My Article Submission to the Garden Island RE WAR ON THE POOR

BEFORE YOU READ THIS< I MADE A MISTAKE IN ONE OF THE CABANILLA QUEOTES> SHE STATED THAT THE POOR SHOULD EMULATE THE RICH NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND MAHALO

THIS IS THE UNEDITED RAW VERSWION I HOPE IT WILL BE PRINTED>

Guest Article
Garden Island Newspaper
Anne Punohu
8083320341
Kalaheo Kauai
Kauai Fair Housing Law Coalition
Kauai DHS Clients Coalition
TO:
Editor, Nathan Eagle
Submitted by Email on April 7, 2010
The War Against The Poor: Evictions, Access and Persecution
When I first tell someone about what I know is occurring within DHS, and especially within the
Housing Department here in Hawaii, most people are incredulous and rightly so. I get totally shocked
reactions form people, who frankly don't or won't believe me and think I have finally gone off the deep
end. They cannot believe that such actions would be taken against those least able to defend
themselves or even speak up for them selves for fear of retribution and swift actions taken against
them. The oppressed and persecuted individuals fear even the slightest utterance of discontent could
mean that they will find themselves on the beach, subjected to rousting by officials and herded into
facilities where they feel nervous and uncomfortable and constantly watched and monitored. Even their
right to fresh air is taken away, and especially freedom of movement. They are rousted from their
homes where they have lived peaceably, paying rent and following the rules and forced back out onto
the street, where they will be rousted yet again and forced back into institutions that again are not
conducive to feeling safe or comfortable and again their freedom of movement is curtailed. Their
services having been drastically cut, both in medical benefits and in food allowances. They are a hated
and despised group. They are virtually blamed for every ill, and all of the fiscal shortfalls are being
places squarely upon their backs. At the same time, they are required to work whatever jobs may come
their way whatever the job is. Refusal to agree to perform the job and they will be cut off from food
rations and assistance of any kind. Failure to comply will have swift retribution.
This sounds like a chapter straight out of a Holocaust victims diary doesn't it? Sad to say, my friends, it
is not. It is the future of so called Public housing in the so called State of Hawaii where people are
supposed to be a free people and treated equally and free from persecution by the Government.
However this is not the case. A well thought out war plan has been conceived, planned and is being
methodically carried out by Government leaders and officials, to create a final solution to the problem
of the poor in Hawaii. That final solution is to psychologically impose a belief on the people that they
are not wanted, are a burden, and are the cause of all of the ills of this State, and that they have a moral
obligation to either become wealthy somehow, find housing food and medicine somehow without the
aid of the state. If you still have the audacity to hope for care, then you had better understand that your
lives and the lives of your children rest in the fickle hands of department heads who are gleefully
making rules and regulations made to break your spirit, break your will, and break you.
Now by now you are all thinking I am a complete madwoman. What in the heck am I babbling about?
How dare I make comparisons with the victims of the Holocaust and the cushy and luxurious life that
Hawaii's working poor, poor, handicapped and elderly live here. What am I thinking?
Here are some facts for you to consider. In England, where there is a housing crunch Government
housing is provided. There is no limit to the amount of years you can live there. In the Philippines,
Government housing residents are allowed to coop services, and create their own cooperative business
to give themselves employment. In Africa, Habitat for Humanity has provided thousands and thousands
and thousands of housing units, and given people hope for a brighter future. None of these residents
will ever have to leave those homes.
To be perfectly honest, in Hawaii, Habitat is the real public housing provider, and not the state. They
have shown far more compassion to the people then the state has. The county housing agency has
created affordable housing that is not affordable, and a little over a year ago refused to acknowledge
that there was discrimination in housing here on Kauai, the highest in the state where landlords were
blatantly advertising against Section 8 voucher holders refusing to allow them to apply for housing.
When the Housing agency was asked to help support legislation to prevent this from happening they
refused, especially the Kauai County Housing agency.
The animosity in the County Housing Agency against my efforts continues to this day, where the
second in command was recently involved in a screaming match with me, and was highly rude and
disrespectful. But by that time there were no cameras around to record the incident. I was told how dare
I speak to this person, how dare I tell them what do to, how dare I use a tone with this person, etc.
Exactly as if I had no rights as a human being, and that I was not as good as this person. To say that I
was offended and upset by this is an understatement. To this day this individual has offered me no
public apology as yet. I suppose I don't deserve one, since I am only a public housing resident, and a
receiver of welfare. Despite the fact that I have worked for many years and been a productive member
of society. Not only that, I am also made to feel, that because I am disabled, I should sit down and shut
up. If I can speak at a meeting I should be able to get out there and sling boxes all night at a retail store.
The veiled threat is always there. I walk a dangerous tightrope every time I dare to speak out. That is an
absolute fact.
Here in Hawaii, however, the picture looks serious and very bleak for Hawaii's Public Housing
residents. According to recent statements made at the March 19th meeting of a legislative informational
