KALAELOA — Four homeless shelters have quietly sprung up in nondescript low-rise buildings that once housed sailors at Barbers Point Naval Air Station.

A fifth shelter is scheduled to join the cluster in the next two months.

The growing concentration of homeless people prompted one group to start a shuttle service so residents no longer need to walk nearly a mile to the nearest bus stop during midday.

The collection of shelters, all within three to four blocks of each other, is unlike anywhere else in Hawai'i, a kind of loose-knit support network removed from heavily populated areas as well as the beaches and parks that have at times been points of conflict with officials and the public.

Although nearly all of the facilities are owned by the state and under contract to different nonprofit agencies who manage them, there was no grand design to place all the shelters in Kalaeloa.

State Comptroller Russ Saito, who now oversees the state's homeless programs, said that when the naval air station closed, the Hawai'i Public Housing Authority was able to win the bids on many of the barracks properties.

When the city began clearing beaches of the homeless along the Wai'anae Coast more than a year ago, state officials identified Kalaeloa as an obvious place to set up Onelau'ena and other future shelters, Saito said.

"When we started to look for places to house the homeless, one of the first places we found was Kalaeloa," Saito said. "The facilities were available and could be converted relatively quickly and for relatively less cost because these are existing barracks facilities that are pretty well constructed with hollow-tile and concrete masonry. They're pretty solid structures."

The facilities have generated little publicity, negative or otherwise, despite being only a short distance from the booming Kapolei residential community.

Maeda Timson, Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board chairwoman, said the rest of the community has readily accepted those living in the shelters as part of the community.

"People know they're there, but we don't look at them as shelter people — we look at them as families," Timson said. "They go to our schools, they go to our shopping centers."

Timson said her board has not received a single complaint about the area.

The only time the board has even discussed the homeless has been when members voiced concerns about the safety of those living in the shelters as they head up busy Fort Barrette Road, which has no sidewalks, toward town. The discussion helped lead to the shuttle bus pilot project.

FEW PROBLEMS

Police Maj. Michael Moses, who heads the region between Wai'anae and 'Ewa, also said there have been few problems with the shelters.

"When they opened up that last one, Onelau'ena, they had a couple of minor problems that we had to respond to," Moses said. "But it's been relatively quiet. (The shelter staffs) seem to have things well under control over there."

Moses said one factor may be that unlike at the shelters in Honolulu and elsewhere, a good portion of the population at the Kalaeloa shelters is comprised of families. "I think that makes a lot of difference — the clientele."

Last Thursday, about 30 young children and their parents were sitting around tables under a tent behind Onelau'ena, where Pacific Health Ministry had set up a fair of sorts. While parents learned about healthy eating and getting their blood pressure checked, the children learned the joy of bubbles, painting and fruit smoothies.

Christine Hernandez, 36, and her three children were taking in the activities.

It has been 10 months since the family left the beach at Wai'anae's Poka'i Bay, and Hernandez said the family has no regrets.

"It's better than being on the beach," she said. "I mean, there's rules and regulations. But they're simple rules, and they help you."

Those rules include a zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use, a nightly curfew and census check at 10 p.m., and the need to walk in and out of the facility with an identification tag.

"For the people who want to move ahead, it's not that hard to follow," said Shannon Canopin, 31, who is staying at Onelau'ena with her two children.

"The children really benefit from being here," she said.

Canopin said she also appreciates the relative remoteness of the facility.

"It's away from ... society," she said, choosing the last word carefully. "Everybody can focus on what they should focus on."

Both Canopin and Hernandez said the goal is to get the training to find jobs and become self-sufficient.

The goal is similar for Greg Apo, 38, an Iraq war veteran staying nearby at the U.S. Vets- Hawaii center.

"I want to get a solid foundation where I don't rely on drinking and other substances," said Apo, an 'Ewa native who spent more than two years living at One'ula Beach Park, better known in the 'Ewa Beach community as Hau Bush.

Apo said he likes having the different shelters clustered together. "We're surrounded by people in similar situations, who's going through it and been there."

Apo would one day like to open a surf shop in the area "so I can give back to the community."

The drive to get clean and sober, and then educated and leave, is a common resolve heard at the Kalaeloa shelters.

"The next time you come here, we're gonna be gone," shouted Anthony Pinheiro, 47, as a reporter left the U.S. Vets facility.

WELCOME ISOLATION

Sharaleen McShane, program manager of Hale Ulu Pono, said many of those staying at her facility have remarked that they like the isolation of the Kalaeloa shelters.

"Many of the residents do say it's like a haven to them," McShane said. "It's away from city life."

The isolation has also come with a price. The city bus travels into Kalaeloa and in front of the shelters only once during the morning and once at night. The rest of the time, those staying at the shelters must walk between half a mile to a mile, depending on which shelter they're coming from, to the nearest city bus stop on Roosevelt Avenue.

Besides dealing with the sweltering Kalaeloa heat, those making the journey must do so along rock-strewn road shoulders with no paved sidewalks.

The Honolulu-based H-5 — Hawai'i Helping the Hungry Have Hope — recently began running a shuttle between the shelters and key parts of Kapolei, including the city transit station.

The bright red vehicles have proven effective. The pilot operation began weeks ago, and the shuttle now draws an average of 200 riders a day, said H-5 shelter director Utu Longi.

Each of the shelters are contributing to the roughly $300,000 cost of the service, with the hope that enough data will be collected in a year's time to persuade city officials to include the shelters in its regular route, Longi said.