We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. ~ Mother Teresa If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather than dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities. ~ Barbara Bush Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. ~ Nelson Mandela

1. HAWAII
You can't see the world through a mirror. ~ Avril Lavigne
Hawaii Ranks 17th in U.S. News & World Report's 'Best States'
By Nina Wu. Honolulu Star-Advertiser. March 1, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/03/01/breaking-news/hawaii-ranks-17th-in-u-s-news-world-reports-best-states/
Hawaii ranked 17th in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report's Best States
Ranking released this week based on more 75 metrics, including health care,
education, economy and quality of life.
Health care and education were weighted most heavily, but state economies,
opportunity and infrastructure were also important measures, in addition to
crime, government fscal stability and quality of life.
Iowa ranked as No. 1 best state, followed by Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota
and New Hampshire. Louisiana was at the bottom of the list, at No. 50.
“At a time when the federal government is attempting to hand more
responsibility for spending and policymaking to the states, these rankings ofer
the frst comprehensive view, state by state, of how some states already are
performing best,” said U.S. News & World Report. “This highly interactive
platform enables users to explore thousands of important benchmarks and
easily draw state-to-state comparisons.”
Hawaii ranked No. 1 in health care, No. 3 in Internet access and 29th in
education. However, it ranked near the bottom, at No. 49, for business
environment. Under the category of infrastructure, it ranked No. 48 for road
quality and No. 50 for electricity costs, with the highest average prices in the
nation.
U.S. News & World Report lauded the Aloha State for its “diverse scenery and
mild temperatures” as well as its residents' “friendliness and hospitality.

2. ON THE FLIP SIDE
HUD: Hawaii still No. 1 in per capita homeless
By Dan Nakaso. Honolulu Star-Advertiser. December 6, 2017, accessed May 3, 2018
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/12/06/breaking-news/hud-hawaii-still-no-1-in-per-capita-homeless/
Despite a 9 percent drop in homelessness, Hawaii continues to have the highest
per capita rate of homelessness in the country, according to a U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development report released today.
The 7,220 homeless people counted across the islands in January as part of an
annual, nation-wide homeless census means that Hawaii had a rate of 51
homeless people for every 10,000 individuals across the state, according to
HUD. The District of Columbia actually had a higher rate — 110 homeless
people out of every 10,000 individuals — but is not a state.
Among states, Hawaii led the country per capita, followed by New York (45
homeless people for every 10,000 individuals); Oregon and California (both had
34 homeless people per 10,000); and Washington (29 homeless per 10,000).
Planning already has begun for January's so-called Point In Time Count that
will be conducted across the islands.
____________________
Hawaii Alliance Calls for Shift in Approach to Homelessness
A consortium of Hawaii service providers has renewed the debate over whether clearing homeless
encampments actually convinces homeless people to seek shelter.
By Associated Press, posted in U.S. News & World Reports
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/hawaii/articles/2018-01-24/hawaii-alliance-calls-for-shift-in-approach-to-homelessness
An alliance of Hawaii service providers renewed the debate over whether
clearing homeless encampments convinces homeless people to seek shelter.
The consortium Partners in Care wants money spent on enforcement to be
redirected to housing as well as mental health and drug treatment programs,
Hawaii News Now reported Tuesday.
Gavin Thornton, the alliance's advocacy chairman, said sweeps should only
happen if public safety is at risk.
“Where do folks go?” Thornton said. “If there is no place for them to go does it
really make sense for us to be moving them around?”

3. Scott Morishige, the governor's homeless coordinator, backed the state's current
approach to homelessness. He said enforcement eforts are designed to help —
not hurt — people living on the street. “I think it's about balance,” Morishige
said. “Making sure you balance public safety with the needs of people
experiencing homelessness.”
Morshige also said that encampments left unchecked can lead to serious health
and safety concerns. He pointed to an encampment in Kakaako, which had
grown to more than 300 people in 2015.
“If somebody decides they want to go into housing, that they want to take the
outreach worker up on going to shelter we are providing people that
opportunity for people to do that,” he said. “We're also not just throwing their
items away. There is a process to store items to make sure homeless people can
get those items back.”
Thornton, however, said he believes a break from sweeps could be a key in
getting the upper hand on the crisis.
“It's really important that we allow people to develop some stability in their
lives,” Thornton said. “Even if they're homeless, that stability is the most likely
way they're going to get out of a bad situation.”
The city, which has a policy of “compassionate disruption,” declined to be
interviewed. [Emphasis Supplied]
State Legislators Unveil Afordable Housing Initiative
By Catherine Cruz & The Conversation Staf . Hawaii Public Radio
April 25, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018
http://hawaiipublicradio.org/post/state-legislators-unveil-afordable-housing-initiative
House Bill 2748, dubbed the “Bob Nakata Act,” recognizes the former state
senator and lobbyist for his many years of advocacy for afordable housing.
At a news conference yesterday, legislators said they made good on their
resolve to do something bold to address the shortage of afordable rental
housing.

