The front-line staffers who work with homeless people know that the unhoused are made up of many subgroups — ranging, for instance, from the mentally unstable, to drug or substance addicts, to the working poor struggling for housing.

Now, workers for the city’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement Program have found a geographic sublayer. Compared with homeless people in urban Honolulu, those living on Oahu’s West and North shores are much more guarded about their personal information and in accepting help. It’ll take more time, and repeated encounters, to gain trust before help can even begin.