Trending
After making homelessness a key talking point leading up to Tuesday's general election, Hawaii's incoming governor, Josh Green, and Maui County's next mayor, Richard Bissen, will try to put their words into action come January.
We wish them success. Homelessness is a complex challenge on a global level. Many smart people on Maui have worked through the years to develop solutions, to find ways to get people into housing. Compassionate folks have dedicated countless hours providing our homeless with everything from food and wound care to assistance with paperwork and job placement.
The efforts have helped many individuals and families break the cycle of homelessness. Judging by all the campsites around the island, however, the issue is far from solved. Cut Mountain in Olowalu, Holomua Road, Sugar Beach, Kanaha, Lahaina, Kahului, Wailuku -- the places where people sleep in cars and on the ground seems to be rising precipitously on this island.
While we may not have the solution, we would suggest Hawaii consider a twofold approach in how it deals with its homeless population. For lack of a better term, let's call it Tough Love. Continue to show love for our displaced, down-on-their-luck Hawaii residents and get tougher with the traveling homeless.
We received a call from a frustrated Olowalu resident this week bemoaning how his neighborhood has been upended by an influx of campers who have set up along the ocean. While playing in the yard with his son last weekend, they both got to watch one camper attack another with a two-by-four. Besides the nightly fights and shouting matches, there are drug needles in the sand and litter everywhere. Without bathroom facilities, the beach and ocean have become toilets.
"These aren't Native Hawaiians, they're professional drug addicts from the Mainland," the Olowalu farm worker said. "The degradation that is going on in front of our house is just disgusting."
A big part of his frustration stems from the lack of support he and his neighbors say they have received from the state and county. Whether it was lack of manpower, authority or evidence, officials said there wasn't much they could do. Homeless people have rights. The jail is full. Our police are understaffed and overworked. Programs to assist the mentally ill and drug addicted are overwhelmed by demand.
As Green, Bissen and all the other Hawaii politicians who promised to solve homelessness dive into the issue, these are just a few of the rocks on which their plans may be dashed. We would like to see them find ways to disincentivize the travelers who take but do not contribute to our island home.
It will be a juggling act between compassion and public safety. Sadly, we all may need to give up some of our privileges to put teeth into laws that control guests who use our ocean as a toilet and our beaches as dumping grounds for needles.