For 1,000 or More Homeless in Hawaii, Beaches Are the Best Option

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/us/05hawaii.html?em&ex=1165467600&en=14551ebdc41e664b&ei=5087%0A

HONOLULU, Dec. 4 — When the home she had rented for 30 years for $300 a month was sold, Alice Greenwood and her 6-year-old son joined an estimated 1,000 people living in tents along the 13 miles of beaches on the Waianae Coast of Oahu. “There was no choice but to come on the beach,” said Ms. Greenwood, 60, who is disabled because of a work-related injury eight years ago and lost her benefits a month before losing her home.

Homelessness in Hawaii has become so pervasive that the governor has assigned a state employee to work full time at getting people off the beaches and into transitional housing. Once there, they have access to rent assistance programs and low-income housing. While hundreds of homeless people live on Honolulu’s beaches, including the tourist center Waikiki, it is the Waianae Coast on the semiarid west shore where the problem is most visible. The population of Waianae, home to about 40,000 of Oahu’s 900,000 people, is predominantly native Hawaiian and is historically low income.

Hawaii’s economy has been strong in the last two years, and the state consistently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. The real estate market has skyrocketed along with the job growth, and houses on the Waianae Coast that rented for $200 or $300 a month a couple of years ago are now advertised for more than $1,000.

Nobody knows exactly how many people are living on the beach. Kaulana Park, the state’s point man for the homeless, estimated that more than 1,000 people lived on the Waianae Coast beaches, but he cautioned that any count was good only on the day it was taken. And that estimate does not account for the hidden homeless: people who sleep on a relative’s sofa, or in their cars, or camp in areas not as visible as the public beaches.

[KamaAina]

1. It's even worse than the headline says

Kaulana Park, the state’s point man for the homeless, estimated that more than 1,000 people lived on the Waianae Coast beaches,

The Wai'anae coast, along O'ahu's west shore, may be the hot spot for homelessness, but it is far from the only place in the state where people, many with low-wage jobs and/or children, are forced to live on the beach. If 1,000 people live on the Wai'anae beaches alone, perhaps 5,000 are on beaches, in campgrounds, etc., statewide. This in a state with record low unemployment of 2.7%!

Meanwhile, high-rise buildings are going up all over Honolulu -- marketed toward wealthy mainlanders seeking a second home, or to affluent suburbanites looking to move back into town. The official definition of an "affordable" house is one in which a two-income family can scrape by on $92,000 a year!

The situation has reached the point where even the repuke governor has begun to take notice, though so far her only initiative has been to convert a warehouse at the port into an emergency shelter for 300, which the residents must leave during daytime hours lest students and faculty at the gleaming new UH medical school nearby catch a glimpse of them. All this while several hundred public housing units are closed for lack of repairs. :grr:

edit: 1,000 and 5,000, not "1,00" and "5,00" (math Bushisms?)

[symbolman]

2. I've been thinking of doing a film about this

it's a CRYING SHAME, so many rich assholes cruising around eating 50 dollar steaks, high dollar malls, etc.. second homes for a lot of these guys, while the HAWAIIANS SUFFER on their OWN Island.

I say Give it BACK to them, and let THEM decide Which White People live here..

There's a spit near the harbor here, and as you come around the bend you can see DOZENS of Homeless folks shelters and right BEHIND THEM is the Giant Cruise Ship anchored there. It's so jarring even if you've seen it before.

This shit needs to END NOW. Remember, REPUBLICAN Govenor, and no one will run against her.. hell, maybe *I* will if no one else does next cycle.

Gotta take care of the A'aina Bra. :)

[KamaAina]

3. She's term-limited, praise Kane

(pronounced "KAH-nay", chief of the Hawaiian gods)

Remember, REPUBLICAN Govenor, and no one will run against her..

3 years, 361 days and counting.

Why soil yourself with politics? Make the film. Come up here and I can get you all the footage you want within three blocks of this office (located between the two branches of Honolulu's only major privately run homeless shelter!, and with downtown skyline views)!

[symbolman]

4. Thanks!

We've got some stunning footage here as well, and Oahu is just a GO ticket away :)

We can have a DU Pow wow and seek a plan of attack, eh? Thinking I'd rather do it on another island as if I do it here(interview some folks) they might start showing up at our house and I can barely take care of us right now, but at least I can get the word out there, eh?

Met up with Opi not too long ago :)

[opihimoimoi]

8. Ehh you 2 buggahs...dis is one of my pet peevish...da too many homeless

destitutish on da beaches/parks/malls/wheaevah..

Movies/pics asside, where is the solution? Pub Gov Lingle not doing enough to prevent this from happening...what she do is band aid shit...

