Hawaii's homeless law fuels tension - The Boston Globe

Hawaii's homeless law fuels tension - The Boston Globe

This article was written in 2004, citing a growing trend for four years, which takes the date back to 2000, when the homeless crisis first started to peak. Today it is worse then ever, with homeless people literally terrified of going into the shelter system, because they are afraid of the rules, which can be extremely arbitrary. The prison like conditions, extremely strict rules in particular in regards to childrens behavior, and intimidation is really what is keeping people out of shelter. other fears are losing jobs because of lack of childcare, due to new cuts in childcare subsidies which are slowly dwindling down to nothing leaving working homeless without options for childcare. Unless shelters offer full childcare at all hours of the day, since many parents work at night due to tourism industry jobs which are frequently in the evening and at night, they lose what jobs they have. This will of course cause their credit ratings to go down, which will then keep them out of public housing if new rules and regulations are. This couples with planned DHS office closures are an absolute nightmare scenario. We have done nothing but slide backwards in this state with our housing situation. These are people who are used to having land and room, but it has been ripped away from them and their families, jobs have not kept pace with the living expenses and rates are still too high, and housing is still too scarce.

PLEASE ATTEND THE LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON FRIDAY MARCH 19 STARTING AT 5 PM at the KCC Cafeteria, press conference before the hearing please come. ALOHA

Homeless in paradise 2003 article that could have been ripped from todays front pages.

Homeless in paradise

This was one of the most excellent coverage the Honolulu Advertiser ever did of this situation.

In 7 years we are right back where we started from. There have been incidents of reported "lock downs" in shelters of mothers with small children, where one woman claimed sh was told she couldnt leave the shelter for 30 days. She claimed her three small children were constantly getting "write ups".

For Hawaiis children and families we have always been free to be on the beach. It was always where you went if you were homeless. Now, the beach, fresh air, clean sunshine, and an ocean and sand to play in its difficult to lock children into facilities where their behavior is monitored and scrutinized every second of the day and parents are punished for supposed infractions of their childrens naturally exhuberant behavior.

Are prison camp internment camp style facilities the answer to Hawaiis homeless program? Are using shelter rules and regulations to control the behavior of hawaiis homeless as if they were criminals or second class citizens the way to intimidate people into facilities where they have no choice but to opbey any rule that is put to them even if it may be a violation of their basic civil liberties and human rights? Now, HPHA states that unless you are in a homeless shelter, you will now go to the bottom of the list for public housing. Laws are being created that essentially will give the law the right to take away what meager belongings people posess, take away their right to fresh air, sunshine and freedom and lock them up in little more than prison conditions. Even if they do this, there is still no guarantee of housing. At the same time, HPHA is looking to entice people with higher incomes into public housing by offering them incentives, and requiring credit checks. How many homeless have good credit? My guess is about one percent. With bad credit you can be turned away from public housing. SO where then will these people go? Nowhere. back into the street. shelters have a limit as to how long you can stay there. so does transitional housing. Then what? You cannot break the cycle this way. THis is no way to solve the homeless problem, but it is the way to destroy both emotionally phsychologicvally and materially the last vestiges of any dignity these poeple have. And that is fundamentally wrong.

Honolulu to restrict tents in parks to keep out homeless campers | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Honolulu to restrict tents in parks to keep out homeless campers | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

THINK THIS IS INHUMANE? WHAT ARE THE RULES OF SHELTERS? WHAT IS KEEPING PEoPLE AWAY FROM THEM? TOO STRICT RULES ESPECIALLY WITH CHILDCARE> PERHAPS A LACK OF FRESH AIR? PRISON LIKE CONDITION AND LACK OF FREEDOM TO MOVE AROUND? TOO CLOSE QUARTERS? LACK OF PRIVACY? FEARS OF CPS INVOLVEMENT? WHAT IS KEEPING PEOPLE OUT OF SHELTERS? FORCING THEM INTO SHELTERS REMINDS ME OF INTERNMENT CAMPS> IS THAT WHAT SHELTERS WILL BECOME? WILL PE0PLE BE GETTING HOUSING? FROM WHERE< AND HOW? IF PUBLIC HOUSING REQUIRES CREDIT CHECKS< AND THESE PEoPLE DONT QUALIFY THEN WHERE WILL THEY GO? WHAT ARE THE LIMITS FOR SHELTERS? THESE QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ANSWERED!!!

Meeting on DHS, housing set for Friday at KCC

Meeting on DHS, housing set for Friday at KCC

IT IS URGENT THAT EVERYONE ATTEND THIS MEETING!!

IT IS TIME FOR THE PEOPLE TO STAND UP...PLEASE STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR!!!!!


I worked with Representative Mizuno, and all of the rest of them to bring this meeting to Kauai. PLEASE attend. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON was at the Public Housing Hearing accxept for me. People DID NOT know about the meeting. Now is yur chance. IF you come to this meeting, tht proves that the HPHA did not try hard enough to get people to attend. FURTHER, Kauai had NO REPRESENTATION at this proposal formation. NONE. Thus none of our concerns were adressed. DO you want to have credit checks, faster evictions if you are late and people who can afford the market rate living in the nicer sections of public housing and receiving special incentives to live there such as cable tv telephone service and electrical hookups paid for by HPHA rather than using that money to pay for a service such as a representative payee program, which would be voluntary, take charge of your finances, pay your bills and cut you a weekly spending check so thqt you would never be late for your rent again? Or how about the ability to use ELECTRONIC PAYMENT to pay your bill instead of having to physically WALK INTO A BANK BILL IN HAND to pay your resnt? We all know this would SOLVE the rent collection issue.

BUT INSTEAD HOUSING WANTS TO EVICT YOU< SHOVE YOU ONTO THE STREET< MAKE YOU H)OMELESS< AND THEN YOU WOULD HAVE NO OPTIONS BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE BANNED FROM HOUSING!! Do you want a paperpusher being responsible for getting you food stams, quest medical and financial help on time, and in a humane and equitable manner? Or do you prefer a licenced SOCIAL WORKER who actually cares about you and your family and services there to help you? Are you interested in having Macdonalds style one stop drive through services under a privatized agreement which will fire all of your workers, then rehire them for half the wages, and they will be grossly overqualified for jobs that will no longer require a degree or even experience? Just the ability to operate a computer system and push paper? A HEARTLESS cold system which will care nothing for you and intimidate you into NOT seeking help, and making access limited?

NO? WELL SHOW UP TO THE MEETING THEN!!

Anne Punohu-Relentless 3/17/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

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