Solution for Oahu’s Slums: Move Homeless to Mainland?
September 19th, 2011Via: Independent:
Despite its “aloha” reputation, Hawaii currently has the third-highest ratio of homelessness of any state in the nation, behind Oregon and Nevada. Since the number of Americans living below the poverty line rose above 15 per cent last week, the problem here, like elsewhere, seems likely to get worse before it gets better. In addition to the likes of Paracuelles, a recent study by the research firm SMS found that 96,648 Hawaiians are now members of the “hidden homeless” community, a demographic which contains people squatting, living in temporary accommodation, or staying with friends or family members. Another 262,000 people – a staggering one in five residents of the seven islands – are classed as being “at risk” of homelessness.
You don’t have to go far from the high-rise glamour of Waikiki Beach, Hawaii’s most famous tourist centre, to appreciate the human effects of this statistical burden. Beggars throng the traffic lights of central Honolulu. They while away days in parks, and sleep in wasteland tent cities. In many ways, their sheer ubiquity makes the city of Barack Obama’s birth resemble a Third World metropolis.
Venture into the countryside of Oahu, and you’ll catch glimpses of tarpaulin, often in deep undergrowth a short distance from the road. Each one is a casual dwelling. There are several hundred of them, on a relatively small island which measures roughly 20 miles by 30 across.
The problem has not escaped Hawaii’s ruling class, who are acutely aware of its potential to damage the “tropical paradise” reputation on which the state’s lucrative tourist industry relies. Last year, local politicians narrowly failed to back a highly controversial plan to offer homeless people from other parts of the US a free one-way air ticket home.
Debate over alternative solutions is now gaining increased urgency in the run-up to November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, which will draw 21 heads of state and hundreds of business leaders to Honolulu. In April, Hawaii’s Governor, Neil Abercrombie, unveiled a “90-day plan” to reduce homelessness before the big event. But the 90 days brought little in the way of visible change.
Homeless advocates are now concerned that officials are planning to conduct intense “sweeps” of Hawaii’s homeless encampments in the run-up to the Apec summit, clearing them from the streets in order to hide the scale of their problem from the prying eyes of the international media due to attend.
