Homeless will get public housing units

A plan advances to give 14 shelter families transitional housing By Robert Shikina [e-mail] The board of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority declined to block some public housing units from ...

[John W Bienko]

Three Cheers and a Tiger.. for the decision to provide shelter for the homeless families. Now the right thing to do.. is to arrange volunteer clothing.. food.. toiletry supplies.. dental and medical services.
And the look of homelessness disappears.. the start of a new lifestyle.

[truthsayer]

Saito's comment "that is the only thing available is a flat out lie" - there is currently plenty of shelter space open and available to transition these families. IHS has three family availability - other shelters have transitional openings.
The State continues to be intent on not doing its own thing and not listening to people to anybody who disagress with them - at the taxpayer's expense.
The State continues to go backwards - turning Permanent housing into Transitional housing - and ever enlarging the homeless numbers.
Kudos for the five members who voted against it - poor judgement for the other seven.
The families couldn't even manage or be helped to manage to apply to public housing timely - why should they and their providers get rewarded for this incompetence. Why? Because the State rewards incompetence.

[truthsayer]

sorry for the typos above - its early in the morning.

[Chemical All]

Druggies and the no-loads got some of their wishes come thru. They will continue abusing. Using meth, and anything to get high,and don't work,use welfare checks to buy more meth, and move to the beach, "the City is providing housing", and soon the City will pay for everything.

Don't get me wrong here, there are people out there that they really need the City's help.

But, whats out for the the abusers!

[Hawaiipeg]

I am from the wonderful State of Hawaii but moved 12 years ago. I continue to go home and still call Hawaii my home. I only live in Texas. My point here is that Hawaii's cost of living is out of control!!! People living on the streets, beaches, and shelters are not only druggies but people who cannot afford to pay the high prices of rent,utilities, food, gas, etc... if you are on a limited income how can you afford the comforts of living a "normal lifestyle!" I would love to come home to live but I know I can not afford the cost of living. I would have to work 3 jobs to just live comfortably. How can people afford to buy a home??? I bought a brand new home for $79,000. That is unheard of in Hawaii. I pay 50 to 75% less to live in the mainland so I work 1 job and have time to appreciate my life.
In addition to the high cost of living...look at the people on the streets and people in public housing...what are their resources? The system is not to assist people but to make them depend on the system.
You know I could on and on but it is useless!!! Hawaii just needs to lower it's cost of living in some way!!

[Von in Aiea]

I hope they help the parents with children first?

I know of at least one lady with four children sleeping in a junk car, but every day she sends the kids out to school.

You can't say the kids are just bums that are looking for a free hand out. I'm sure they would love to be any play except living in a small car.

That area is very dangerous at night also.
So my best wishes to those people. This is a start.

[Von in Aiea]

Tsta wrote:

allmost making me want to move back to Hawaii so I can get free living and maybe save my money and foodstamps for drugs that I can buy from the manapua man .. come on people you know what I am talking about....that little innocent slant eyed guy in the truck is one of your worst enemys.... I know facts

Just stay where your at.

Your racist remarks need to stay out of Hawaii.

Hawaii will be great in time, but you will always be a jerk.

[Concerned Citzen]

Perhaps, we should have developers build low income housing as part of their mandate of 30% affordable housing? Which by the way they don't build, choosing instead to pay into the City's non existent affordable housing fund.

[Pupuka]

Check with Deborah Morikawa and Randy Wong on their plans for transitional housing for the poor. Maybe TBR?

[halemalu]

Von in Aiea wrote:

<quoted text>
Just stay where your at.
Your racist remarks need to stay out of Hawaii.
Hawaii will be great in time, but you will always be a jerk.

there you go! von nips that problem in the butt. ugliness or goodness comes from within.

[Von in Aiea]

halemalu wrote:

<quoted text>
there you go! von nips that problem in the butt. ugliness or goodness comes from within.

Yep !!

Have a nice day.:)

[welfare state]

In my way of thinking, all this government spending causes the cost of living to rise by raising taxes, etc, thus the cost of living,(housing) indirectly (or directly)with the result that more and more will be on the streets.
Has anybody looked closely at the back of their water bill lately?
I think all these giveaway programs need to be monitored. For instance the 20 something year old female who buys her lunch including a huge slurpee and several types of chips at 7-11 for an amount of money that would provide a meals for a complete family. Of course using the welfare card. WHY NOT If it is easily available why not take advantage of it. No need to look for bargains, it is free no matter.

[welfare state]

Von in Aiea wrote:

<quoted text>
Just stay where your at.
Your racist remarks need to stay out of Hawaii.
Hawaii will be great in time, but you will always be a jerk.

I hope you are correct about great in time. Seems to be on a dangerous downward spiral. Just yesterday I heard that the newly constructed (tent) shelter in Waianae will be closing due to lack of funds. I sure hope that is nothing but a rumor.

[Aloha Aina]

Kalli wrote:

Why are these people in public housing staying for decades? Aren't they supposed to be saving their money and moving to a regular home rather than passing down the public home to their kids and grandkids?