committee, Representative Cabanilla, a Democrat and the head of the housing committee made these
statements. There are direct quotes and not exaggerations:
“Of course we are going to bring the rich into public housing. We know that if we do this, the rich will
emulate the poor. It has been proven.”
“We have plans to evict all of these intergenerational families that have been living in housing far too
long. Why, there are mothers there who are living there with children and even their grandchildren!
They need to get out, and make room for others we need to get into public housing.”
“Of course, public housing has been sold. Yes, that is true.”
“Because the handicapped, and the elderly will never be able to contribute enough to society to be
useful or afford their own places, we will provide a small apartment, and thats that. They will stay
there.”
To say that the room, full of DHS workers, who are about to lose their jobs were extremely shocked,
but nobody was more shocked then I was. I had been investigating and trying to decipher the new “5
year plan” for housing, which I was told was a “One year plan”, to find the things I knew were not
right. There was something inherently sinister about this years plan. The plan was full of cleverly
written statements, to the effect that
“Bringing in higher incomes is a priority. In order to do this, we will be offering special incentives,
such as cable, electric and phone hookup allowances for them, as well as special landscaping and
maintenance”.
I had to fight hard to get my testimony in regarding the proposal, when it was discovered that we were
supposed to have a resident board representing us but that Kauai actually had none. I read the RAB
reports, which showed that RAB members had serious concerns about the proposal. I came up with
solid and fail proof methods of solving the collection issue which they were using as a basis for
evictions. This was included in the final draft, but it was approved without any final input form anyone.
No suggestions were ever considered, they were merely recorded for forms sake. The final tally was 9
persons had testified statewide on the proposal. I was the only one at the Kauai meeting. Just me. By
myself. It became obvious to me that there was a concerted effort to keep information from the general
public regarding the content of the proposal even though the newspapers had tried to get the
information out.
With the double whammy of offices closing, and possible evictions of thousands of Public Housing
residents for doing nothing wrong, it became clear to me that this was not just a normal thing. This was
a war. A persecution of an entire class of people, whose utter destruction was the goal of government
officials and leaders. Later, a few days we heard about further cuts to welfare benefits, the displacement
of people who are holding down essentially minimum wage jobs and need the assistance just to feed
their families , and the cutting back of medical services to quest beneficiaries.
When the entire state looks to the poor to carry their fiscal burdens, rousts them like chickens, in
shameful acts of inhumane mistreatment, trying to herd people into facilities they do not want to go to,
and take away social workers, benefits and housing, what I ask you does that sound like to you?
Does it ring a familiar bell in historical context? Does the fact that the working poor, homeless, elderly
and disabled in this state are made up highly disproportionately of Native Hawaiians, Polynesian
Immigrants, and immigrants from other Asian countries mean something to any of you? Perhaps not.
Perhaps you are embittered against a group of people whom you stereotypically want to label as
alcoholics, drug addicts and loser white trash from the mainland.
:et me ask you a question. Do any of you have family who have been to a war zone? Or family who
have survived ethnic cleansing, or persecution? DO any of you know what it means when you
persecute an entire class of citizens, and denigrate them to the rubbish heap just because you can?
Don't think I get any help from my own people either. Want to know why there aren't crowds of us out
in the street? Because we are psychologically controlled, beaten down and terrified to speak out, as
most persecuted groups of people are. Everyone is afraid of coming out and speaking out. In fact, they
don't believe me either. I can't get anyone to listen to me. No one wants to believe that this horrible
event will take place. No one.
But perhaps,. After reading this article, your eyes may be opened. You may finally be willing and able
to find your voice and stand up and fight this. You may find some shred of pride left. I know, they have
beaten it out of you, but we must try. We cannot let this happen. We must let the world know of our
plight here in Hawaii, and what they want to perpetuate against us, the class of people that they think
have no power, no voice, and should just shut up sit down behave and be quiet. We are to obey all of
their orders, and their laws, and go where they herd us. If a rule comes down one day we can do one
thing, then the next day a rule comes down and reverses that we are to comply. We are not to be seen by
the general public.
If you find this as appalling as I do, and if you are sick of being treated like this and subjected to this
sort of a brutal regime, then I urge you to become freedom fighters. I don't mean in a physical sense. I
mean help me to organize protests, and help me to find mainland attorneys who will swoop in here, and
help us with class action lawsuits. Help me to get the word out to independent filmmakers, and the
outside world. Shame them. Prove what you now know. Expose this to the world. I will not go out of
this housing easily. Nor will I allow my fellow humans out on the street to be herded like cattle into
institutions where there is no hope for housing. We must stop this persecution. I call on each and every
one of you with a shred of humanity in you to help stop this abominable war against the poor.
Mahalo
Anne Punohu
Kauai Citizen
Kauai Fair Housing Law Coalition
Kauai DHS Clients Coalition.

