They were warned over the weekend.
But many of the homeless still struggled as they watched their make-shift shelters come tumbling down Thursday.
One man even feels his human rights were violated.
It’s nothing new for many of the folks who call this area near Keehi Lagoon home.
But the homeless who have set up here say they’ve had personal things taken.
"And they just again they’re taking all our stuff and I just lost more than half my tools. I barely got enough to fix a bicycle now, much less a car, moped, or anything like that," said Jarod Wong who lives under the highway.
"Everything, even the little money that we had, they took it. And I don’t know if that’s part of their job, but they did," said Bert, who lives under the highway.
"Now we’re going to show that video to their supervisors, and to the district manager at the Oahu branch, and we’re going to make sure that we follow through on our end," said Dan Meisenzahl of the state transportation department.
And Meisenzahl says the workers have been doing what needs to be done the past few days. "Fifty to 60 truck loads of stuff that has been going to the landfills. And so, with that amount of material it has to be sorted," he said.
Bert and Jarod say they have lived in this area for years.
"In fact they’re the one that told us we can stay on that side, because this is a private property on this side," said Bert.
"This year without warning they came running in over there, and it was a big thing. We had to start a big argument with the, they threatened to take some of us to jail, when we wanted some people to go get their medication," said Jarod.
Meisenzahl says everyone had fair warning. "Anything that is left behind is considered trash and will be thrown away, no matter what it is. And so, unfortunately that is how everything is treated when our crews show up there. We’ll tear down the structures, everything that is there we’ll throw away," he said.
"I feel like we’re being treated like less than human," said Jarod. "We’re being stripped of our constitutional rights, our civil rights. And basic rights as human beings."
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