You hit the nail on the head, Kalli! With so much population pressure (people wanting to move to Hawaii because of its climate etc.), housing prices will always remain high. Demand outstrips supply. Units built under the mandatory affordable housing requirement for new projects should be required to function as a revolving door (albeit slow moving). You move into an affordable units, save money, better yourself, and then plunge into the market place (either rental or purchase).

The Kalihi Palama area used to function this way until the Model Cities program of the 1960s tore it all down. Kalihi remains an important "first landing" point for recently arrived immigrants. Historically, they have eventually transitioned out, making way for new arrivals.

However, with so much more demand for housing now, then there was in the 1960s, even the prices of Kalihi homes have risen beyond "affordable". So, without a natural market based system, we have to resort to an artificial solution: mandatory affordable housing. However, it is on such a small scale and is fragmented (dispersed) that rather than creating a sense of community, it creates alienation and discrimination. That's why the public housing people don't want the transitional. The concept of affordable housing must not lose sight of the concept of "community".

[John Q Publico]

Actually the most money is being spent on Micronesians who aren't even U.S. citizens. The U.S. gov went into a compact of free associating with the FSM and now the Micronesians can travel throughout the country without even having to show anything more than their Micronesia I.D.
The catch in Hawaii is that this federal agreement doesn't allow Micronesians to cash in on federal food stamps, but they are able to cash in on state food stamp, state housing, state medical and everything else.
These are the people that is making it very difficult to live in Hawaii. These are the people who have taken over the homeless shelters and have virtually pushed every local homeless person off of the section 8 wait list.
As if that were not enough, a study came out about a year ago showing that these Micronesians have the highest rates of STD infection in Hawaii.
They also have the highest rates of TB infections. I believe the study said Micronesians comprised 55 % of all reported TB cases in Hawaii, but they are less than 1 % of the population - these figures are staggering. These are the people responsible for TB out breaks at Rosevelt H.S.
The same holds true for leprosy. They have high infectious rates, but only comprise less that 1% of population.
It is difficult for these people to get jobs because they do not speak english and our tourist economy really has no need for chuukese and/or marshaleese translators, so their usually remain unemployed, working at jack in the box and/or just sucking up social service benefits.
This is the real reason our state is going down the tubes. The U.S. needs to start putting more money into this state to help cover the compact they agreed to.
The state of Hawaii pays more money to service Micronesians that the GDP of Micronesia. This is where the problem is. The DOE will be spending over a 100 million a year to serv these people that is a pretty damn high student to dollar ratio.
Open your eyes people

[Gary]

The residents of Kukui Gardens fought and won their battle to retain their rental units at an "affordable" rate. One of the leaders of the effort said she lived there for 30 years and although she could afford to move elsewhere, chose to stay. My question: why are people allowed to remain at these housing projects, even after they can now afford to rent elsewhere? If stricter enforcement of income guidelines was done, then more people who need affordable housing could move in.

[BozoNemesis]

Hey Von, did that lady with the four kids sleeping in the car get the four kids by osmosis or did she make some bad choices (in MANY ways) that she shouldn't be willing to pay for, but the people who made better choices should? If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em! It's all about personal responsibility, which is sorely lacking in socialistic Hawaii. Just wondering...

[Homeless Expert]

How ABSURD!!! Helping the homeless? That's ridiculous...... Help me!!!.....I need a new Range Rover......I need a new cat......I need a new mouse trap.......I need some roach spray......

[k-girl]

As someone who had to use a shelter once in my life i have to say that there are people that work and raise kids and are not at all the stereotype of a homeless person and i don't just breed ok. I was one month in a shelter, got my permanent housing, and yes, there was a period where i had to use the welfare system to keep food on our table, and a roof over our heads but it was no walk in the park, i still had to work, pay taxes, report everything that i do to the agency and opened my own business after a while. My last move involved staying in a transitional program, a home where i pay a reduced amount of rent (no freebies) and now i am paying about 1300.00 a month for a big 2 bedroom in a great town and work full-time. I raise my two kids on my own, (yep, no child support checks in the mail) and we have savings. So..there are good people that work, live, and play in Hawaii and they deserve a place to live too and a shelter is not a home. So to all the haters who have never been in that situation..shame on you. No Aloha spirit. Drug abusers should be in a housing program that deals with the problem and those that don't care to do anything well we really can't help them because they won't help themselves.

[halemalu]

BozoNemesis wrote:

Hey Von, did that lady with the four kids sleeping in the car get the four kids by osmosis or did she make some bad choices (in MANY ways) that she shouldn't be willing to pay for, but the people who made better choices should? If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em! It's all about personal responsibility, which is sorely lacking in socialistic Hawaii. Just wondering...

an age-old problem: a couple gets married and at that point they can afford a home and raise a family. then sh*t happens: company shuts down, job is lost, illnesses very expensive, couple separates, financial mistakes are made. what i am trying to say is that nobody in their right mind pops one baby after another in a hopeless situation. everything starts out well and everyone means well. if people weren't hopeful in their outlook on life, then we would stay alone and make no plans. basically we are all optimists. some of us are more realistic than others. forgiveness and starting over is the key to carry on.