Let Us Hope It deosn't SINK! "Superferry To Be Used for Haitian EQ Relief"

Superferry To Be Used for Haitian EQ Relief

I find this facinating, since all of the ports of Haiti are completely destroyed, and it is going on one week since the disaster, and there is no way that the SF could have been used for immediate releif, becasue there are no workable ports at this time at PoP. Now, if the SF is being used this way, good for it. However, it does not mean that what happened to the SF in Hawaii was a bad thing. The ship belongs in military use, obviously. However, what do SF proponents have to say about other SF which sank with passengers aboard earlier this year? Im just sayin, people.

SuperFerry sinks off Zambo Norte coast

Disaster cause still not clear

Associated Press, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:25:00 09/07/2009

Filed Under: Maritime Accidents, Waterway & Maritime Transport

MANILA, Philippines—The text messages to relatives came early Sunday from passengers aboard the SuperFerry 9 midway on a voyage from General Santos City to Iloilo City that the vessel carrying more than 900 people was listing to its starboard side.

Rosalie Solarte, 40, said she called her husband Alberto, 52, at around 5:30 a.m.

“He said he was about to jump from the ship,” said Solarte, one of about 20 people who had rushed to the Iloilo port to ask about the fate of their relatives aboard the ill-fated vessel.

“I told him to wait and observe first what is happening. I can’t contact him now,” the Guimaras resident told the Inquirer.

As dawn broke in waters off the Zamboanga peninsula on a clear day, the SuperFerry 9 had capsized, according to officials, leaving at least twelve people dead in the panic and scramble for the exits.

Coast Guard chief Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said that as of 9 p.m. Sunday night, 926 survivors had been rescued—some of them on life rafts—by two commercial ships and several Philippine Navy vessels and taken to Zamboanga City.

A search was under way for more than 30 people who remained missing, Tamayo said, adding that they may have drifted with their life jackets or have been rescued but were not yet listed as survivors.

“We really hope they’re just unaccounted for due to the confusion,” Tamayo said.

Navy ships were deployed and Air Force helicopters scoured the seas, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

The US military station in Zamboanga City conducting antiterrorist training dispatched a support vessel with a medical team to help in the search.

