As a “homeless concerns” liaison in Hawaii’s public schools, Clyde Aikau tracks nearly 300 students and their families.
He works 17 hours a week with elementary, middle and high school students in Honolulu’s urban core. But they can live as far away as Nanakuli, couch surfing from place to place with their families.
“Clyde is someone who embraces his work with the same vigor and passion and heart that we were all witness to when he surfed the Eddie last week without fear and with the same high level of energy and commitment.”
Donna Lum Kagawa
Farrington-Kaiser-Kalani complex area superintendent for the Department of Education, on Clyde Aikau
Aikau estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the children live “in the car, in the bushes, in the park.”
He tries to make sure the children catch their bus and get breakfast and lunch, which are sometimes the only meals they’ll eat on a school day.
“Clyde is someone who embraces his work with the same vigor and passion and heart that we were all witness to when he surfed the Eddie last week without fear and with the same high level of energy and commitment,” said his boss, Donna Lum Kagawa, Farrington-Kaiser-Kalani complex area superintendent.
“He does it in a pretty quiet, humble way and yet he is very passionate about his work. Clyde is leaving his own legacy — perhaps not as publicly as Eddie Aikau did, but it’s just as important for the community.”
The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau surf tournament was staged for the ninth time in 30 years last week at Waimea Bay, where the Aikau brothers were big-wave surfers and lifeguards decades ago.
Clyde Aikau is one of 17 liaisons who work on all islands for the state Department of Education to provide services to homeless students and their families through the federally mandated McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, said DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz.
Aikau serves students spread across 25 schools in the Honolulu district. Among the students is one of the teenage boys who was accused of attacking state Rep. Tom Brower (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako) in June at the Kakaako Makai homeless camp.
“They all surf Point Panic,” Aikau said of the Kakaako area students. “They all know who Eddie Aikau is. I would say, ‘Tell them I’m Eddie’s brother.’”
Clyde was the youngest of five kids growing up in Pauoa Valley, where the Aikaus took in many people who were struggling. The family never used the term “homeless.”
Instead, Aikau said, “It was, ‘Bruddah getting hard time. No mo’ home, no mo’ house. Open, our home. We’re the Aikaus.’ We’ve had our house open to hundreds of people.”
Aikau continued the family practice last Christmas when a mother with a blind child and another in a wheelchair were kicked out of the Waikiki apartment she had been staying in just two days before Christmas.
“She called and said, ‘We’re on the street,’” Aikau recalled.
He then made phone calls, trying to find a place for the trio to stay. His backup plan was to take them into his home in Waimanalo rather than have them spend Christmas without a roof over their heads.
On Christmas Eve, Jason Espero from Waikiki Health called to say there was space for the family at the Institute for Human Services, Hawaii’s largest emergency homeless shelter. “I dropped to my knees (and said), ‘Thank you, Eddie.’”
Each fall, Aikau helps give children hundreds of backpacks that are stuffed with school supplies provided by Aloha United Way donations and contributions from retailers.
“You should see their eyes light up,” Aikau said. “It’s something. … In this job, you get a lot of lows but that one high can juice you.”
Aikau knows what people say about homeless people with drug and alcohol problems, or those who don’t want to work.
“Who cares?” he said. “They might be all of that. My job is to get their kid to school, get ’em in the classroom and give ’em kaukau and then we’ll figure the rest out. The key to ending homelessness is you’ve gotta take one person at a time, one family at a time.”
The Aikau family was recognized last week by Gov. David Ige. Mayor Kirk Caldwell mentioned Clyde Aikau’s work during Monday night’s State of the City speech.
Aikau feels no hesitation about using all of the attention to help even more homeless children.
“Why not? Why not? Why not?” he asked. “I don’t need nobody telling me who I am or what I am, what I’ve done and where I’m going. If more people can feel like this, the world would be a better place, I tell ya.”
