Meeting focuses on use of funds earmarked to address homelessness

Maui County Council Member Kelly King (from left) addresses an audience of around 35 people Saturday morning at the Malcolm Center on the Maui Economic Development Board’s campus in Kihei. King’s office facilitated a meeting to address homelessness in South Maui. A panel discussion included Lisa Darcy, founder of Share Your Mana; facilitator Sam Millington (standing); Monique Yamashita, executive director of Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers; and Maude Cumming, executive director of Family Life Center. -- The Maui News / MELISSA TANJI photo
KIHEI — Having affordable rentals, hot showers, a place to do laundry and a resource center are some ideas that around 35 people, some homeless, came up with Saturday as ways to help the homeless population in South Maui.
Politicians, community leaders and social service organizations, along with the homeless and formerly homeless residents, gathered for a meeting facilitated by Maui County Council Member Kelly King’s office to seek input from the community on how to spend $1.5 million that developers put into a workforce housing development fund in the past to address homelessness in South Maui. The funds were entrusted to Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center, the nonprofit that runs emergency shelters and transitional housing programs in Lahaina and Wailuku.
“This first meeting is more about educating the public, the South Maui community, what is happening now in South Maui, what the situation looks like as far as homelessness,” King said during the meeting at the Malcolm Center on the Maui Economic Development Board’s campus in Kihei.
King, who holds the South Maui residency seat, said that she wants to get the community involved in the matter to see what it envisions in South Maui.
She added that she wants to tackle the homeless issue in her community.
“We are going to own this problem,” she said. “We are not going to push it down the road.”
Maude Cumming, executive director of the Family Life Center in Kahului, which does homeless outreach, said that, in South Maui, half of the homeless are single Caucasian males ages 25 to 50.
Maybe less than 5 percent are veterans, said Cumming, who served as one of the panelists during Saturday’s meeting.
Cumming said that the single males are a transient population, and pointed out that this population is different from some homeless in Central Maui who have lived on the island longer.
Monique Yamashita, chief executive officer of Ka Hale A Ke Ola who also served as a panelist, noted that “there is not a dedicated place in South Maui for the homeless to go to.”
Hale Kau Kau provides meals at St. Theresa Church and Calvary Chapel South Maui is also working with the homeless, but Yamashita said that she knows more can be done in the area.
“I’m sure you can imagine that $1.5 million is not a lot of money to build a facility,” Yamashita said, encouraging feedback from attendees on what to do with the funds. “We want to do something for this part of the island.”
At the end of Saturday’s meeting, Yamashita said some ideas that the agency is looking into include repurposing an existing building in South Maui that could serve as a drop-in center where people can come in and bathe or as a place where people can be picked up for work. It could also serve as a place where homeless people could keep their belongings.
She discussed partnering with Hale Kau Kau and Calvary Chapel to bring more resources and education to the homeless population.
Both King and Yamashita noted that the funds came with an agreement that the money be used for a center in South Maui with the same footprint of Ka Hale A Ke Ola’s Lahaina center. But King said that perhaps the agreement could be tweaked, as Yamashita noted that a Lahaina-type center may not be a perfect fit for South Maui. Panelists agreed that the $1.5 million could be leveraged to receive more funding.
A man who said he lives in his vehicle suggested that homeless could be helped by giving them a place where they can take a hot shower and perhaps wash laundry.
He said that if a homeless person were to get a job, he or she would not get paid until weeks later, so one could not afford a place to live or a place to do laundry in the meantime. But if there is a center where people could have their basic needs met, this could help.
Others at the meeting pointed to having respite emergency shelter for those who may have just undergone medical care and are released from the hospital but do not have a place to live.
Yamashita and Cumming said they do not currently have the staffing to provide one-on-one assistance that may be needed for people who cannot get around on their own or recently discharged people needing special care.
While not all suggestions presented by audience members Saturday would be possible with the $1.5 million, all the suggested remedies were noted, including trying to find affordable rentals.
“Tony” and his wife are living in South Maui parks because he doesn’t have enough money from his Social Security disability paycheck to afford $1,500 in rent each month, he said. He would like to see affordable rentals.
He said that he has tried to look for cheap places but usually finds broken or worn-out infrastructure or places that “so filthy.”
So he chooses to live in a park where he can take a shower every day. He has a friend who does his laundry.
“It’s just too hard to find someplace to live. If there is anywhere we can rent for $1,000 we would be out of the park,” he said.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.