Survivor Raffy Borro said it was his first time to see babies and children thrown out to the water as their mothers cried.

"Parang Titanic Filipino-style. Para kaming nasa pelikula pero totoo talaga (It was like Titanic Filipino-style. It was like being in a movie scene but this was all real)," Borro told the Inquirer.

He reported a shortage in life jackets and life rafts.

"Agawan. Maginaw. Madilim. Kaya natakot lahat tumalon sa dagat. Noong mabilis ang pagtagilid, ang daming tumakbo at nag-panic, maraming natakot. Ang mga bata nag-iiyakan, mga magulang iyakan hingi ng tulong (People were grappling for life jackets. It was cold. Dark. That’s why people were so scared, they just jumped into the sea. When we felt the ship listing fast, many ran and panicked. The kids were crying and the parents were wailing for help)," Borro recalled.

Passenger Chelona Pabit of Trento town in Agusan province said she saw babies and children being thrown out of the boat. "It was like you were leaving it all up to fate on who will survive," Pabit said.

Before leaving the General Santos City port Saturday morning, Pabit said, she heard a loud bang below the boat.

"Then the boat started to tilt. We were travelling on a tilted boat," Pabit said.

Pabit said she even asked a ship crew why the boat was tilted, and all the response was: "strong wind and waves."

Romeo Billano, 62, had the same observation.

"It was like a container van slammed on the wall below," Billano said.

"There were no big waves. The weather was fine," he added.

All Billano had with him as he jumped off the boat was a piece of paper where the mobile phone number of his daughter was written.

Roderick Teves, a driver and one of the survivors, told Bombo Radyo-GenSan in a mobile phone interview that 19 crew members of Tanging Pamilya were aboard the ill-fated ferry.

But Teves said only nine of them were rescued.

"I don't know whether my 10 other colleagues were rescued by other vessels who helped in the rescue efforts," he said in Tagalog.

Teves identified eight co-workers who were saved with him as Joe Carlo Aquino, Joseph Noble, Raniel Billones, Manuel Malixi, Victor Gevilo, Mike Lungos, John Michael Roselo and Gaspar Capalar Jr.

Teves, a resident of Libis, Quezon City, claimed that their equipment and two service trucks sank with the vessel.

He revealed that around 2 a.m., the passenger ship tilted to the right, when container vans apparently slid to the right.

"I guess the ship lost its balance. We were on the vessel waiting for the rescue. Other passengers who panicked grabbed life jackets and jumped off the ship," he said.

Cause of sinking unclear

The cause of the listing was not clear.

The ferry skipper, Joel Yap, initially ordered everyone on board to abandon the ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry built in Japan in 1986.

Supan said the vessel carried 847 passengers, a crew of 117 and four sea marshals.

Supan ruled out a terrorist attack as the cause of the disaster, similar to the February 2004 assault carried out by the Abu Sayyaf bandit group on SuperFerry 14 that killed 116 people aboard.

But survivor Jude Borro, a resident of General Santos, belied the claim of Supan that the vessel captain gave instructions to passengers to abandon ship.

"There was no instruction from the captain. The ship's crew were even the first to jump off the vessel. The passengers helped each other," Borro said during the same interview.

Borro said the SuperFerry 9 was apparently overloaded.

Borro claimed that about two hours after cruising past Zamboanga City, he heard a thunderous noise from under the vessel where the container vans where loaded.

There were reports that the ferry listed to the right due to a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.

Potential oil spill

The 7,000-ton vessel was carrying 220 tons of fuel oil, Supan said, adding that the salvage ship Harbour had been sent to the area to contain any possible oil spill.

He said the Coast Guard had also called a team from Palawan with oil booms and oil dispersants.

Passenger Roger Cinciron told dzMM radio by cell phone that he felt the ferry was tilting around midnight, but he was assured by a crewman that everything was well.

About two hours later, he was roused from sleep by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he said.

“People began to panic because the ship was really tilting,” he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.

