Column: Houseless move from Discovery Center grounds, with aloha

A small miracle happened this past week: A newly organizing community of houseless in Kakaako, along with the volunteer group Hui Aloha, helped to move houseless campers away from the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center’s grounds and immediately surrounding area.

With support and encouragement from their fellow houseless neighbors, these homeless households voluntarily moved — without police or city intervention.

And, during this past Saturday’s cleanup, members of the surrounding houseless community, along with other volunteers, cleared the area of trash. The Children’s Discovery Center is beautiful and inviting once again.

How did this happen? Building true community, forging relationships first, and leading with aloha made it possible. Hui Aloha, a volunteer group of Oahu residents, and Ka Po‘e o Kaka‘ako ( The People of Kaka‘ako, KPOK), members of the houseless community in Kakaako Gateway Park, have been working together for the past half-year to build community and trust on the mean streets of Kakaako, and to nurture responsibility for their current home in Kakaako.

In November, KPOK leaders launched regular area cleanups, supported by Hui Aloha. At the beginning of January, they decided to make the cleanups a weekly event: Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon, with a potluck lunch afterward. After several weeks of cleanups, they decided to address the area around the Children’s Discovery Center.

This was right before center board Chairwoman Loretta Yajima’s commentary on the plight of the center came out in the Star-Advertiser (“Homeless may force center to close,” Island Voices, Jan. 16).

After the first cleanup on Jan. 26, and given the untenable situation at the center, the leaders of KPOK decided to ask their neighbors, who were staying in and around the center’s grounds, to move voluntarily. Around this time, police warned campers of impending “sweeps,” or forced relocations, of people camping near the center. In response, KPOK’s leaders welcomed those campers to come and join them in the lower park, rather than be “swept.” By Wednesday morning, Jan. 30, everyone had moved away from the immediate area of the center voluntarily, saving the city and state money, time and resources.

This also avoided the trauma, conflict and hardship that accompany such forced relocations. Scott Morishige, Gov. David Ige’s homeless coordinator, worked as a key partner: He arranged for immediate nearby shelter entry for those who were ready, and for a state crew to come down and immediately haul away bulky items and bagged trash.

This past Saturday morning, KPOK members and their neighbors, Lt. Gov. Josh Green and his staff, Hui Aloha volunteers, and friends from the Kalihi-Palama Health Center, gathered on the steps of the Children’s Discovery Center, in the soft rain, to do one more major cleanup. We made a circle, held hands and introduced ourselves. It was the first time Loretta and Liane Usher, president of the center, were meeting the leaders of KPOK.

Uncle John Ka‘ulupali, one of KPOK’s leaders, apologized — on behalf of himself and the others of the houseless community, for what had happened to the center. Loretta and Liane quietly wept. Then, we explained the day’s work and got to it. By noon we had cleaned the grounds deeply and worked our way back to the lower park. Twinkle Borge, leader of Pu‘uhonua o Waianae, and her crew were waiting there to serve us her famous chicken hekka for lunch. Twinkle and her folks are members of Hui Aloha, too.

Go down to the Children’s Discovery Center! Bring the keiki! Support Loretta, Liane and all those wonderful people who light up our children’s lives. And, give Ka Po‘e o Kaka‘ako, those lovely souls who are trying their hardest, some aloha. They need it, too.

Alani Apio is a member of Hui Aloha.