APNewsBreak: Hawaii considering grass huts to help homeless

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Jan 11, 10:04 PM EST

APNewsBreak: Hawaii considering grass huts to help homeless

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii lawmakers are considering a unique solution to the housing crisis: They want to make it possible for people to live in traditional Hawaiian grass huts.

Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland is introducing a bill in the state Legislature's upcoming session that would let officials set aside land to build Native Hawaiian thatched homes. She discussed that and other bills designed to alleviate homelessness at a meeting of the Housing and Homeless Task Force on Monday.

"There is an interest in recapturing some of the traditional ways of living among our people here in Hawaii," Chun Oakland said.

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a cultural practitioner, approached the senator with the idea. Officials creating housing solutions should take into account the culture of the people they're trying to help, including the fact that Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have large extended families, Wong-Kalu said.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HAWAII_HOMELESS_GRASS_HUTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-11-20-45-34

[Warpy]

1. Well, duh. They work well in that climate

The Hawaiians lived well enough for thousands of years in grass huts.

[passiveporcupine]

2. grass huts with no running water

Are you sure this is what we should be doing with our homeless? That's like saying we should set up tent cities for them here. Cleanliness is necessary for good sanitation and health. Maybe if it includes a public center that includes toilets, showers, laundry, kitchen and dining area, and lockers where people can lock up possessions that might be stolen from a grass hut, electricity so they have lights to read and write by, and recharge phones and things...and maybe even a computer area so they can learn and do job apps and things.

[jmowreader]

3. They haven't worked out all the details yet

Assuming they build a public center as you described, this is a feasible solution.

[passiveporcupine]

5. Would you want your family living in a hut that has no toilet?

I have trouble getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and I'm only 66. What if thiis means women with young children and elderly are forced to travel to the public center in the middle of the night to use the facilities?

I suppose it's better than living under a palm tree on the beach, but I do hope they take some of these considerations very seriously. They are talking about "extended familes" here.

[Android3.14]

8. Eeyore

Who pissed in your corn flakes?

[cstanleytech]

4. Its not exactly hard for them to setup a water tap for the people as well as communal

showers and bathrooms.
Plus the idea isnt all that horrible since the climate is pretty decent there and its also pretty environmentally because the huts will not need anything like paint or tar roofing or anything really that isnt locally available to build them.

[L. Coyote]

9. Why wouldn't you have running water in a alternative structure?

Have you ever built a traditional shelter? I built my own in the Amazon, and help build others. They are real homes, just made of alternative materials, and where I lived, the size can be larger that the average American home if you just take a few more days to gather materials and work a couple of extra days erecting it.

https://www.pinterest.com/AceSpadeCode3/grass-shacks/

[mahina]

6. Nope.

Last edited Tue Jan 12, 2016, 06:19 AM - Edit history (1)

Never fly. Containers, maybe.

There's been not a whisper about this in any local media that I've read or heard. My guess is that a constituent asked her to explore the idea?

Idk, I'm reaching. Grass huts sound nice in the movies but that's it.

[trillion]

7. Okay, it's an improvement over the plane ticket

But will they have water, septic, and be safe enough that people can't steal all their stuff or attack them? They actually sound kind of dirty for kids though. These will have floors, right, and kitchen and a place to sleep?

Actually scratch that. It sounds like they want to treat them like a 3rd world country and it's the start of slums.