Volcanic Ash: Caring efforts are energizing the fight against homelessness

My wife and I were driving near Kahaluu when we saw a curious sight out the window: a bunch of igloo-shaped domes surrounding a church.

The curiosity was satisfied by news reports that the 12 units were put up by the First Assembly of God Windward Church to shelter homeless women and children. The first families are moving in before Christmas.

As intractable as homelessness in Hawaii seems, occasional feelings of hope spring from the knowledge that most people here truly care about helping the dispossessed among us.

The Kahaluu igloos, one of several homeless initiatives originating from outside of government, were built with contributions from churches around the state, and similar projects on Oahu are planned.

An even bigger community-based effort is Kahauiki Village, a homeless project near the airport conceived by socially conscious businessman Duane Kurisu, who had a vision of providing modestly priced housing in a setting designed to replicate the sugar plantation community in which he was raised.

Some 30 families have moved into prefabricated units previously used for emergency shelter after Japan’s 2011 earthquake. Kurisu plans to expand to 150 families, about 600 people.

In Waianae, leaders of a long-standing homeless encampment of some 200 people near the boat harbor have fended off state eviction and are working with supporters in the community to acquire private land for an array of permanent structures to be called Pu‘uhonua o Waianae.

Fresh ideas for alleviating homelessness are also coming from welcome places within government.

Honolulu police want to spend less time on rousting the homeless and put more emphasis on helping them get permanently off the street.

HPD has proposed pop-up “lift zones” that would temporarily house homeless in inflatable shelters erected in public parks while putting them in touch with intensive services. Street cops are often the first point of contact with the homeless, and their valuable experience carries weight.

To address the underlying problem of insufficient affordable housing, state Sen. Stanley Chang wants to emulate Singapore by using state bonds and public lands to build 65,000 leasehold housing units, which he says could be sold at cost to Hawaii residents for about $300,000.

The audacious proposal is fraught with red flags, primarily that Singapore is one of the most efficiently run city-states in the world and we are, well … not.

But given the potential to solve our housing crisis in one fell swoop, it’s well worth the trouble of the 2019 Legislature and the Ige administration to put pencil to paper and see whether this could actually work.

It’s a sign of our cruel times that some 4,500 Oahuans will spend the holidays out in the cold, but heartening to see so many meaningful and caring efforts to bring them in.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.