4. The $200 million agreement aims to jumpstart construction by reducing
building costs.
Colleen Hanabusa Commends Legislators
Bob Nakata for Bold Action on Afordable Housing
Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa commends the Hawaii Legislature for taking bold action on
afordable housing by passing a strong legislative package dedicated to the Rev. Bob Nakata
By Hanabusa for Governor
April 24, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018
https://www.hanabusaforgovernor.com/latest-news/colleen-hanabusa-commends-legislators-bob-nakata-for-taking-bold-action-on-afordable-housing/
On April 24, members of the state Senate and House passed House Bill 2748
HD2 SD2 CD1, the “Bob Nakata Act,” which provides $570 million toward
generating approximately 25,000 afordable units by the year 2030. This will
fulfll the goal of 22,500 afordable rental housing units set by the Legislature in
2016.
“Nowhere in America is there a greater gap between what our workforce earns
and the cost of housing. Hawai‘i is one of the most expensive places to live in
the world,” Hanabusa stated. “Our afordable housing defcit has grown for
decades despite campaign promises and housing programs that have come and
gone. I commend the Hawaii Legislature for taking decisive action today and
acknowledging the urgent need to address the severe shortage of truly
afordable units.
“The Rev. Bob Nakata has a long history as a leader in our community and a
champion of this issue. As a former legislator in both the House and Senate,
and as a man of great faith, Bob knows the afordable housing fght isn't about
statistics and appropriations. It's about local people working hard to provide
shelter for their families and a solid foundation for the future.
“Bob and I got elected to the Senate at the same time. Our group was called the
'Rat Pack' and Bob was our conscience. For us, and for so many people, he has
always served as the barometer of what is the right thing to do.”

5. Honolulu Police Set to Clear Homeless From State-Owned Parks
City ofcials plan to send Honolulu police into state-owned Kakaako Waterfront Park
and adjacent parks to clear an estimated 80 homeless people from the grounds
By Associated Press, posted by U.S. News & World Reports. April 30, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/hawaii/articles/2018-04-30/honolulu-police-set-to-clear-homeless-from-state-owned-parks
City ofcials plan to send Honolulu police into state-owned Kakaako Waterfront
Park and adjacent parks to clear an estimated 80 homeless people from the
grounds. Monday night's planned sweep is the culmination of ofcials' eforts to
bypass jurisdictional limitations. City ofcials have been working with the
Hawaii Community Development Authority to transfer ownership of the parks
to the city. The jurisdiction hurdles allowed more than 300 people to settle at
the parks in November 2015, leading to a spike in crimes, emergency calls and
sanitation problems, ofcials said.
Honolulu Corporation Counsel Donna Leong said a transfer in ownership of the
parks to the city could come as early as Wednesday. But city ofcials are not
waiting to start enforcement. The development authority granted the city “right
of entry” into the Kakaako state parks. “We want the city to go in there and
enforce its parks rules and regulations as soon as possible,” Leong said. “This is
the frst time that the city is enforcing its park rules and regulations in the
HCDA's parks.”
The arrangement is similar to the largely successful efort that began in August
in Aiea to keep homeless people swept from the city's Neal S. Blaisdell Park
from simply setting up camp on the adjacent Navy-owned land that runs along
the shoreline of the park. Last year the city and Navy reached an agreement to
allow Honolulu police and a special city maintenance crew to clear the stretch
of Navy land that runs along the popular Pearl Harbor Bike Path. On Friday,
both the park and bike path remained clear of tents and tarps that had lined
the bike path before the city was allowed to gain access.
The separate transfer of the Kakaako parks to the city would ease the pressure
on the development authority. It has been paying a private security company
called Block by Block $331,000 annually to enforce park rules, although Block
by Block has no police powers. [Emphasis Supplied]

