Beverly Shimabukuro could have been my mother (“Woman, 85, charged with torching rental home after eviction notice,” Star-Advertiser, March 6). What saved my mother, who was also a waitress, was her husband living long enough to buy her a home with a Veterans Affairs loan.

After 50 years of paying rent, Shimabukuro was being thrown out on the street like a dog with only 45 days notice, less than one day for every year she lived there. Shimabukuro’s landlady had many options other than eviction. She could have let her be, to live out her life. She could have helped navigate paperwork for the Housing Voucher Choice Program, formerly known as Section 8, to collect much more than the “ridiculously low rent” she talked about.

Landlords are the only lords left in America and this was cruel, given she owned other property that could be sold.

Gail Ishikawa

Wahiawa

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