WAI'ANAE — Last summer Gov. Linda Lingle vowed to tackle the Wai'anae Coast's homeless crisis. Today, several hundred people who had been living in parks and on beaches have a roof over their heads.

Most of them are at the Onelau'ena transitional shelter at Kalaeloa.

But the effort took another big step forward yesterday with the opening of the $6.5 million Civic Center emergency homeless shelter, the state's first around-the-clock facility for the homeless.

Even as folks were celebrating at the shelter, some 75 tent encampments remained in place on Ma'ili Beach Park, a reminder that there is still far to go to solve Hawai'i's homeless problem.

About 200 people, including Lingle, gathered for a dedication of the shelter early yesterday afternoon, the official beginning of the state's most ambitious effort to date to solve O'ahu's mounting homeless crisis. The shelter, built in less than five months, will eventually house up to 300 persons,

Like others who spoke at the festivities, Lingle said she was honored to have been involved with an effort to erect the facility in less than five months.

"That's true of every single person and every agency that's been involved," she said. "People just felt privileged to be a part of something that was so good and so pure and so righteous, and something so long overdue."

The facility was christened Pai'olu Kaiaulu, which means encouraged by a pleasant Wai'anae breeze.

Some 65 people representing nearly two dozen families have taken refuge at the shelter. The resident makeup mirrors generally the community itself, which has one of the largest Hawaiian populations in the state.

Alice Greenwood, 61 — a pure Hawaiian and lifelong Wai'anae Coast resident who became homeless for the first time on July 15 — gave a small group of visitors a quick tour of the facility, including the cozy 8-by-10-foot cubicle she shares with her adopted son, Makalii, 6.

Although she said the routine is still new and different, and there have been some startup problems, a sense of aloha prevails throughout the shelter. Families have been living there since the beginning of the month.

"The beautiful part of this place is that at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and 8 o'clock at night, we have sessions in which everyone sits down and we air out our disputes. And then if we have problems, we discuss it with our counselors."

That way, she said, everything usually gets ironed out amicably.

"And here's my room," said Greenwood with a smile as she unlocked the door to B110. "Oh, yes, this is bigger than my tent. Here are all my things. This is my bookshelf. And I made my own shelf to hang my clothes on."

Even as folks were celebrating at the shelter, dozens of tents remained in place on Ma'ili Beach Park.

Colin "Small Boy" Kahui, 53, was gathering up some of his belongings in anticipation of joining the shelter residents one day soon. Kahui, the park's senior resident by virtue of the fact that he's been living there for nearly three years, said most of the park inhabitants had resigned themselves to vacating their campsites within 10 days, as ordered by the city.

"I'm just waiting to get called to the new place," said Kahui.

Darryl Vincent, who heads U.S. Vets Hawaii, the agency that is managing the emergency shelter for the state, was also aware that beginning March 27 the park will be closed each day from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., thus eliminating overnight camping at what has been the focal point of the Wai'anae Coast's homeless crisis.

Before the ceremonies, Vincent said he assumes that most of the shelter's initial occupants will be coming from that beach.

He said he hopes the shelter will be able to support all the estimated 120 to 150 homeless folks living at Ma'ili Beach.

The Pai'olu Kaiaulu site will act as a hub for people moving on to transitional shelters, most of which have yet to be completed.

Kaulana Park, the state's homeless solutions coordinator for the Wai'anae Coast, said that although the actual number of homeless people on the coast remains unknown, it's a sure bet the Civic Center shelter can't take in all the coast's beach dwellers — generally thought to be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people.

Since the governor made her commitment, the 220-person Onelau'ena transitional shelter at Kalaeloa has opened, in addition to the new emergency shelter site, Park said.

And he said the state continues moving forward on its plans to construct a $34 million project with 80 transitional units and 240 affordable rental units off St. Johns Road in Lualualei — although he concedes that will take far more than a year to complete.

In December there was a groundbreaking for a state-funded transitional housing project near Kamaile Elementary School, and within six months a similar shelter should get under way not far from the Civic Center site. Both of those shelters should be completed within a year of their starting dates, Park said.

Emergency shelter residents will remain at the facility for one year or less. During that time they will be required to work toward self-sufficiency, teaming with specialists who will help move them back into the social mainstream.

While there, they will be expected to do routine chores and pay minimal program fees based on their ability to pay.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.