"Hawaii's Water World"

Homeless but resourceful

Back in October when I tried out the new segment of Hawaii’s train to nowhere …

… I looked out at Keʻehi Lagoon between Pearl Harbor and Honolulu Harbor …

… and noticed a curious structure at the eastern edge of Keʻehi Lagoon Beach Park:

Last week, I finally learned what it was:

City officials are working to address a large homeless encampment along Keehi Stream in Kalihi that includes a floating two-story structure anchored in the middle of the waterway.

Officials with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the city’s Office of Housing and Homeless Solutions say removing the homeless people and structures will be a huge task.

The largest structure, hidden behind kiawe trees and mangroves, extends nearly halfway across the stream.

Hawaii News Now’s cameras watched residents traveling to and from it by raft and kayak.

[…]

Drone video shot by the city 15 months ago shows the two-story structure surrounded by numerous smaller structures, some of which have been absorbed into the surrounding vegetation and are not visible even from the nearby Kahauiki Village.

Kahauiki Village is for the formerly homeless. Image from kahauiki.org which is down.

City director of homeless solutions Roy Miyahira said the footage was striking.

“It’s impressive what they’ve built — from a two-story home to use of solar panels and just able to access electricity,” Miyahira said.

And they somehow built it by hand over toxic water next to “unstable ground”:

“The water’s not that clean — you don’t want to fall in the water.”

[…]

Heavy equipment cannot be used along the shoreline due to unstable ground conditions.

The structure withstood the overhyped dethwaves …

… and the recent dethstorm that was less hyped but more destructive:

I’ve been meaning to write about that structure for days now, but I got derailed by Operation Epic Fury.

When I finally got around to writing about it tonight, I saw that the Daily Mail had the same idea on the same day:

“Hawaii’s Water World” - as one YouTube commenter put it - could become world-famous.

I don’t think I’ve seen the movie Waterworld (no space), though I have vague pre-YouTube memories of clips from it - maybe from Siskel & Ebert?

I did, however, see Bob’s Burgers’ parody of Waterworld.

It could attract a new kind of tourist.

Waterworld - it’s not just a movie anymore!

Just kidding. Though if you do want to see mass homelessness, yeah, you could come here.

The use of “Hawaiians” to refer to Hawaii residents in general indicates that the writer is probably not from here, where Hawaiian in the context of people is synonymous with Native Hawaiian: someone who has any degree of indigenous ancestry.

The Number of People Living On The Streets of Oahu Has Nearly Doubled in the Last Decade - Honolulu Civil Beat

More people than ever are sleeping on streets, parks and beaches, according to data from an annual homeless survey (Civil Beat).

The unsheltered homeless population has continued to grow year-over-year, doubling in the last decade. (Civil Beat)

Hawaii has “chronically homeless” persons suffering homelessness for over six months, with many facing mental and/or physical health conditions.

Hawaii’s homeless have a life expectancy 30 years lower than the general population.

Hawaii homeless have high rates of mental illness, addiction, and PTSD

Hawaii homeless are disproportionately Native Hawaiian.

Findings from the Office of the Lt. Governor of Hawaii, U.S. Government, and Civil Beat.

I’m surprised these facts weren’t on the front page of homelesshawaii.org:

U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development’s Homeless Assessment Report finds Hawaii with the highest percentage of people experiencing chronic homelessness rates in the USA.

Over 75% of homeless in Hawaii were counted on the streets, or in parks and vehicles — the highest in USA, followed by California and Oregon.

Here’s one “naive” tourist’s reaction to Homeless Hawaii in 2024:

For me personally, a bigger issue was negative interactions with the homeless. I’m no prude, and I spend plenty of time traveling in the rust belt. I see and coexist with homeless people all the time, and generally have no issues. The difference here is that the homeless population lives in permanent camps next to any tourist site (beaches, trails, shopping centers, etc). You can’t avoid them. 90% don’t interact at all, 9% beg, and 1% will harass you. The issue is that you’ll probably run into dozens of homeless people every day just going to the mainstream attractions.

You’ll probably run into homeless people every day just living here, unless you don’t leave your home. And even then … I’ve seen a few unfortunate homes and apartments with homeless camps directly in front of them on the sidewalk.

