Homelessness in hawaii
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Homelessness in Hawaii has reached the highest per capita rate in the nation. The document profiles three homeless individuals - a single mother working in fast food, a disabled woman who was evicted, and a 17-year-old high school student living in her car. Hawaii faces a growing homeless population, with over 2,400 homeless students and disability discrimination increasing housing precarity for vulnerable groups. Solutions are needed to address the systemic challenges contributing to homelessness in the state.
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Homelessness in hawaii
- 2. Homelessness in Hawaii has grown in recent years, leaving the state with 487 homeless per 100,000 people, the nation's highest rate per capita.
- 4. Today I will introduce three true stories of homeless people in Hawaii found in recent years.
- 5. Story 1: Kionina Kanes •Single Mother •Micronesian •Full Time Fast Food Worker
- 7. Nearly a fourth of Hawaii’s homeless population is made up of people like Rodrigues who have permanent physical disabilities that limit their mobility
- 8. Disability discrimination cases in housing are on the rise, and some homeless shelters aren’t willing or able to serve people with severe physical
- 9. “If people with disabilities can’t go into shelters … we’re leaving out many of the most vulnerable at the same time we have these policies that are pushing them from place to place,”
- 10. “I am just a sack of garbage because that’s how you’re treated through the system,” she said.
- 11. Story #3: Victoria Cuba •High Schooler •17 year old •Lives in a Car
- 12. There are more than 2,400 homeless students in Hawaii's public schools.
- 13. As you can see, homelessness is a big problem in Hawaii.
- 14. So what should Hawaii do about it?
- 15. Sources: • http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-adna-hawaii-homeless-20151115- story.html • http://www.civilbeat.org/2015/09/disabled-and-homeless-this-hawaii- woman-found-she-had-no-place-to-go/ • http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/32339229/number-of- homeless-in-hawaii-grows-to-7600 • http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/25396521/special-report-a- lesson-in-hope • https://pixabay.com
Editor's Notes
- Text taken from an article listen in my sources: “Since 2010, the rise has come even as the national rate has fallen during the economic recovery. The increase, driven by years of rising costs in the island chain, low wages and limited land, thrust the image of people sleeping on beaches alongside the state's famed one of a relaxing tropical paradise. Officials have tried to solve the problem. They've offered homeless services, banned sitting and lying on Waikiki's sidewalks and proposed using shipping containers as temporary housing. Gov. David Ige's declaration of a state of emergency on homelessness in October underscored the depth of the crisis: —While there are shelters and programs to help the homeless, there are far fewer empty beds than are needed — about 550 on any given night on Oahu, where an estimated 4,900 of the 7,620 homeless people live, according to service providers. —The state needs 27,000 affordable rental units by 2020, but lawmakers set aside enough money for 800 units this year. Maintaining the existing public housing could cost $800 million over the next decade, according to state estimates. —Statewide, 10,000 people wait five years or more to get into state-run public housing, and the waiting list for Section 8 rent assistance in private housing was so long, they closed the list for about a decade. —The state's population of unsheltered families ballooned 46% from 2014 to 2015, said Scott Morishige, state coordinator on homelessness. He said changes in public housing policy and mental health services contributed to the rise. A survey by service providers in August of Kaneso's encampment found that 42% of the nearly 300 people were there with families.”
- Text taken from an article listen on the sources slide: “Two days before the city planned to dismantle her sidewalk home, Kionina Kaneso had no idea where she and her daughter and grandchildren would sleep. A full-time fast-food worker, Kaneso had bad experiences at shelters before and was hesitant to live in another, ending up instead in one of the nation's largest homeless encampments. Desperate, she decided to try one again. But there was no more space for families. Kaneso is among the many Micronesians who moved to Hawaii in recent years as part of an agreement their nations have with the U.S. government allowing them to work and live in the country. They come for medical care, education and job opportunities. Kaneso arrived in 2004 and worked as a dishwasher and assembly line worker to pay for her son's flight to Hawaii so he could get medical treatment for a heart condition. Kaneso's job at a McDonald's nets her $8.75 an hour, but it doesn't come close to what she needs to pay rent in a market where a two-bedroom apartment goes for $1,800 a month. Service providers say 40% of Hawaii's homeless people are working at least part time, 30% need some housing assistance, and 30% have mental health or substance abuse problems that prevent them from maintaining a home.”
