• Leadership from the Heartless • A face for the homeless Leadership from the Heartless: I can’t believe after almost one year in office the Mayor has finally decided to make change. After all those community meetings, he finally takes
• Leadership from the Heartless
• A face for the homeless
Leadership from the Heartless:
I can’t believe after almost one year in office the Mayor has finally decided to make change. After all those community meetings, he finally takes his first step. What is his first major decision to enrich our community? Arrest the homeless and confiscate their worldly possessions. For him to accomplish this, he must first get rid of Chief Freitas. Chief Freitas would never allow the fine men and women of the Kauai Police Department to be used like the Gestapo they are about to become. The Mayor has bowed to the whining of the rich land owners of beach front property to get rid of the campers and the homeless on the island. He has told the police to arrest these criminals and confiscate their worldly possessions for at least 1 month as evidence that they are homeless! A community’s group survey stated only 15 percent of those on the beach were homeless by choice. The rest were Kaua‘i’s local poor including women with their children. I suggest we all go to the beach starting Nov. 17, with video camera in hand to watch the Mayor’s Nazi’s at work. My next letter is to the National Coalition for the Homeless to see if they can help our “criminal” poor. What will the Mayor use the Police Department for next? I guess I should ask my rich landowner friends. Leadership from the Heartless has to stop!
Donald Perreira,
Kapa‘a
A face for the homeless
HOMELESS – mention the word and it immediately conjures up images of addiction, mental illness, dereliction, laziness and/or… trash! It is something to be discarded and definitely not tolerated in “my neighborhood.” For many it is an invasion of foreigners (Haoles) and just one more heavy burden for an already overextended taxpayer. “We don’t like how it looks or feels!” Does this sound like stereotyping? Unfortunately it is. And it typifies some of the huge roadblocks that interfere with finding a remedy for what has become a significant problem for contemporary society. It is accurate? Who are the homeless? Where do they come from? How old are they? Is it our problem? If so, what can we do about it?
A beginning to finding solutions is putting a face on “who” is homeless. Having a face gives life to a categorization of classification that can be very depersonalizing. According to the NCH (National Coalition for the Homeless) there are two trends that are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the last 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty.
Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked! Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an ancient, or a paycheck away from living in the streets!
Two factors help account for increasing poverty: eroding employment opportunities for large segments of the workforce, and the declining availability of public assistance. This is particularly true for the elderly!
According to K.E.O. (Kauai Economic Opportunity), the local (Kauai) unsheltered homeless population is a potpourri of ethnicity… A little bit of every race. This could be your Aunty, an Uncle, maybe a brother or sister, your Mother, or Father or… maybe even you! GET THE PICTURE?
For the past several years a committee called the Continuum of Care Committee has been meeting to work on the HOMELESS issue. If you have any comments or recommendations please feel free to call. Your input is essential! Call K.E.O. at 245-4077 and ask for the Housing and Homeless Program Director.
Donald Humiston
Kapa‘a