As a Pubic, Lingle sucks...no real answers....all photo ops etc.

The Chavez answer is to commandeer the Waialae Golf Course for the Homeless....Let the Blue tents spring forth in Kahala and you can bet answers will be forth coming asap...them rich folk will find answers for Lingle like NOW.....

[KamaAina]

9. The Chavez answer, as it happens, is also the George Carlin answer

the master had a classic comedy routine called "Golf Courses for the Homeless" fifteen years ago, for Pete's sake.

[opihimoimoi]

12. LOL, I love it....we should initiate the thought for those Pubic dudes

in Lingles Adminstration...

[Bethany Rockafella]

15. Symbolman, you should take pics and post them on DU.

And by all means, run for office there! :hi:

[elehhhhna]

20. Hell YEAH! It would be soooo fun to stay at the GOv's manision for the

Aloha DU Meetup!

[KamaAina]

22. "Governor" was my nickname at Partners in Policymaking

a five-weekend leadership academy put on by our Developmental Disabilities Council.

Hmmm... the lack of a vindictive ex-wife makes me a more electable candidate than symbolman; however, the lack of a current wife could tempt the repukes to start stage-whispering "KamaAina is gay!", in the same tones as "Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!"

[symbolman]

21. But if they talk to my ex wife

I'm sunk :)

She's preceeded the vitriol of this admin, and would make a great addition as Rove's wife, we'd all be screwed if that happened, got judges in her pocket and everything..

[oasis]

5. There was a growing number of homeless folks on Magic Island/Ala Moana Beach

until they were cleared out earlier this year for the Hawaii State Fair. I had a feeling they were moved so the foreign tourists wouldn't get a glimpse of "The Two Americas".

[KamaAina]

7. I believe that was for the Honolulu centennial festivities

the Hawaii state fair (50th State Fair) is held at Aloha Stadium, ten miles or so away. Even close Karen Hughes confidante Lingle wouldn't be so brazen as to use that for an excuse!

Still and all, it hardly seems fitting to celebrate the centennial of this (for the most part) great city by working to cement our ranking among the "10 Meanest Cities to the Homeless" (really!).

[oasis]

10. All the corn dogs and cotton candy had me fooled. As you know,I've

relocated since. Have you been there lately?

p.s. I miss our old hot dog and musubi DUfests.:-)

[KamaAina]

11. Nope, not much going on down there without the special event

p.s. I miss our old hot dog and musubi DUfests.

True dat. Any idea how hard it is to get smoked marlin in town?! :P

[Ignacio Upton]

6. Honestly, if I had to be homeless

I would rather be in Hawaii then in some cold city.

[Jed Dilligan]

13. Apparently, a lot of folks think so

and treat that problem relative by buying them a one-way plane ticket. I'm not sure how much of the problem this explains, but IIRC it was in the Honolulu paper while I was visiting last summer.

[Jed Dilligan]

14. I drove up the Waianae coast last June

specificially because I'd heard about this. It's somewhere between American homelessness and a Third World shantytown. Most of the people are clean, well-groomed, and living with their families. I also saw a couple of camps that were the kinds of human dumps I'm used to in American cities.

I could say the Waianae folks are "lucky" because in California their camps would be bulldozed within 30 days... But they aren't lucky; it's a pathetic situation here or there. People talk about the oil, but it's really real estate greed that's tearing this country apart in every way, every day.

[rman]

16. That's how relevant "strong economy" is

I guess it's not the low income economy that has been strong over the last two years.

[Jed Dilligan]

17. As more and more wealth is tied up in real estate,

homelessness rises.

[rman]

18. Right. Similarly,

as more and more wealth is tied up in stocks, dividends, luxury goods and bank accounts of the super wealthy - you get what those super wealthy call a "strong economy", while low and medium wages drop and unemployment increases.

[Jed Dilligan]

19. It's all about the widening gap.

The people reveling in their new superiority (relative wealth being more effective than absolute wealth) don't seem to realize that our status as a First World nation is sliding right into that gap.

In places like Hawai'i, and rural California for that matter, the grip of the First World has always been tenuous at best. So it's not shocking, but saddening nonetheless. You realize that most of the country, land-wise, is just a colonial empire, lightly perfumed with the scent of democracy.

[Jed Dilligan]

23. Why do homelessness and Hawai'i threads die a slow death?

Being a mainlander and very concerned about both, I wonder why there's so little enthusiasm.

On my part: a :kick: for the West Coast evening!

[Rockstone]

24. Why be homeless?

a starter single family is only $600,000 - who doesn't have that kind of money laying around?
:sarcasm: