Bus stop moved to avoid homeless woman's smell

A bus stop has been temporarily moved so bus drivers and riders can get away from the smell of a homeless woman who's living at a busy Honolulu bus shelter. That’s the first time the city has relocated a bus stop because of a homeless person, according to City Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka. The concrete bus shelter on Kapiolani Boulevard, right across from the Nordstrom store at Ala Moana, has been home to an elderly homeless woman for at least the last year.

“We were getting quite a few complaints from bus riders about her smell,” Yoshioka said. “We are trying to be as sensitive as possible,” he added, noting that it’s not illegal for the homeless to stay at bus shelters. Bus drivers said that the woman is sometimes so smelly that her odor wafts in buses when they open their doors outside the bus shelter and the smell lingers for a while inside the bus.



So the city temporarily moved the bus stop 60 feet down the street to the area in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on the corner of Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeaumoku Street. “It’s difficult to co-exist with someone like that,” Yoshioka said. The bus stop signs have been covered at the bus shelter and city bus officials posted hand-written, makeshift signs saying the bus stop is temporarily closed.

"While the smell sometimes is a bit much, I don't understand why someone doesn't help her," said Elena Renehan, who's a student at nearby Heald College. She doesn't think moving the bus stop is a good idea. "Who's to say that the next stop that they have there's not going to be another person? What are they going to do? Move the bus stop a million times? Silly," Renehan said.