Alice Greenwood — who became the face of the homeless crisis on the Wai'anae Coast in 2006 — has been evicted from the state's emergency shelter in Wai'anae.

Greenwood, 62, said she will get a tent and return to the beach. She has been given until Tuesday to vacate the shelter for noncompliance with the rules.

But she contends the real reason she's been given the boot is because she has been an outspoken advocate on behalf of shelter residents.

Darryl Vincent, site director for U.S. Vets, which operates the 275-person shelter known as Pai'olu Kaiaulu, said he couldn't comment on Greenwood's eviction due to the facility's confidentiality requirements.

"All I can say is we are there to help anyone who wants to be helped and continue to help them find housing that's appropriate," said Vincent. "But they have to be willing to follow the rules in regards to what we do there. And that goes for anybody."

Evictions have been relatively rare at the shelter. In its first five months of operation, 17 people were asked to leave, according to U.S. Vets shelter records. At that point 343 individuals had been served.

Greenwood's eviction is particularly ironic.

Two years ago she lost the home she had rented in Ma'ili for 30 years and ended up living in a tent at Ma'ili Beach Park with her then 6-year-old adopted son. In March 2007 when the shelter opened, she was one of the first to leave the beach and enter the $6.5 million facility.

Since then she has been a consistent champion of the shelter system, going up and down the coast to encourage other homeless folks to come off the beach.

Greenwood has been equally outspoken inside the shelter.

She locked horns with management about input from the Residential Council, an in-house advocacy body governed by the residents, she said. Management wanted to choose the council leaders, she contends. Greenwood wanted the matter to be put to a vote. Greenwood said she prevailed, and was elected herself.

Now she believes management has retaliated by focusing on her son's behavioral problems.

"Ever since I became the president of the Residential Council on Jan. 31, my son has been written up for all kinds of things," said Greenwood.

Greenwood concedes that the child she adopted as a "crack baby" has some aggression issues. But she said he has caused fewer problems than other youngsters at the facility. On May 6, she was asked to sign a "compliance document" that specified, among other things, that she must go when and where the shelter staff decided, if and when something became available, Greenwood said.

Greenwood said when she entered the facility she was told by Vincent that she would stay there until September of this year, then move to a transitional shelter unit at the new Villages of Ma'ili facility, which is under construction. Now, shelter operators tell her, "things have changed," she said.

She refused to sign the paper because it also specified that she must turn over her son's medical records so the child's treatment could be determined. The form stated that failure to sign would be a rules violation.

That's when Greenwood was told she had 15 days to leave.

"Why should I surrender that kind of paperwork so they may turn around and use it against me?" she asked.

Cathie Alana, shelter project director, said Greenwood has been a force to reckon with.

She said Greenwood has a strong personality and is emphatic in her opinions. And those traits have rubbed some staffers the wrong way.

Ironically, Alana will be leaving the shelter before Greenwood. Her last day is today, in a management restructuring that eliminated her job.

"It's not a firing," said Alana, who is considering several employment offers. "Basically, it's a reorganization. And my position was done away with."

Vincent said the management change will allow U.S. Vets to be more clinically focused to offer better client service.

As for Greenwood, she insists she still believes in the emergency shelter system, and in Gov. Linda Lingle's emergency proclamation that made it happen.

"There is nothing wrong with the shelter at all," said Greenwood on the eve of her departure. "It's just a matter of getting the right management. I still encourage everybody on the beach to go to the shelter."