Dangerous situation grows

A 20-year-old drug dealer, gigolo and pimp scouts for clients and prospective prostitutes in front of a college dorm just a few blocks from Waikiki’s world-class beaches and high-priced resorts.

"This is the only thing that I can do to survive," said the young man, who has been living on the streets of Waikiki off and on since age 17.

Someday the self-proclaimed entrepreneur wants to go to college and open a chain of businesses. But on a recent Sunday he needed food money, so was working an already jumping Kuhio Avenue.

"Hey, hey," he calls out to a pair of 17-year-old runaway girls who are hanging out with an older woman carrying a bottle of booze wrapped in a brown paper bag. The trio stops briefly to talk story but is soon off in search of greater excitement.

"Want some weed?" a youth calls out to the girls from atop a perch on a magazine rack. The teens ignore him, ending up in front of a saloon where other street kids, runaways, homeless youth and prostitutes have gathered. Workers from Hale Kipa’s Youth Outreach program, who have snacks, hygiene items, condoms and compassion to dispense, are also there as they try to turn the young people’s attention away from predatory elements.

This portion of Waikiki is ground zero for Hawaii’s throwaway youth. Though it’s hard to fathom, hundreds of young adults, teens and even kids as young as 10 years old live on the streets of Waikiki, which has the highest population of homeless and runaway youth in the state. Last year 625 homeless youths visited the Hale Kipa Youth Outreach drop-in center in Waikiki and used its services 2,489 times.

"When I tell people how many homeless youth there are in Waikiki, they never believe me. If you don’t know what you are looking for, they don’t stand out. But we typically see anywhere from 10 to 55 kids in Waikiki during an outreach night" said Lee Miya­shiro, a YO outreach worker and recovered drug user who counsels kids on the same streets where he abused crystal meth.

Outreach workers seek to build trust and connect young people with the services that will get them off the street, said Debo­rah Smith, YO outreach supervisor. But there’s not one intervention that works for everyone, Smith said. Each street kid has a different story. Some are homeless by choice and others by circumstances. Some are homeless for months and years, others for days, weekends and holiday breaks.

A few kids are looking for a good time and don’t have an adult to tell them about the dangers of being on their own in Waikiki. Others are rebels, runaways or misfits. They are foster children who have aged out of the system or children who come from broken homes or have been abused, neglected or bullied. Some have drug-addicted parents. Others are drug addicts themselves. A few are struggling with sexual identity and transgender issues. Others are victims of sexual exploitation or sex trafficking.

"Most don’t think anyone cares," Smith said, standing near a bus stop in the triangle park at the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Kane­kapo­lei Street trying to make a difference for the dozens of unaccompanied kids who are coming and going.

Regardless of how the street kids come to be in Waikiki, it’s dangerous for them and for Hawaii that they are there, said Bulla Eastman, director of security and risk management at Aqua Hotels & Resorts.

"I don’t even like to walk Kuhio after 10 p.m.," said Eastman, who has a football player’s build. "Certain stretches … it’s like murderer’s row; you might as well grab a bat."

Young people are easily exploited by pimps, drug dealers, other homeless people, tourists and residents, he said.

"We estimate one child every other day in Waikiki is engaged in prostitution," said Kathy Xian, executive director of Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, whose goal is to end sex trafficking.

Last year, PASS rescued eight children under the age of 17 from Waikiki pimps, Xian said. All but one of them were local kids, and the youngest was 11 years old, she said.

Xian said the "proliferation of human trafficking requires the existence of either corruption or apathy within law enforcement."

She urges community support for several bills that are expected to move through the Legislature next year, including a safe-harbor law for child victims.

One Wahiawa teen, who was kidnapped at 16 and forced into prostitution in Waikiki, is likely to be among PASS’ testifiers.

"I had to make $500 a night. If I didn’t get the money, I’d have to sleep outside," said the now 18-year-old woman, who was rescued by a Hono­lulu police officer. "It’s pretty dangerous in Waikiki."

Residents have frequently complained to the Waikiki Neighborhood Board and the Hono­lulu Police Department about what they see as a correlation between increased street kids and crime. A common perception is that if the kids aren’t getting into trouble, they are attracting trouble because pimps, drug pushers and other predators use them.

There are few legal resources for kids under 18, so many use crime to eat or get money, said Alika Campbell, who coordinates Youth Outreach and the Transitional Living Program for Hale Kipa, a private, nonprofit organization devoted to helping at-risk youth in Hawaii.

"Day-to-day survival always overrides the best-laid plans," Campbell said.

Using drugs to escape also creates problems, he said.

"Conservatively, 99.5 percent of my clients are doing drugs," he said. "I figure the other half a percent is lying to me."

HPD is aware of Waikiki complaints and is working to improve safety, said spokes­woman Michelle Yu.

From January to mid-November, HPD arrested 469 people under the age of 22 in Waikiki, Yu said. A few of these arrests were for runaway or truancy cases, but most were for panhandling, theft and stealing, she said.

Stronger enforcement is needed to get street kids out of Waikiki, said Eastman, who also volunteers for a prison ministry.

"It’s coming to the point where it will negatively impact (tourism), our major source of revenue," he said. "Hawaii also needs to consider the end product of having homeless children in Waikiki; it’s more homeless adults, drugs, prison."

The complexity of the issue is why enforcement is only part of HPD’s community policing strategy in Waikiki, Yu said.

The department recently organized a beautification and re-lighting project at the Kuhio mini­park to improve community pride and increase safety, she said. They’ve also set up four neighborhood watches, Yu said.

HPD also is working on identifying repeat juvenile offenders and contacting their parents and guardians, she said.

Solving youth homelessness is a growing priority in Hawaii and was a key discussion point this month at a meeting of the Hawaii Interagency Council on Homelessness, a hui of homeless service providers and decision-makers, said Colin Kippen, Hawaii state coordinator on homelessness. As many as 34 percent of the unsheltered homeless people in Hawaii are under 24 years old, and 25 percent are 17 and under, Kippen said.

"We need to raise awareness that this is happening and that it’s not acceptable," he said. "We need to fix this."

Change needs to happen quickly, he said.

"We don’t want these children to develop patterns that are destructive to their becoming adults or put them on a path where homelessness does not become a choice," Kippen said.

Increased services for youth, including housing vouchers for kids who have aged out of foster care and for reunifying families, are expected to be part of Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s coming administrative package, he said.

State Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, leader of the Keiki Caucus, is exploring options for improved overnight shelters and longer-term housing, such as affordable rentals and multi-unit housing for 17- and 18-year-olds.

"The youth have told me that they want a 24-hour safe house where they can come and crash when things go wrong at home or somewhere else," said Chun Oakland (D, Nuuanu-Liliha).

Parents need more support, too, said the mother of the 18-year-old sex-trafficking survivor.

"It wasn’t easy to get my daughter back," she said. "There just aren’t enough resources to help you bring them home."

When the girl finally came home, she was almost unrecognizable. Her skin was dark from being on the streets all day, and she had bald spots from hair overprocessing.

"She was different inside, too," her mother said. "She’s seen things that I’ll never know. Everybody wants to believe their paradise is safe, but it’s not."