe building" signs on the home after the collapse. Cunningham said he is not "technically living" at the property, though he is staying there during most daylight and some nighttime hours to provide "security."