6. Kakaako Waterfront Park and its sister parks “should have always gone to an
agency that deals with parks,” said Garett Kamemoto, the development
authority's interim executive director.
He added: “We're a redevelopment agency and so what we do is make
improvements and then we dedicate the improvements to the people most able
to take care of them. Kakaako Waterfront was always intended to be dedicated
to the city. It just didn't get done. Now the park can be handled by people who
are experts in parks.”
6 Insane Realities Of Being Homeless In Hawaii
By Evan V. Symon and Marty Adam Smith
February 6, 2016, accessed May 3, 2018
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2016-6-insane-realities-being-homeless-in-hawaii.html
Mark and Kenyon, who have been homeless in Honolulu since 2012. They told us,
1. The Government Is Considering Shipping All The Homeless To Another
Island
Hawaii's homeless population has gone up 10 percent in the last year alone. So
you can't blame the government for trying to address the problem. One sensible
suggestion is to house more of the cities' homeless, thus saving money on social
services. Subsidized housing for the working homeless is another idea. Both of
those sound potentially reasonable. But the plan that's currently being pushed
the hardest involves taking all the homeless of Honolulu and sticking them on
their own island.
The place? Sand Island. Its previous claims to fame: In the 19th and 20th
centuries, it was where ships dumped of sick passengers as a quarantine. Then
in the 1940s it was a Japanese internment camp. Today it is home to the city's
wastewater treatment plant.
Kenyon: “They are doing it because of the tourists. No one wants to see us, and
everyone wants to pretend we don't exist.”

7. Mark: “How would we get food? Or if we needed to go to the hospital? Many of
us have jobs but no cars -- how would we get to work? “
Right now, the Sand Island exodus has moved past the planning stage. It
opened in November, with six homeless volunteers moving. Its current design
is a single-walled neighborhood made out of converted shipping containers and
laid out like a prison. Toss Kurt Russell in there and you've got a killer sequel
to Escape From New York.
2. It's More Difcult To Get Help
All of this cracking down on the homeless looks good to the average citizen,
but shufing the homeless out into less accessible areas has a pretty bad side
efect: Homeless and job agencies cannot reach those who need them the most.
Kenyon: “In Kentucky, we were moved, but the church groups and agencies
always knew where to fnd us to help us out. In Hawaii, we have to shufe to
all the odd places where it's hard to fnd us. And when it's easy to fnd us, like
when we're on the beach, parking is such a nightmare that many don't come
out. We do go out to them, but a lot of those groups are an hour or two away
on foot -- to get help we need to take a half-a-day-long trek while losing time
we could be making money or staying put in places they can't get to us. It's a
really sucky situation.”
Mark: “If we aren't near the tourists, we can't be spotted. Well, we can by cops,
but not by people we might be relying on for dinner that night.”
So Hawaii has a plan for all this, right? It's not like they're just going to ship
them all to an island like the ending of some golden-era Simpsons plot.
3. There Is Constant Harassment From Tourists As Well As Ofcials
Nearly a quarter of Hawaii's yearly income comes from tourism, so it makes
sense that they want everything to be picture perfect. Tourists think of white
sand beaches, a blue ocean, and palm trees -- not clusters of ratty tents and
sad, poor people.

8. That's why the government's willing to spend money fying them out: They're
expecting dividends in increased tourism.
Mark: “Locals are fne. They know why we are here, and it's sort of a 'We don't
come near you, you don't come near us' type of deal. Tourists are the ones you
need to worry about. I have had people yell at me for stinking up the beach or
for scaring their kids. People have this idea of an idyllic Hawaiian beach, and
people trying to survive by staying on the beach for a bit ruins that for them.”
While most of the harassment comes from tourists, some of the local state
representatives are so against the homeless issue that they actively fght them.
Literally.
Kenyon: “Some come out and gawk and take pictures of us. But Brower is the
worst.”
Kenyon refers to Tom Brower, a state rep behind the homeless crackdown who
went into a camp and started swinging a sledgehammer at their possessions
and shopping carts. This caused a scufe, and Brower was beaten a bit for
tramping about their personal property.
Kenyon: “After that, it made us look like we were out of control. But I talked to
one of the guys who was there, and he told me Brower was really trying to get
something like that to happen.”
4. Life Is A Game Of Musical Chairs With A Tent
Say you're like Mark or Kenyon, and you get by collecting aluminum cans or
digging up change -- it's not an easy living, but hey, it's something. Many of
these people actually have part-time or even full-time work -- they just can't
aford the insane housing costs. But hobo life in Hawaii isn't as simple as
sticking your bindle in some patch of sand: Diferent parts of the island are
"open" at diferent times, making life one big game of musical chairs.
Kenyon: “Around the beaches, it's an art. The sidewalks, hotels, beaches, and
streets have diferent times when no one is allowed there.”

