Everyone agrees on the problem. Nobody knows how to solve it. Impatience is growing that we’re stuck.
Case in point: The Thursday night forum on PBS Hawaii between City Council District 4 candidates Trevor Ozawa and Tommy Waters.
Both candidates agreed that homelessness is the No. 1 concern of their constituents. Ozawa had previously said the prolifer -ation of unpermitted, oversized “monster” homes was the most critical problem, but this time, he agreed with Waters that tackling homelessness was the top priority.
After that bit of realness, the opponents each talked about what they would do to solve the problem, and the realness was over.
OZAWA STATED the obvious: What’s being done isn’t helping.
“The mayor has been pushing ‘Housing First’ his entire time in office and it’s not working. It’s time to start turning to the professionals,” Ozawa said. “Continuing to give the mayor more money in his budget is not a solution. “
Ozawa’s solution would be to “give more money to the professionals, the experts; they’ve been doing this for decades.” He cited social workers in New York City who were given a roster of 10 homeless people a year to get into stable housing, which, according to Ozawa, has worked.
If you’ve visited New York recently, you know that homelessness is far, far, far from solved. And if you know of any experts here who are getting it done but only need more city money, let’s see some statistics, because nonprofits have been getting money for decades but we all know what we see on the streets.
WATERS SIMILARLY offered no fresh ideas for getting people out of parks and off sidewalks. Instead, he shared anecdotes about the lady who lives at the bus stop in Kahala and screams to the sky all day and night, about people living in the bushes at the top of Wilhelmina Rise and about the Waikiki panhandler holding a sign that reads, “Let’s be real. I want money for beer.”
Waters pointed out that many of the hardcore homeless have mental health issues and substance abuse issues, and the state Department of Health Adult Mental Health Division has had budget cuts over the years. More money for those experts. The more these two opponents talked, the more they sounded alike.
There was a weariness, a resignation in their comments. And along with the rest of us, a bewilderment about how things got so bad so fast.
It isn’t up to two Council candidates to fix Oahu’s homeless problems, but if two smart guys trying to prove they have all the answers don’t even stretch for some creative approaches, you know nothing will change.
On Thursday night, you could almost see the relief on their faces when the questions shifted to what they were going to do about the rail mess.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
