State Rep. Marcus Oshiro contends the number of homeless people in Wahiawa is woefully underreported, so he’s bringing together government officials, landowners, businesses and social service providers Tuesday night to get a clearer picture of what’s really going on.
“Everyone’s having some encounter: puffs of smoke near the bridge and near the Birthing Stones,” Oshiro said. “We hear people fighting and gunshots coming from the ravine and the north fork off Lake Wilson. On the good side, we have a lot of religious institutions and families that want to help. We have food banks. We have clothing being made available. We have soup kitchens.”
A “point-in-time” census conducted Jan. 25 found that 188 people were homeless in the area from Mililani to Kaena Point to Turtle Bay. But Oshiro suspects the homeless in Wahiawa were “way undercounted.”
Even if the numbers are accurate, they’re still almost double the 99 homeless people who were counted in 2013, Oshiro said.
The meeting will include the state’s new homeless coordinator, Scott Morishige, who started his new job Monday.
“The issue of homelessness is not just isolated to Kakaako,” Morishige said. “This is only my first day on the job, but we can share a little bit about the efforts that are going on, how the state is working together with providers in Kakaako, and see if those strategies could potentially be applied to Wahiawa.”
Oshiro’s concern about the homeless on Oahu was reinforced Friday during an impromptu visit to the Kakaako homeless encampment with his wife, Lauzanne.
“We just had a nice lunch together at Highway Inn, and I said, ‘I want to show you why I’m doing what I do,’” said Oshiro, (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Poamoho), who serves on three House committees — health, housing and human services — that independently touch on homeless issues.
So they drove across Ala Moana Boulevard and through the encampment of about 300 people jammed together in wood-reinforced tents and tarps around the University of Hawaii medical school and Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center.
His wife then “teared up and said, ‘Wow, this is really bad. I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing,’” the representative said. “It’s so visceral. With the backdrop of multimillion-dollar, high-rise condos, you see these kids running around in diapers. How can we allow this? How can we stomach this? It’s a stain upon all of us.”
Oshiro’s community meeting is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wahiawa Hongwanji Mission, 1067 California Ave., and he has invited a cross section of people affected by Wahiawa’s homeless population.
Since the legislative session ended, Oshiro has heard constantly from his constituents about a single issue: “People always ask me, ‘Hey, Marcus, homeless. What you guys doing?’ It’s top of mind for everybody.”
In the latest Hawaii Poll conducted by Ward Research Inc. for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now, 73 percent of Oahu residents said the island’s homeless problem has gotten worse over the past year and is hurting both the overall economy and their own quality of life.
By comparison, a February 2014 Ward Research survey of registered voters found that 58 percent of respondents said they believed the homeless problem had gotten worse in the preceding 12 months.
For Wahiawa, Oshiro wants to know, “Where are they? Who are they? Where are they coming from? What services are being provided? What are the gaps? What are the opportunities? What are the threats? What do we fear?”
