Forty-nine-year-old Mary and her 9-year-old daughter moved from California to Kaua’i two years ago to find “paradise” and start a new life. Instead, they have scurried from county park to county park and from one friend’s home to another for
Forty-nine-year-old Mary and her 9-year-old daughter moved from California to Kaua’i two years ago to find “paradise” and start a new life.
Instead, they have scurried from county park to county park and from one friend’s home to another for shelter.
Ron, who says he has colon cancer, wanted a quiet place in which to rest. Instead, he has been on the run.
Rose, a single local woman and mother of four children, left an abusive home but found the same situation at a family’s home. She left and is now living with a friend on the North Shore, unsure of what the future will bring.
All of the people (their real names were not used for reasons of privacy) have confronted life’s challenges, but they never thought they would end up homeless.
They typify the new homeless of Kaua’i: Young families, the disabled and mentally ill, veterans and college students, all in growing numbers, say workers with the homeless outreach program with St. Michael & All Angels’ Episcopal Church.
The homeless camp out at state and county beaches sleep in their cars outside schools and churches and live in remote areas.
William Whelan Jr., who works with the St. Michael homeless outreach program, said he has helped more than 150 homeless people in an area running from Lihu’e to Polihale – his assigned territory – over the past 3 1/2 years.
One case, he said, touched him deeply.
Richard, a former Marine and a 63-year-old and longtime Kaua’i resident Whelan said he helped for a while, died in a “muddled, confused schizophrenic state” in Trippler Hospital on O’ahu in recent years.
Before Whelan was able to help find a small apartment for the man in ‘Ele’ele, Richard mostly lived in trees.
Richard was peaceful, but thought at times he was a drug dealer and an undercover police officer, Whelan said.
Whelan said Richard lost his food stamps because he convinced his caseworker that he won tens of thousands of dollars in a court settlement. He said Richard told him he was in Las Vegas playing lead guitar for country singer Tammy Wynette. Whelan said he didn’t have the heart to tell Richard Wynette passed away in 1998.
The man also believed he was a four-star general in Korea and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, said Whelan, a Korean War veteran.
While the man lived on Kaua’i, gangs of youths would beat him to prove their “machismo,” Whelan said.
Richard’s living conditions and the cumulative impact of having lived outdoors took their toll on the man, Whelan said.
Richard didn’t change his clothes nor bathe often after moving into his apartment. Wet socks he wore over three months caused his foot and lower leg to swell up, Whelan said.
Concerned about Richard’s condition, Whelan convinced the Veterans Administration to send nurses to the man’s apartment in ‘Ele’ele.
“When I was finally able to uncover his toes, dozens of maggots scurried away, exposing a series of horrible wounds,” Whelan said.
Whelan said he rushed the man to Kaua’i Veterans Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for numerous ailments, including malnutrition.
Less than a month later, Richard was flown to Trippler Hospital for additional treatment. A short time later, Richard walked out of the hospital through an emergency exit, but no one stopped him, Whelan said.
“He walked away from town and fell over a cliff,” Whelan said.
At least a third of the 100 of the clients he has helped have been veterans, said Bill Henning, Whelan’s co-worker.
Some veterans become homeless because they don’t know they are entitled to services and benefits for having served their country, Henning said.
Among his first clients, Henning said he helped a veteran who lived in “a shack” on the North Shore that didn’t have water or electricity.
The man “heavily into alcohol,” but stopped because of “liver problems,” Henning said.
Henning eventually linked him with Manuel Corregedore Jr., a Vietnam veteran who serves as a veteran services counselor on Kaua’i.
“I advocate for the vets when I see one in need of help,” Henning said. “I want to let them know that there is help for them …psychiatric and medical help.”
Last Monday, Henning helped a 40-year-old man who claimed he has colon cancer.
Because the man could no longer pay for his room at the Tip Top Motel in Lihu’e, the business asked him to leave.
Apparently sensitive to his plight, the owners let the man stay another four days at no cost before he and his belongings were deposited by the Lihu’e fire station, Henning said.
After being summoned, Henning went to the area to find the man, but couldn’t find him immediately. “He was wandering around, with no shirt, no shoes. His ankles were badly swollen,” Henning said.
The man’s belongings – towels, blankets, books and clothing – that had been put on the street looked as if they had been rifled through, Henning said.
The man had gone to the state Building for assistance. Because the man was suspected of having mental health problems, the mental health division of the state Department of Health was alerted.
The man was eventually found, and, as Henning was told, was sent to Wilcox Hospital for treatment.
Henning said he also wants the man admitted to the psychiatric ward at Samuel Mahelona Hospital for treatment.
“A good percentage of the homeless are mentally ill, and we should help them because they can’t help themselves,” Henning said.
On the same day, Henning was on his cell phone to try to find housing for Mary, the California woman and her nine-year-old daughter.
For the past three months, Henning has called agencies and organizations serving the homeless and has put public notices for housing on Ron Wiley’s KONG radio show, but has not had any luck.
The California woman hasn’t had any luck herself.
With federal rental subsidy administered by the Kaua’i County Housing Agency, the woman said she can rent a place for $1,000 a month.
She almost landed a place on the Westside, but was turned down by the landlord at the last moment.
Tenants, who formerly lived with her at a county beach and lived on the property where Mary wanted to rent, told the landlord Mary and her child would not be suitable tenants.
“I don’t know why that is,” she said. “My child is not noisy. We don’t drink or smoke. We aren’t perfect, but we just want a home.”
She keeps all her worldly possessions and camping equipment in her car. And while camping at the beaches “is all right,” but Mary said she still worries for her safety and that of her child.
“You hear things, you know, about the thing at Polihale State Park (an unsolved murder involving a woman),” she said.
The parks are home to some disabled people who “stress out” because, while they have government vouchers for subsidized housing, “they can’t find anything,” Mary said.
Mary said she now stays at the homes of friends because she has used up “my 60 allowable days (per year) at the county parks.”
To help people like her who are in “an emergency situation,” the county should extend the camping time, she said.
Mary, who delivered mail and worked as a waitress in the past, is currently unemployed. She gets about $450 in federal government assistance funds each month and receives food from Henning that comes from the Kaua’i Food Bank.
Her inability to find housing, she said, has reached the point where she may be forced off Kaua’i.
The same day Henning tried to find housing for Mary, he got a call to help a Kaua’i mother with four children find housing.
The 36-year-old Kapa’a woman left her husband because of a drug problems and moved in with family members who had friends living with them.
Living conditions were crowded but were tolerable, for a while, the woman said. She said she decided to leave because the tenants became abusive to her children.
“I feared leaving them along at home,” she said. “Family members and friends were fighting and swearing. It was best to leave.”
Using what savings she had left, the woman moved into the Tip Top motel in mid- March and moved out last week when her money dried up.
The woman said she feels she has been abandoned by her family and is in financial straits. Because of national welfare reform, she said she also no longer qualifies for program benefits.
Henning took her and her children to the Salvation Army in Lihu’e, where they were issued a tarp, while Henning gave her a tent.
“What Bill has done for me, nobody else would do. I would be nowhere without him,” the Kapa’a mother said.
The woman said she plans to seek out programs that serve the homeless – KEO (Kaua’i Economic Opportunity, which helps the poor) and Catholic Charities – because she has no other recourse.
While she scrambled to find alternate housing, a friend on the North Shore came forward and offered her a place to stay, Henning said.
“It is something that will definitely help her,” Henning said. “Nobody wants to be homeless.”
Staff Writer Lester Chang can be reached at mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 225)
