Unknown donor buys plane fare for homeless 3’s mainland return

A woman who has been living homeless for a year around Keaau Beach in Waianae with her autistic daughter and common-law husband will be reunited with her long-lost brother in Spokane, Wash., thanks to an anonymous benefactor who will help pay their airfare.

The group represents the 12th individuals and seventh homeless family to be flown back to the mainland in a little more than a year through the efforts of Tisha Woytenko, executive director of Help the Hawaii Homeless, and state Rep. John Mizuno, chairman of the House Human Services Committee.

The homeless woman contributed $600 of her own money for three one-way tickets. A woman who used to live in Hawaii added $435 via PayPal after answering a plea on one of Mizuno’s two Facebook pages Wednesday morning.

The 35-year-old homeless woman asked not to be identified because she has a protective order against her ex-husband, whom she said tracks her movements over the Internet.

"We’ve been living in the bushes since the city swept the beach in January," the woman said.

She suffers from painful fibromyalgia. Her 4 1/2-year-old daughter will be able to get treatment for her autism in Washington.

Next week, the family will fly to Spokane to live with the woman’s younger brother, whom she hasn’t seen in 16 years. The brother, who identified himself Wednesday as "Justin" during a conference call in Mizuno’s office, runs his own remodeling and construction business and will hire the woman’s common-law-husband.

They’ll all live together in Spokane with Justin and his wife and 7-year-old son.

"I’m blown away by Hawaii’s generosity," Justin said. "I’m from the mainland where people don’t care about their neighbors. It’s nice to hear there’s a part of the world that cares about their neighbors. It’s heartwarming."

The homeless woman and Justin share the same father, but Justin didn’t know she was looking for him until his wife went on a people-finder search engine.

"My wife said, ‘Somebody out there’s looking for you,’" Justin said.

Brother and sister connected over email and then via cell phone.

"My son is ecstatic to meet another aunt and a cousin," Justin said. "He’s happy to know there’s more of us out there."

Mizuno has pushed unsuccessfully for bills that would set up a state fund of $50,000 to $100,000 to help homeless people reunite with their families on the mainland.

The state would save thousands of dollars by not using state resources such as food stamps, health care and financial assistance on homeless people who are not from Hawaii, Mizuno said.

Mizuno has contributed some of his own money to buy airline tickets for homeless people and does not believe that all of the costs should come from state government.

He would like homeless people, businesses and ordinary citizens to contribute.

"Anyone in the public could have done this," Mizuno said. "We can’t rely on government alone."