TO OUR READERS
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now are joining forces to report on the ever-worsening homelessness crisis.
While both news organizations will continue to report daily stories on homelessness, we will work together on bigger projects that delve into all aspects of the issue. To reach the widest possible audience for these important projects on this crisis, you will see reports in print, online and on broadcasts.
For example, on this page of the Star-Advertiser and in Hawaii News Now broadcasts on Monday, you will find stories on homeless encampments you might not be aware of and learn details about some of them.
Through stories such as these, we hope to raise awareness among the public — and public officials — about the gravity of the situation and the need to take action to help the homeless and, by doing so, help our community.
Both newsrooms hope you, as readers and viewers, will help with this project by offering comments, observations and suggestions online and in letters to the editor. While a collaboration between two competing newsrooms is unusual, Hawaii’s homelessness crisis requires an unusual approach.
More than 50 volunteers, including fire department recruits, helped build dozens of emergency shelters today on Hawaii island to shelter “the most vulnerable homeless individuals.” Read more
Five homeless people from the mainland — including a couple with family on Oahu — arrived in Honolulu over the last 10 days, perhaps drawn by cheap airfares. Read more
City officials on Tuesday signed a right of entry to allow state Department of Health workers to access the 26-room building at 909 Kaamahu Place. Read more
The city bought the building for $9 million to possibly relocate the Sand Island Treatment Center when the city expands its Sand Island wastewater treatment facility. Read more
The Institute for Human Services began taking the temperatures of homeless clients in Waikiki this week and plans to share information about the novel coronavirus in homeless encamp- ments across Oahu. Read more
Question: How many homeless people do they expect in the outreach center in Old Stadium Park (808ne.ws/33kline)? Where will it go after this? Read more
The city is closing up its Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered Persons (HONU) program in Waipahu and relocating to Old Stadium Park in Moiliili at noon Monday. Read more
Pu‘uhonua o Wai‘anae has reached a major milestone with a second $150,000 grant from the Nareit Hawaii Community Giving Initiative. Read more
The state would continue to pay half the cost of airfare to send homeless people back to their families on the mainland, the Federated States of Micronesia and beyond, under a wide-ranging homeless services bill. Read more
Lt. Gov. Josh Green’s dream of a statewide system of “kauhale” tiny homes to provide permanent housing for Hawaii’s homeless suffered a setback Tuesday when two House committees voted to study the concept rather than move out a bill that would have provided $20 million for a one-year pilot program. Read more
People in Hawaii were outraged when the New York mayor’s office last year sent a homeless family to an unidentified island with a job and a year’s worth of housing payments. Read more
Oahu was overwhelmed with 6,924 people who became newly homeless in 2019. That number erased the 616 homeless people per month, on average, who were placed into “permanent housing” across all islands. Read more
Outreach workers fanned out across Oahu on Thursday — starting at 4 a.m. — to survey the island’s homeless population in a one-day, compressed census as part of the nationwide Point in Time Count. Read more
The numbers may not reflect deaths that occurred in hospitals or other health care facilities, the city said. Read more
Waikiki Health, which operates Kakaako’s Next Step Shelter, began welcoming formerly homeless tenants this week into a three-story shelter it now operates in Moiliili. Read more
Few people seem to expect Gov. David Ige or the Legislature will launch a slate of bold new initiatives to resolve homelessness, housing and other pressing issues. Read more
In its first two years of existence, Oahu’s Community Outreach Court that addresses minor, nonviolent crimes committed by homeless “participants” “has made significant progress,” Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald wrote in a report to the state Legislature. Read more
The Punawai Rest Stop facility in Iwilei celebrates its first anniversary this week, and city officials offered up some hope Tuesday that other hygiene centers can be established. Read more
Hawaii no longer holds the ignominious title as the country’s leading state in per capita homelessness. Read more
In the 2018 legislative session, lawmakers approved a whopping $30 million to fund a homeless concept that became law under the banner of “ohana zones.” Read more
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i and a host of other homeless advocates again are asking the city to stop clearing the homeless off Oahu sidewalks during the holiday season and again are being rebuffed by officials who insist that Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s “compassionate disruption” policy is best for the public and those being removed. Read more
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