The ferry, which left General Santos City at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo at 2 p.m. Sunday, ran into problems midway and began to list about 15 kilometers from the nearest shore, Tamayo said.

Fair weather

The weather was generally fair in the vicinity of the Zamboanga peninsula, although a tropical storm was battering the country’s north, the Coast Guard said.

SuperFerry 9 “encountered an undefined problem 17.5 nautical miles off Sibuco Port, Zamboanga del Norte, at 3:35 a.m.,” the maritime police said.

The ship captain then instructed passengers and crew to abandon the sinking vessel, which at the time continued to list to its starboard side.

In its 8:30 a.m. update Sunday, the Philippine Navy said the vessel had already capsized with “bottom hull sighted” some 5.2 nautical miles southwest of Tulalu Point, Sibuco Bay.

Previous accidents

Last year, the MV Princess of the Stars overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon off Romblon, killing more than 800 people on board.

In December 1987, the MV Doña Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.

Among those in the Iloilo port waiting for word of survivors was Elvira Casumlon, 71, of Badiangan town in Iloilo province. Her son, Pepito Jr., 31, was aboard the vessel, traveling with his wife Lita, 36, 7-year-old son Christopher and neighbor Sueden Bolero.

‘I pray that they’re safe’

“I last heard from them Saturday morning when the ship left. I kept on calling them but I failed to contact them,” Elvira said.

Teresita Monijaque from Leganes town in Iloilo has been sending text messages and dialing her cell phone in the hope of reaching her 29-year-old son Jobert and 3-year-old granddaughter Name.

“He sent a text message around 3:15 a.m. that the boat was sinking. I pray that they’re safe,” she said.

Others who arrived early at the shipping port to fetch their kin were shocked to hear that the ship sank.

“I only knew what happened when I got here,” said Giovanni Projio, who came from Sigma town in Capiz province to meet his father-in-law.

Frantic calls from relatives swamped radio stations who covered the rescue operations. Others waited at the radio stations which were trying to call passengers. With reports from Tarra Quismundo, Riza T. Olchondra, Amy Remo, Marlon Ramos, Kristine L. Alave and Nikko Dizon in Manila; Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas; Julie Alipala and Aquiles Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao, and Associated Press

TheGardenIsland.com News Kauai News Residents grapple with affordable housing ‘realities’

TheGardenIsland.com News Kauai News Residents grapple with affordable housing ‘realities’

Immediatly I fired off a letter to the Garden Island

"When Coco called me up and asked my opinion on this issue, I pretty much burned her a new hole in her ear. There are a few things I want to clarify however. It seems that the article was perhaps unintentionally slanted in the direction of my saying that Habitat and Kalepa were unaffordable.

The problem lies in not knowing the difference between "affordable" housing, and Low income housing. Habitiat for Humanity is a terrific organization. When Coco and I were discussing this issue, I specifically mentioned them as doing a great job, and that we needed a whole lot more of what they were doing on this island as part of the solution to this problem.

When Coco asked me what I thought a solution would be to this housing situation, I was very blunt. Large developers that want to build high end housing for the wealthy must build addordable and low income units for employees, or employee housing that would be affordable based on what they will be paying those future employees.

I mentioned that the first people to do this was Princeville Corporation but they were required to do it as a condition of approval of their project. Many of the larger developments have also been required to do this as of late, but as I testified many times at the meetings they were still looking at "affordable" units being at the 50, and 80 percent median income range which did nothing to address the problem.

I did praise one developer. and that would be the Ritz Carlton Kauai, whose development would be building not only affordable units, and employee housing, but also some low income units as well, and accepting HUD. I have praised them many times for the way they have tackled the housing units and held them up as an example for others.

Kalepa is a county project that is a HUD project. So those rentals will be doable, and Habitat is a charitable organization that helps to make housing truly affordable for many families that could otherwise not afford a home by using sweat equity.