- Text taken from an article listen on the sources slide: “The loneliness Ingrid Rodrigues felt during the 11 months she spent sleeping in her car near the Honolulu Zoo was overwhelming. After working and paying taxes in Hawaii for three decades, at age 59 she had been laid off from her job at a timeshare company. Her job search was unsuccessful, and after two years, her savings and unemployment benefits had run out. She spent months searching for a place to live, calling affordable housing complexes and homeless shelters, to no avail. Eventually she was evicted from her Waikiki apartment and forced to live in her car. She spent each day at Ala Moana Beach Park, filling out sheet after sheet of housing applications. The Institute for Human Services was the first homeless shelter that Rodrigues remembers calling in 2012 when she realized that she might be evicted. According to a questionnaire Rodrigues later filed with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, the IHS representative told her that she needed to pass an admissions test in order to stay there. The test involved being able to get on the floor and up again without assistance. Rodrigues told the representative that would be impossible due to her severe arthritis and Meniere’s disease, an inner ear disorder that causes vertigo. But Rodrigues says she was told she needed to be able to pass the admissions test to be admitted, even after she offered to bring a cot to sleep on. It was the first of many rejections during the year before Rodrigues was finally forced to move out of her Waikiki apartment, her home for nearly 14 years.
- Taken from a news article that is in my sources slide: "Rodrigues felt the so-called “mattress test” requirement was wrong: after calling IHS three more times in an effort to get shelter, she filled out a pre-complaint questionnaire against the shelter in December 2012 contending that the organization violated the federal Fair Housing Act, which bars shelters from denying housing on the basis of disability. The Civil Rights Commission opened an investigation in April 2013. That was two years ago. In July, the case was finally settled. IHS agreed to add a “purpose” clause to its existing policy to emphasize that it will comply with federal laws regarding disability accommodations. Four staff members are also required to attend training on fair housing in November. IHS didn’t admit to violating the Fair Housing Act. And Rodrigues didn’t get anything personally out of the settlement. Connie Mitchell, director of IHS, said the shelter used to have an informal policy of testing people to see if they could get up from mats on the ground by themselves, but that was discontinued at least five years ago when the shelter acquired bunk beds. IHS has had a disability accommodations policy in place for years, and the shelter will work with people with physical impairments to try to find a reasonable accommodation, she said. Mitchell said that she invited Rodrigues into the shelter as soon as she heard about the Civil Rights Commission case but Rodrigues never came. Mitchell also insisted that the shelter does not have a so-called “mattress test,” but rather requires people who stay there to be able to be independent, even if they’re in wheelchairs. Still, as recently as May 18, the Legal Aid Society’s Fair Housing Testing Program had a volunteer tester call IHS to ask if he could enter the men’s shelter. He told the staff person that he was homeless, disabled and used a walker. He also told the staff person he needed a bed because of his disability, but was told that in order to stay at IHS, all residents must be able to get up off the floor without assistance.” In order to stay at IHS, all residents must be able to get up off the floor without assistance.”
- “Even though Rodrigues, now 63, lives in an apartment in a senior housing complex in Wahiawa, she says the months she spent homeless left her traumatized.”
- Taken from a news article that is in my sources slide: “Victoria, her younger brother and their mother lived in a Matson container at a junk yard. Her mom worked them out of that situation, but she lost her job. For the past year they have been back on the street. Victoria said the hardship keeps her focused. She gets her homework done quickly because she has to. Victoria carries a B+ grade-point average. She plans to go to college. Everything about her says, 'I will do better. I will help my family.’ There are more than 2,000 students at her school. She isn't the only teenager there who is homeless. But she is one of the few who talk about it. She's not after sympathy. She wants people who look down on the homeless to see the situation through her eyes.”