I never “feared for my life” or anything, but I didn’t appreciate being followed to my car and screamed at at electric beach, or having my car being closely examined by a hostile guy who smelled like piss at the lighthouse. These people were white men, seemed like drug users, and obviously not native.

Most of the homeless I see are non-White. Maybe the homeless near tourist sites (where I don’t go) tend to be White.

I won’t talk about the causes of homelessness in Oahu, or possible solutions; but as a tourist, it was unpleasant. It’s kinda weird, I don’t see anything about that on the travel blogs. Am I being a big baby? I don’t know. But I do know that Oahu is an incredible island, that left me feeling a little sour.

Yeah, I know, n = 1, meaningless, yada yada … but it’s the first reddit response I saw when searching for “homeless tourism hawaii”. I didn’t fish for it. I don’t have time to fish - to cherry-pick.

And this is the first Quora response I saw - from a formerly homeless local’s point of view:

While I can’t speak for everyone, I doubt most really care whether homeless are in “high-tourism areas” or not.

Maybe we should care, because the homeless in those areas discourage tourists from coming back or recommending our state to others. Tourism here has been in decline after CONvid.

As far as the overall attitude towards the homeless population, it’s somewhat split. Some people have compassion, try to help where they can, and understand that the cost of living has gotten ridiculous over here. With a large number of locals living paycheck to paycheck, most people are one car accident or layoff or severe illness diagnosis away from finding themselves in the same situation. Others, however, have little patience for the messes many of the homeless create, the increase in crime, nor the chronic drug use prevalent in many of the homeless encampments. For these reasons, they feel no sympathy for the homeless. I can see both sides.

I’m skipping over the author’s personal story of homelessness. It’s also worth reading, but I want to focus on the big picture.

Yes, many of the homeless in Hawaii are drug addicts. Which, in turn, means many are thieves, as well. These same homeless druggies are the ones who have no respect for the land. They abandon their POS cars wherever they break down, leave garbage strewn everywhere, break into homes to steal whatever they can, siphon gas out of cars/trucks/school buses/lawn mowers, you name it.

Alas, the first three behaviors aren’t unique to the homeless. I don’t know about the fourth - this is the first I’ve heard of gas theft by anyone.

Like many people, I also have zero sympathy for these type of homeless. Not because they are addicts, but because there is no excuse for this type of behavior. You can do drugs and still clean up after yourself. You can do drugs and still maintain a vehicle so that it doesn’t breakdown on you. You can even do drugs while still holding down a job. It might be more difficult, but it’s most definitely doable. These people choose to be disrespectful, dirty, loud, lazy, disgusting, immoral human beings who contribute nothing positive to the community.

That said, I genuinely believe too many people lump all homeless into the same group. They assume all homeless are drug addicted, lazy, disrespectful blights on society - and treat them all as such. I know firsthand how disheartening it can be to have people make such assumptions about you. More and more these days, we see whole families, many with small children, living on the beach. Kupuna [elderly people] who are retired and on a fixed income. Disabled folks who have no one to advocate for them. Like I said, many who grew up in the islands are living paycheck to paycheck, just one disaster away from losing everything. The median house price has soared to over a million dollars in this state. Mainland companies have swooped in to buy properties they turn into rentals which they grossly overcharge for. More and more people move here, but very little affordable housing is built, causing a severe shortage in available rentals. The homeless problem is not just drug addicts and the mentally ill anymore.

The drug addicts and the mentally ill are just the most visible homeless. Normal-looking and -behaving people like that author are also homeless.

Now I’ll give you my take.

The homeless are an argument against CONvid hysteria. They survived in unsanitary and sometimes crowded conditions. Yes, some wore muzzles. But how many got injections? If the CONvid narrative were true, Hawaii Nausea and the rest of the media could have (ab)used them to tell a cautionary tale:

Wash your hands, stay six feet apart, wear your mask, and get vaccinated, or end up like … (shudder) … THEM.

Never happened.

The dethplague didn’t decimate the homeless here. Just like the dethwaves and dethstorm. Notice a pattern? Noticing is Wacist.

So we must not notice that Hawaii Homeless, Inc., keeps taking our tax dollars … while the homeless on my island doubled.

I’ll close with Innomen’s Note:

I’ve never seen a better condemnation of Hawaii Homeless, Inc.