On the Monday evening of Jan. 22, I went out with volunteers to conduct Hawaii’s effort in the annual nationwide Point in Time homeless count. I chose the Nimitz viaduct area because I was there last October, the day the state swept that area for good, fencing it off so no one could return.
Back then, there were about 180 people living there. Along with my team, which was part of a larger canvassing group, we walked outside the newly fenced area, and along Nimitz Highway, for about four hours. I encountered fewer than 20 people who were homeless. Where did everyone go?
Before we started canvassing, we were told that there were people camping along Nimitz Highway, but that there was no easy way to get to them — we would have to jump fences to reach them. We were advised by the coordinators to not do that for safety reasons. I certainly respect that; keeping everyone safe is a paramount concern. But if we didn’t count everyone, we risk losing federal funding. If we don’t count them, then they don’t exist to everyone else. I searched and finally found a break in a chain link fence that we could crawl under.
Our team documented the people along the highway who agreed to be surveyed and we ended up having the largest number documented for our entire group. But, it didn’t feel like success as I drove home. I had asked those whom I met where everyone went, since many were a part of the earlier viaduct community. They said that many had disappeared into the surrounding communities, trying to find even harder areas to access so that they wouldn’t be swept again.
And, people did not want to give their information because they were fearful of the continual city and state sweeps. They were afraid of what our government would do with their personal information. They were afraid of us.
You get where this is going, right? I checked in with other friends who volunteered in different areas — same response: significantly fewer people in areas where they congregated before and many unwilling to be surveyed. I was told that this year there were about half the number of volunteers relative to last year. So, we had significantly fewer volunteers to help count people who are now dispersed over larger areas — and fearful. Can we have any confidence in this year’s count?
To be clear, the agencies organizing and conducting the count did a solid job with what resources they had. And, Mr. (Duane) Kurisu and his friends who spearheaded building a new community right next to the viaduct area are to be hugely commended.
But the reality is we’ve been terrorizing our homeless citizens over the past year with “sweeps” so now they’re fearful and in hiding. But they’re not gone, and this problem isn’t solved. We didn’t magically house thousands of people in the past year. My cynical prediction is this: We’ll see a significant drop in the number of documented homeless, and politicians, in an election year, will claim success.
These are the worst possible outcomes: a lower count will mean we could lose significant federal funding to actually help our crisis, and we will give the false impression that we’ve made significant strides in placing people in permanent housing.
These “sweeps” have got to stop: they are asinine, cruel, inhumane and completely counterproductive in the long-term. Let us work to simultaneously stop the “sweeping” of people and develop safe zones where they can live while we work to solve this crisis. It’s what people of aloha would do.
Alani Apio is a community consultant, writer and artist.
