For the past two years I’ve worked closely with dozens of our homeless neighbors across Oahu, building relationships with them from Waianae to Waimanalo. As a result, I’ve learned how ill-informed, outdated and broken our current system of addressing the homeless crisis truly is. This crisis is tearing us apart, crushing our sense of responsibility and aloha for one another.
The true cause of Hawaii’s homeless crisis is structural. We’ve been direly misled to believe that homelessness is a result of individual failures, rather than the affordable housing and cost-of-living crises affecting us all. It’s always extraordinarily difficult to address daunting, systemic problems and try daring solutions that require systemic changes. It’s much easier to blame our current homeless quagmire on individuals’ purported laziness, mental illness, criminality or moral shortcomings. It’s easier to blame, stereotype and dehumanize individuals so we can avoid acknowledging their ongoing suffering and our responsibility to correctly address it.
Let’s be honest: That’s what many of us are doing. We must stop it.
The current approach on Oahu is a game of human whack-a-mole. Our homeless neighbors are “swept” from one neighborhood to another, without a safe, stable and long-term place to go. Honolulu’s policy of “sweeps” and “compassionate disruption” are anything but compassionate and they’re ridiculously wasteful of your tax dollars. They’re creating a self-perpetuating cycle of trauma for the entire island. The homeless, forced to move daily, and whose poverty is criminalized through the “sit/lie” bans, never have the chance to become stable or organized enough to improve their situations.
If you believe people should go into shelters, I’ve learned that while shelters work for some, they don’t work for many and don’t offer a comprehensive solution. Shelters are not free; they require fees, which many cannot afford. If you can pay, you may not be able to bring your necessary belongings, pet or partner with you. And, the nearest shelter might be miles away from your neighborhood, family, church, job or your keikiʻs school.
Others refuse to return to shelters because they’ve experienced bedbugs, been preyed upon, or had their belongings stolen. Many feel humiliated and robbed of their dignity in shelters because they feel they are treated like criminals and children.
Shelters were designed to be a short-term, emergency response. The shelter system, with its 60- and 90-day stay limits, was meant to offer temporary, emergency respite. It is now insufficient for meeting the over- whelming demand for permanent, affordable options — such as those provided by publicly-owned or -operated housing programs. After a short stay, many of our neighbors end up back on the streets, worse off than when they entered because they’ve lost, during their stay, the belongings and relationships needed to help them survive on the street. This, I learned, is how homelessness becomes a years- and even decades- long condition.
The timeline of homelessness, as an individual’s condition and as a broader societal challenge, is now much longer than most understand. While “Housing First” and many current initiatives are developing more affordable housing, which is absolutely necessary, they will take years to develop — and there are no solutions being offered to address the crisis now. Shelters are inadequate and the sit/lie bans exacerbate the crisis and suffering.
One proven solution lies in self-organized communities like Pu’uhonua o Wai’anae. This alternative places community first and recognizes people’s humanity. It also saves millions in taxpayer dollars. The lieutenant governor and others are using it as a model to follow. We must support those efforts. But above all, we need to return to living aloha and caring for one another.
Alani Apio is a member of Hui Aloha.
