Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Friday, April 26, 2024 82° Today's Paper


boxed letter

The story about rounding up the homeless tells the truth about our homeless (“Roundup of homeless feared during APEC,” Star-Advertiser, July 17).

I am concerned about the many more who have entrenched themselves in Chinatown, which has not gotten the attention about how these homeless folks have affected our businesses and residents. They don’t feel any sense of responsibility to clean up or to fold their tents to allow people to pass along the sidewalks. Sidewalks become personal storage areas. Buckets sometimes serve as toilets. Human waste is dumped into our streams or left for others to clean up.

Too many camp out day and night, and the River of Life mission has attracted many more, since they provide three meals a day. Visitors are confronted each day with solicitation by homeless drug addicts and alcoholics asking for money — not for food, but for drugs and alcohol.

We are the victims of easy access and tolerance, but we have reached saturation point.

Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock

President, Chinatown Business & Community Association

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