Mahalo for letting me add onto my comments on the article
Anne Punohu
Kauai Fair Housing Law Coalition"

So, now lets get down to the real nitty gritty. I mentioned to Coco everything I did here, and a whole lot more. What I did not get a chance to tell her, was that a way that some people were addressing their own homeless issue, was to work overnight jobs and try to sleep during the day. They can park their cars at work and its a win win for everyone. However, with strict new laws against sleeping in their cars or even on the beach and possibly getting a ticket for it, this sort of complicates matters. Without any sleep, how can you do your job? Overnight jobs are extremely physical, since most involve heavy cleaning, or stocking shelves with heavy items or ioperating machinery, or performing guard duties which requires a lot of walking for a n entire shift.

I also told her that most of the people I met while I was working overnight jobs were on their second 8 hour job and had just come of a full day shift. These poeple some of them worked 5 and 6 days a week at full hours with overtime. It still did not put a dent in their finances much.

I also discussed the catch 22 of some social programs which can make it hard to save enough money for housing, and the possibility that in the future legislation may be written to put a time limit on how long poeple can ,live in low income units in State projects.

Here is the math. You are say a single mom, 2 kids. You have a job that pays minimum wage, and you work 8 hours, five days a weel. Your rent is set at 30 percent of your income, and you qualify for some foodstamps, medical and insurance for your car, childcare, ect. You don't have any money left however, and it is very hard to pay bills like gas, phone, electric, and extras like a phone, cable or internet. There is very little left over for essential items, clothing for the kids, even toilet paper. SO, you try to better yourself. You get a job that starts at a higher rate of pay, and in three months to six months you are now earning 12.00 to 13.00 an hour. You lose your foodstamps, insurance, and childcare. You must now pay a higher rate for childcare out of pocket, cover your insurance expenses and pay for your food with cash. Another issue is that now, your rent will now increase incrementally due to your having a higher rate of pay. SO, what you have gained by almost doubling your pay, will be eaten away by an increase in rent, gas, insurance and food costs. SO technically you are no better off than if you had one job and stayed on benefits. So, as you can see there is very little opportunity to save the thousands of dollars that would be needed for a downpayment on a house, even a "affordable" one.

However, the rumour mills are flying that an attempt to put a stopper on the amount of years someone can live in State Housing are more than likely going to come up for a debate at some point in the next year or so. If that is so, it will be a debated issue during campaigns I am sure. Most people see low income housing dwellers as lazy, and poeple that don't work, and are just "free loadning" in public housing for decades and not moving out and moving on so that others can get into the units.

hHis is ridiculous. The obvious reason why people cannot get ahead, is the rules and regulations of the system, and the fact that no one is building affordable low income housing that matches the pay scale here, and the rentals are far too high. Not only that, when we fought to change regulations last year at the State level, and make discrimination against a renter illegal just because a renter would be paying for his rental with a HUD voucher , it did not pass. that makes it even harder for poeple to move out of State low income housing.

The answer is to either build more state housing, and complete repairs, or rebuild aging state housing, and pass laws that will forbid discrimination agianst HUD voucher holder,s and build low income pay scale amenable affordable rentals and housing.

This can be accomplished by loosening the restrictions for developers whose purpose is to do just that. Developers that are willing to build the kind of housing that will keep workers on island should be given every type of ecxemption allowable. Those that wont should not be allowed to build. It is as simple as that. Housing discrimination based on HUD should not be allowed. And for a term of 5 years, a families maximum amount of rent paid in a state housing unit should be frozen, allowing any amount to be earned. A portion of money and earning are to be set aside each month for that family in a dedicated account, and at the end of five years, can be used towards the purchase of a home outright, and will be held by the State for the renter. After five years, the rent can be increased incrementally and work with the renter to help overcome any obstacles to finding a decent rental or home. Welfare laws should be reformed to allow 2 years of payments to continue, frozen while a family gets back on its feet agfter acheiving a raise and a better job and still be allowed foodstamps, since that is the single most expensive burden,

THere are ways to tackle this problem, but it will require will, determination and drive to get these problems solved.

Feel free top debate the issue here. You know the rules