Hawaii's homeless have few places to go: 'They don't know what to do with us'

[Music] this is my home I chose this place they know I'm the head here someone call me the mayor someone call me the governor I just start cracking up I love our community everybody know everybody here I feel that it's my responsibility to make sure they're getting the things that they need [Music] when we start to accept that it's okay for people to live out of doors to live in the encampment it really distracts us from the ultimate goal which is trying to get people into stable long-term housing local officials have conducted we've been keeping an ongoing dialogue with twinkle and other leaders from the encampment the feel is highlighted in yellow are those that we've been able to refer to the city housing first program well we're very hopeful with some of these new resources coming on that we can move more people into housing not just in Waianae throughout the whole state we're not gonna take immediate action without talking to people first because these are people who don't trust government because they honestly feel that the system has failed them the biggest thing on my mind right now is if they come into a war see there's some concerns that we do have here number one we've been having a lot of stealing going on yeah if I catch anyone stealing trust and believe you will be out of here I will not tolerate with that this is our community we should be working together not against each other I'm surprised that we are still here I think they don't know what to do with us and we've been on top of things I've been cooperating that's why we said Rose [Music] next week Tuesday if I not mistaken about 9 o'clock in the morning you will see the state coming in so be aware yeah please take out you guys rubbish keep your areas clean keep it up guys the best part of my job my kids knowing that they're happy dissatisfied and a-ok I lost my twins so when we have with the kids here I believe they feel a gap that I lost they warned me they make me there are plenty encampments that I go to that no one's the boss no one's the leader it's man for himself and those ones are really dangerous hello in order for us to really solve this crisis we have to realize that from homelessness to affordable housing the gap is way too big where else are they supposed to go how do you like going to me without me it's actually typical in Polynesia to have communal living so I'm a huge proponent that if they were gonna come up with the solution it got to come from these people I believe that we are the solution you know to the problem that it is happening out here in a Hawaiian Islands about being homeless the sad part about it is our own people that lives here our own culture that is homeless in our own homes [Music] everybody's American dream will be like a two-story house a castle my dream is to just be left alone you

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 909,659

Rating: 4.8042231 out of 5

Keywords: hawaii, homeless, outside in america, homeless people, homeless man, homelessness, homeless experiment, homelessness in america, homeless in america, surf, surfing, hawaiian, usa, america, trump, donald trump, trump 2017, government, president trump, twinkle, theft, crime, homeless camp, homelessness documentary, homeless shelter, united states, poverty, inequality, housing crisis, social housing, housing, housing bubble, polynesia, 2017, housing market, culture, home, drugs, drug use, addiction

Id: ELp5N4_drLI

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This is all fine and dandy when your homeless camp isn't overrun with drug addicts and alcoholics.

[u/ximtars]

I have a "kinda" friend who used the last of his money on a one way ticket to Hawaii years ago. It was basically be homeless in Arizona or be homeless in Hawaii, and #2 sounded better to him. Apparently a lot of people used to do this.

He pops up on Facebook every once in a while and seems relatively happy. I guess he somehow saved up enough to buy a cheap van and has been living out of that.

It's still bizarre to me that this sort of thing even happens with such a rich country.

[u/superbaal]

i think of myself as falling through the cracks

but i can't even imagine what it would be like falling in between tribal and modern civilization

wouldn't get the benefit of having ancestry within either worlds: the fleeting knowledge (and space) to live with the land from tribal life, and the seeming unobtainable knowledge of how to "break" through the ceiling into modern civilization when starting from nothing... it seems unfair.

and how many of them feel the same? both tribes and societies know the word "fair"...

how long before homeless populations like this are pushed to the point of retaliation? when they can no longer survive in the basic way they have been, but feel impeded even with options given to them? modern civilization needs an attitude adjustment

[u/opplar]

That's really interesting, thank you

[u/Unashamed_liberal]

They know exactly what to do with you, they ship you to other states

[u/malaiah_kaelynne]

Here is the thing, why are these people not able to considered a new township?

They have a government and housing. Keep improving it and make the township official with the city.

[u/rtaylo]

Why does the thumbnail look like buttsex?

[u/Street_Adhesiveness]

Free education, free healthcare, work camps, and anti-vagrancy laws.

Problem solved.