Homelessness reaches 'critical mass' in Wai'anae
| • | Harris seeks all-purpose center |
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
Homelessness has surged on the Wai'anae Coast in recent months, pushing the situation in one of the state's most vulnerable areas to "critical mass" and prompting fears of even greater numbers that could overwhelm area police and service organizations.
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"The homeless population has grown in Wai'anae, and the behavior has become more radical," said Stanlyn Placencia, director of Wai'anae Community Outreach, a nonprofit organization that provides services for the area's homeless. "It's really alarming."
Chrischell Bento washes cooking utensils at Kea'au Beach Park on the Leeward Coast, where homelessness is surging. Chrischell, with her husband, Steven, recently marked her 40th birthday — her first without a home.
Placencia's records show that her organization served 1,082 "unduplicated homeless" persons in fiscal year 2002. Already in fiscal 2003 the program has served 1,354 different homeless individuals — and there are four months left to go.
The increase in homelessness comes as hard times get worse and the traditional 'ohana safety net frays in O'ahu's economically strapped Wai'anae Coast. Social service workers say an increasing number of what they call the area's "hidden homeless" have moved into the homeless mainstream. The hidden homeless are a difficult-to-track number of people who live on the edge with others, such as family and friends.
Meanwhile, more and more people are being left without income because of welfare cutbacks and rising unemployment.
Honolulu's homeless population has begun to migrate westward from Ala Moana Beach Park in response to city efforts that officials said are intended to clean up the park.
To deal with the crisis, a grassroots, community-based group known as Wai'anae CAR (Community Area Responsibility) was organized in early February to formulate a strategy. The effort was initiated by the Honolulu Police Department's District 8 Station, but it is driven by local service providers.
Sandra Miyoshi, homeless program administrator for the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai'i, said the Wai'anae Coast has one of the state's worst homelessness problems. While there are more homeless in Honolulu, the Wai'anae Coast, with less room, "has reached critical mass," she said.
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Tulutulu Toa, a homeless specialist with the Wai'anae Outreach Community, works on the front lines between Nanakuli and Ka'ena Point. She said she now sees homeless people from Ala Moana Beach Park showing up in her territory. She frets about what will happen in July when Nanakuli Beach Park is shut down for months of renovation and its homeless residents are forced to find a new place to go.
Calvin Dole, a homeless man living near the beach off Farrington Highway, has his pit bull standing guard at the front gate to his campsite. Much of Honolulu's homeless population has begun to migrate to the Wai'anae Coast.
"This CAR has got to move," Toa said.
Chrischell Bento and her family represent the hidden homeless facet of the problem.
Bento turned 40 in February and celebrated her first birthday as a homeless person. Bento, her 34-year-old husband, Steven, and 15-year-old daughter recently took up residence at Kea'au Beach Park in Makaha.
The concern is that many more like the Bentos will be joining the visible ranks of beach dwellers.
Placencia said her organization last month served 48 new individuals, nearly half of whom listed "loss of income" as the reason. About 40 percent of those applicants had left the ranks of hidden homeless within the past three months.
On Feb. 27 Bento sat in on the second Wai'anae CAR meeting at the multipurpose building behind the local library. In addition to homeless individuals, the meeting was attended by police, service providers, private citizens and representatives of various state and city governmental agencies.
The group considered the feasibility of an idea presented at the first CAR meeting by Wai'anae police Sgt. Kyle Yonemura. His plan for change: Give homeless people a temporary safe haven.
Yonemura's idea was to find campsites large enough to accommodate homeless people in Wai'anae.
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Those staying at a campsite would be expected to follow rules and become actively involved in trying to help themselves. Authorities and service agencies could work together to concentrate on moving people away from being homeless.
Warren Franca opens the flap to his sleeping quarters on a campsite off Farrington Highway. His temporary home is among a group of tents on a patch of land between the highway and the beach.
"This is a way I saw of breaking that cycle," Yonemura said. "Instead of trying to find housing in this fiscally tight environment, I came up with an idea to find campsites where we can put the homeless and focus the efforts of the social services to assist them."
The first order of business is to find suitable campsite locations. Resident Tom Caldwell, in charge of the site selection process, presented a detailed report on the selection criteria.
"Homelessness is not a one-size-fits-all situation," said Caldwell, who likened the process to the story about the blind men studying an elephant by touch. "Everybody's describing the same problem, but they are looking at it from a different perspective."
Caldwell and others say the solution lies in quickly isolating homeless people with drug and mental problems from those who simply are down on their luck and are motivated to solve their difficulties.
Placencia, who says the longer people are homeless the more habitually homeless they become, outlined CAR's three-phase strategy:
- Establish safe havens that are monitored by police and service providers.
- Place homeless people in temporary transitional shelters.
- Move the homeless to affordable housing with continued support services.
Those attending the second CAR meeting came away with a sobering understanding of the daunting task before them.
Miyoshi likened the campsite concept to former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi's tent city at 'A'ala Park, which became a haven for drugs and crime before tent dwellers were finally forced out and the park was cleaned up.
Another concern is how to persuade residents near potential campsites to relinquish the "not in my back yard" attitudes that typically accompany such efforts.
But Yonemura insisted that homelessness in Wai'anae has reached a point where it must be realistically addressed by the public.
"What was happening was we were getting complaints from the community about the homeless, and Sgt. Bertram Angut was going out with citation teams and giving out hundreds of citations and moving them on," Yonemura said. "As soon as the homeless moved somewhere else, people in that area complained, and we were just going in circles."
To make matters worse, Yonemura said the various factions that deal with the problem were working at cross-purposes. While one social service agency might be making connections and setting up homeless clients for counseling, police were issuing complaint citations, moving folks off the beach and tearing down their tents.
As one agency was trying to find its scattered clients, another was handing out new tents for the displaced homeless to set up elsewhere, where they would likely be chased out again by police.
With outreach teams taking the lead and police acting as their partners, Yonemura believes the homeless cycle can be broken.
"Basically we're trying to get these people to a place were they can be stabilized," he said. "After that, the social services, the police, the community and the homeless can work together to concentrate on getting them transitioned into a lifestyle off the beaches."
