The number of Hawaii children living in areas of concentrated poverty has tripled in just over a decade, a finding embedded in the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book that portends a grim future for thousands of island keiki and highlights the urgency of relieving conditions that must not be accepted as a way of life in the 50th state.

According to the annual report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an “area of concentrated poverty” is a U.S. census tract where income for at least 30 percent of the total population falls below the federal poverty threshold.

In 2000, 6,000 Hawaii children under age 18, or 2 percent of the total age group in the state, lived in such areas.

By the 2008-2012 data-reporting period, that number had tripled to 18,000 children, or 6 percent of the total age group, a figure that did not improve the following year.

The latest study, looking at data from 2009-2013, again found 18,000 Hawaii children, or 6 percent, living amid concentrated poverty.

The federal poverty threshhold in 2013 was $23,624 annual income for a family of two adults and two children.

In general, high-poverty neighborhoods are much more likely to have higher rates of crime and violence, unemployment and physical and mental health problems, and lower educational attainment.

Children raised in such unrelentingly harsh conditions are denied a vast array of opportunities that middle- and upper-class children take for granted. Moreover, they lose hope that the possibility of a better life even exists for them. In this way, concentrated poverty puts everyone living in the neighborhood at risk.

Absent early intervention, the negative effects are difficult to overcome and cascade through generations. So, the misery afflicting these children is not a problem only for them and their immediate families, but for anyone who wants Hawaii to have a vibrant and sustainable future.

The report’s findings, stark as they are, confirm a reality of life in modern Hawaii. We see homeless children growing up on the streets, raised for years amid the squalor of the Kakaako homeless encampment as luxury high-rises take shape practically across the street.

We hear the state Department of Education, savior of untold poor children — for a good education offers their best shot at a decent life — plead year after year for more funding, as more youngsters arrive at school hungry and unprepared to learn.

The best solution is a multi-generation approach that seeks to disrupt the cycle of entrenched poverty and relies on the private and public sectors working in concert toward that goal.

This requires a blend of services, including family-planning, housing, educational and job-training assistance for the parents and intensive outreach for the children.

Where the children are concerned, the DOE is a linchpin of the effort, with its breakfast and lunch programs, and various outreach for immigrant and low-income families. Providing greater access to preschool is key. For older students, more after-school and summer enrichment programs would help fill the gaps in the compulsory school year and offer a healthier physical and emotional environment for children stunted by difficult home lives.

Progress in changing the behavior and habits of some adults, especially, can be painfully slow, but that should never be a reason to write off their children, too. An urgent imperative to act now, combined with a long-term financial commitment, are the answers.

Although the number of children living in pockets of high poverty remains a sliver of the youth population, it is a growing one. Both those facts support calls to tackle this problem comprehensively, while the scope is small enough to handle. Cliche though it may be, these children are Hawaii’s future. We must do better by them, for their sake and our own.