Posted on: Friday, November 26, 2004
Rent increase, medical bills forced family to live on beach
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
"RZ" and "BZ", both in their 60s, worked hard all their lives — he as a carpenter, she as a manager at a fast-food restaurant.
"I never thought it (retirement) would be like this," BZ says. "Maybe we did something wrong — didn't plan right or something. I don't know, but I never thought this could happen to us."
The couple have custody of their two grandchildren, a girl, now 12, and a boy, 10. The children are good students and active in school. The family had been together for years, and they were doing well — until illness struck.
In his final years on the job, RZ's diabetes and high blood pressure became debilitating. He lost sight in one eye and a toe to amputation. He was forced to take early retirement, and the medical bills skyrocketed out of control.
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Total: $55 Total to date: $55 To donate, send checks payable to "The Advertiser Christmas Fund" to Helping Hands Hawai'i, P.O. Box 17780, Honolulu, HI 96817. Monetary donations also may be dropped off at any First Hawaiian Bank branch. Goods can be donated at the Community Clearinghouse at 2100 N. Nimitz Highway, near Pu'uhale Road. For details, call 440-3804. "So..." BZ says. Her voice breaks and she fights to gain control over the tears. She starts again:
"So, we lived at the beach for one year."
It wasn't supposed to last a year, but the couple were unable to find affordable housing. Being homeless while looking made the task even more difficult.
They tried to carry on as close to normal as possible as the months stretched on. BZ kept her fast-food job, and RZ watched over the campsite at the beach, breaking it down for the two days each week the park was closed to campers, building it up again when the park reopened. On the off days, all four family members slept in the car.
The children stayed in school and tried to keep their homelessness a secret, but their classmates found out.
"You know how cruel kids can be," BZ said. "They teased them."
The events of those months — the storms, the leaking tents, the other beach families also hungry and desperate — form vivid images that BZ said will always haunt her.
The family has found a home through a transitional living program. They have a roof over their heads, and life is beginning to approach normal.
The kids could use some news clothes, though — a few things to help cement and build upon the self-confidence that came with a roof over their heads.
They need towels and bed linens — the little things that make a house a home.
They are making do now with a rickety table with only two chairs that are falling apart; a nice dining set would allow the family to eat together.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The couple had looked forward to a modest but workable retirement. It didn't turn out that way.
Then, the clincher came. The family had lived in the same house for 10 years, paying less than $900 a month in rent. When the rent was raised to $1,500, they were in trouble over their heads.
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