June 22, 2004

The Other Side of Paradise

Here is a subject that really gets me boiling...Vagrancy. Thats right. I dont use the politically correct word "homeless" because a lot of these people want to live this way. They want to sleep on my property, relieve themselves on the stoop of my shop and terrorize my potentital customers...Here's the Trib's take on this

Monday, Jun 21, 2004
Homeless in Hilo - By chance or by choice


By HUNTER BISHOP
The problem with the homeless is that there are those who want help and can't get it, and those who can get help but don't want it.

With a steadily growing homeless population, society's capacity to help people needing shelter is being taxed far beyond ability in Hawaii County.

At the same time, a segment of the homeless population is living off meager government checks and the generosity of numerous charitable agencies to maintain a lifestyle that is homeless-by-choice.

A recent survey counted up to 1,300 homeless people in Hawaii County in 2003, up 89 percent in four years. But the Big Island has no more than about 200 beds where the homeless can find emergency housing, said Steve Bader, executive director for the East Hawaii Coalition for the Homeless.

But not everyone wants a bed in a homeless shelter.

A growing number of homeless people have given up seeking help with housing, or never wanted it. They live in the shadows of society, sleeping in alleyways, on sidewalks, in store fronts, on beaches, in forests, parks and school yards, subsisting on handouts, their wits and help from friends.

Many suffer mental illnesses and require medication they often won't take, leading to threatening anti-social behavior that frightens tourists and vexes business owners. They avoid the shelters because they can't abide by the rules and regulations. They are largely content, for whatever reasons, with their lives on the street, even professing to draw strength from a shared sense of camaraderie and self-reliance.

Downtown Hilo is where the homeless are most visible, acknowledges Downtown Improvement Association President Jeffrey Mermel. "But the problem is everywhere."

The state housing survey prepared in 2003 by SMS Research & Marketing Services Inc., concluded that "substantial numbers of Hawaii's homeless are unsheltered at any time," and noted that shelter spaces are in very short supply throughout the state, especially in Hawaii County.

The SMS report describes a dire need for more emergency, transitional and permanent low-income housing for the homeless.

The East Hawaii Coalition for the Homeless operates the only homeless shelter on the Big Island, with 52 beds at its Kapiolani Street facility in Hilo. Homeless families and individuals enter a six-week shelter program that offers a variety of services designed to help people get back on their feet.

Bader said other facilities provide shelter for those with mental health problems and victims of domestic violence, but the number of available beds is woefully insufficient for the need.

Anna Hirakawa, EHCH program director, said the non-profit group purchased the former Hilo Hotel in 2001. Five units have been set aside for transitional housing. Plans are to convert more rooms for transitional housing, and the United Way and Adult Mental Health Services have set up shop in the building to provide support services.

The EHCH also provides "multi-service outreach" and a drop-in food pantry in Pahoa, Hirakawa said, where services are being expanded to reach the growing homeless problem there.

For people who want help, the Office of Social Ministry, a non-profit organization sponsored by Catholic Charities, provides a wide variety of basic services to the poor in Hawaii County.

"That's our target," said Carol Ignacio, director of the OSM. "They are willing to get off the street. In most cases, if newly homeless, people are willing to accept help. The longer they are homeless, the harder it is."

"We immerse them with services," she said. The agency has staff on call 24 hours a day to work with landlords. The needs are "not decreasing at all."

Ignacio laments the fact that the homeless who reject organized assistance and cause problems give those who want help a bad name. "Everybody is painted with the same brush," she said.

Nanette Castillo, a case worker and receptionist for the Salvation Army, said her agency serves up to 100 hot meals a day, three days a week, at its mission on Ponahawai Street, across from Lincoln Park, without restrictions.

Castillo said the number of homeless families is increasing as more families are cut from government welfare programs. "We have to pick up the slack for food."

She said the number of people who choose to be homeless and jobless, however, has remained relatively stable. The majority of people the Salvation Army serves is not homeless, she said.

Castillo said she is unaware of complaints about their clients causing problems in Lincoln Park, though she acknowledged that some congregate in the park before and after getting their meals.

What Castillo said Salvation Army officials worry about is being "enablers" of the homeless-by-choice lifestyle. "They have a meal everywhere they choose," she said. "There are three meals every day somewhere in the community."

She said the Salvation Army offers incentive programs for vocational rehabilitation but gets few takers. Those with disabilities could overcome them if they wanted, she said. "They could function."

"My boss calls us enablers," Castillo said. "We try not to go that route. But we are Christian-based. It's a dilemma because of our belief. What can you do when people come in hungry?"

Nevertheless, Castillo said she tries to be "a stickler for the guidelines" when it comes to limitations on providing long-term services to the homeless. "They have to take some responsibility."

Hirakawa said the community's perception of homeless has to change. "They see the derelict," she said. "The face of the homeless is a child as well. Half my clients are homeless families with children. It's very traumatic for a child. The circumstances are beyond their control.

"We can't change anybody's life until we change the perception ... that (the homeless) are not just druggies."

Hirakawa described the homeless in three categories: unsheltered, sheltered in agencies, and those at risk of being homeless. Many who fall into the first category, such as those who live at Kings Landing, don't even perceive themselves as homeless, she said.