9. Parks close at midnight and beaches close at 2 -- and they aren't opening to the
public again until dawn. What do you do?
Mark: “You need to know when to get of. When you see a few of us start to go
of, everyone else goes. Cops can jail you and fne you, and you don't want
that. It happened to me about a week after I had to leave my apartment here. I
was on Waikiki after 2 and a few cops pulled me in and fned me. I even had to
go to court for it. That's how much they try and keep you away from all the
tourists. It's a [expletive removed] cycle. Beach, sidewalk, park, beach, canal,
park, etc. If you stay in a place for too long or are there at the wrong time, you
can be sure to see a member of the Honolulu PD come by and drag you away.”
Some of the larger camps are being forcibly removed nowadays, and parks and
sidewalks are being heavily restricted.
Kenyon: “That's why we are always at the beach, and no matter how much
tourists complain, it's where we stay most of the time. It's still public, and
everywhere else has a high chance of harassment.”
5. Some People Want To Be Homeless In Hawaii
The shelters in Hawaii come with a lot of perks. Some people actually strive to
be homeless in Hawaii because of this.
Kenyon: “Right now I'm rent-free, living in a few places around the beach.
Some people collect cans or attempt to panhandle, but I do something diferent
-- I go to where tourists recently were on the beach and dig through the sand. I
usually fnd coins or the odd piece of jewelry -- jewelry I bring into the hotel,
since I would feel terrible for taking something prized like that (although I get it
if it's unclaimed). Coins add up to several dollars a day, and I get a nice small
payday from pawning any jewelry the hotel gives back to me. It's enough for
food and upkeep on a cellphone and tablet." With the average apartment rent
in Honolulu over $2,000 a month, homelessness just makes sense for some
people. Living outside in a tent is free, and living in a shelter that includes
meals can be as low as $3 per day.

10. Mark: “We pay taxes from buying food or whatever else we need. Some of the
higher earners actually report taxes to the IRS. So, living in a public park or
beach makes sense -- in a way, we're paying rent. When tourists go by and see
us like that, they automatically think we are failures or are going to stab them
for meth money, but where else can we go?”
6. The Government Will Fly The Homeless Out Of Hawaii
The homeless in Hawaii come from one of three places: locals who've hit hard
times, people who moved to Hawaii to get work and lost it, and homeless who
have purposely come to Hawaii to avoid cold winters.
Mark came from the second category: “I came to Hawaii with a bartending job
waiting for me and $5,000 in my bank account. Within fve months, my hotel
had laid me of and I was out of my apartment.”
Kenyon fell into the third category: “I'd been living either on the street or on a
couch all summer and part of the fall in Louisville, [Kentucky,] and I didn't
want to face the winter living under an overpass in an upturned shopping
buggy. I bit the bullet, sold my Gibson guitar, and few out to Hawaii. I knew of
others who hit rock bottom and stayed on the beach in Hawaii, and I fgured if
I was going to be homeless this winter, I might as well go to Hawaii.”
While Mark and Kenyon both fgured on staying in Hawaii for a bit, neither
have left -- much like thousands of homeless people from the mainland. A few
eventually get out on their own, such as actor Chris Pratt, who was homeless
and living on a beach in Hawaii for a year. But he was lucky: Statistically, less
than 20 percent of homeless people are Chris Pratt. Unlike many homeless in
the U.S. who are transient and go from city to city, once in Hawaii, it's hard to
leave. You need a costly plane ride to get out, and whatever money the
homeless make goes toward things like food (which, by the way, is 66 percent
more expensive in Hawaii).
It's hard to ride the rails to Tulsa from the shores of Waikiki.

11. Fortunately, hobos who want to escape paradise aren't helpless. The Hawaiian
government has been fying hundreds of homeless people back to where they
came from -- literally taking taxpayer money and finging the bums away. But
only the hobos who volunteer. And since “home” for many of them is a place
where freezing to death is a regular concern, they opt to stay in Hawaii.
Mark: “Government workers came by a few times to our small camp with those
fights. No one accepted, since going back with virtually nothing for the winter
worried everyone. Would we freeze? We were so used to hot weather that
suddenly being in 20-degree snow could seriously hurt us.”
SMILE ALWAYS. LIFE ISN'T TOO BAD, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
You can't control life's circumstances, but you can control your response to
them.
Do not be afraid to talk to the homeless. Many of them crave companionship
and someone to swap stories with. They are human beings, with the same
dignity and worth as you and me. The homeless do not want to be pitied or
looked down upon, but they do not want to be forgotten either. The homeless
want someone to look them in the eye and treat them like a fellow human.
The best thing you can do is serve the homeless is to work with an established
charity. Be wary of local policies, as some cities (like San Antonio) persecute
the homeless population through legislation that makes it hard for them to fnd
access to shelter, hygiene, and food. Do your research and do your best to
serve those who need it. Organize drives for hygiene items, packable foods,
and shoes.
You might learn something.
From The Odyssey https://www.theodysseyonline.com/lessons-homeless
“The status quo of publishing and social media makes it hard for those voices to be
heard. Odyssey democratizes content, giving people the opportunity to share what's
most important to them and their communities, enriching everyone with broader, more
honest perspectives on topics they care about.” https://about.theodysseyonline.com/