Cassandra Lokelani Cho, 32, is at-risk. She has lived in the Lincoln Courtside Apartments for two years. She's a single parent with three kids, ages 7 to 14, who knows what it's like to be homeless. If not for her children, she might still be there.

Cho moved to Hilo from Oahu 10 years ago and has been homeless off and on. She gets supplemental Social Security payments and food stamps but hasn't worked since her car broke down.

On a recent weekday afternoon, she empathized with the homeless around her while she painted with watercolors in a Lincoln Park pavilion as her two younger children played nearby. Cho said she understands the sense of liberation some homeless people describe -- the near-total absence of the rules and expectations of conventional living. But with her kids, she also realizes she's better off with shelter.

The size of the homeless population Hirakawa sees, those seeking help, is stable at best. It's "primarily families, the shelter is always full," she said, and the overflow gets referred to other service agencies until openings occur. Cutbacks in federal and state welfare programs are "definitely a factor," and there also has been a marked increase over the past five years in the number of recently arrived Micronesian families in need of emergency housing.

Substance abuse and welfare reform are the next most common contributing factors to the homeless problem, she said. A recent boom in property values also has boosted rents, making it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing.

Beverly Grogan, director of the Hawaii County Mental Health Association, said housing is a national crisis "which could worsen on the Big Island." The federal budget includes proposals to cut Section 8 housing vouchers for very low-income residents, many who are permanently disabled, she warned in a recent report on housing in Hawaii County.

Hawaii County is assigned 1,796 Section 8 housing vouchers and all are taken -- 609 by the disabled, 345 by one-person households, and 345 by households with three or more people. Grogan said at least 12 percent of those individuals and families would be dropped from the program under Bush-administration proposals. Up to 215 vouchers would be cut at first, rising to 520 vouchers by 2009.

DIA President Mermel, who owns Fireplace and Home Center on Kamehameha Avenue, would like to see stronger community partnerships with agencies to develop innovative solutions to the homeless problem. He said the DIA board has expressed some impatience with the EHCH's apparent lack of progress in creating a new homeless shelter at the former Hilo Hotel.

EHCH's Bader said the coalition is "stuck now getting financing" to convert more hotel rooms to transitional housing for the homeless. Since acquiring the building, the coalition has taken advantage of local volunteers to clean up the property, and a $400,000 HUD grant will help pay down the mortgage on the building. But at least $1 million will be needed to renovate it, he said.

The timeline for converting the hotel is not necessarily behind schedule for a project of its type, Bader said. The age of the hotel may require some relaxation of county building code requirements, and potential structural problems could cause more delays.

Agencies that potentially could provide the bulk of the money want to see the level of community support before investing in it themselves, Bader said. The EHCH is reaching out to any organization that could help demonstrate that support, he said. "If we get help, the price could come down."

"Our concern is mostly single males," Bader said. "We really need a drop-in type shelter," which the EHCH is not providing at the hotel. That's largely because single males often choose the street over a shelter or other more structured lifestyle.

Hunter Bishop can be reached at hunter@hawaiitribune-herald.com

This angers me because I have to work or I dont eat. I have to live indoors or I cant work therefore I cant eat. Those who make abhereant lifestyle choices should be able to, but not at my expense.(that Cho lady really burned me up, she gets to sit in the park and paint while I bust my ass, its wrong wrong wrong!!!) We pay a 5 percent tax on EVERY business transaction involving money. this includeds food, medicines rent, raw materials, services.....If business were not taxed so much, maybe they could hire more people, like my husband...or they could buy stuff at my store. I dont feel its right to be expected to pay the vagrants way through life. I wish that the state would get a clue and realize that these do-gooder programs only sap the will and keep people poor. They feed them, but do nothing else to help them.

Oh they are mentally ill... people say this to me. well, so am I and I still sleep indoors, bathe and use a toilet. I dont rummage through garbage, or panhandle in front of five star resturants. I dont choose to live that large and not by the rules of society. You would have to be Mental to want to live outside here...We have torential rain here nearly everynight...makes no sense to me at all.

As for the families, I do understand. But they still can do something. We have multiple generations living out on the beach at Kings Landing near the Hilo airport under blue tarps. Been there for years. When they were notified that squatting was unlawful and told to leave recently, the people all laughed then got a lawyer (so much for being poor...)Their posisiton is that they are Hawaiian (mostly, lots of white faces there) and they have a "right" to live on the beach and the rest of could just kiss off..."Oh and by the way County of Hawaii, bring out an additional portable toilet, we have some new folks here."..Grrr!

We had a family in the Cunningham right above the old store...5 people sleeping in a 8x10 room, and they were out in three months. That sort of thing I totally support. The Dad was a go getter and worked at three different things to earn enough to get his kids out of there and I salute him. It was a temporary situation and he needed a temporary place. Had he not had to pay 550.00 a month for that 8x10 plus share a bath, he'd have been out a lot sooner...talk about a rip off.

Jeff Mermel of the Hilo Downtown Improvement association says he and others or growing impaitent with the lack of housing for the "homeless". Well... Who is going to make these criminals go to the sheler? They dont want to obey the rules, like no drugs no prostitution...so they will continue to sleep in our shop doorways, and sell drugs on our property.

So now you can see the ugly uncompassionate side of me. With the efforts that we have to make to survive I have little pity for this. Not so long ago vagancy and tresspass was a crime. I would that it be made so again.