KAILUA-KONA — What do you really know about homelessness in your community?
The issue has garnered a lot of press over the past few years, yet misconceptions persist in conversations and comment sections about who Hawaii’s homeless are and how authorities calculate their population.
Three falsehoods swirling around homelessness on Hawaii Island tend to be the most common:
Homeless are primarily new arrivals from the mainland.
Only a small number of homeless are of Hawaiian descent.
Organizations and government personnel who survey the population employ leading questions to make the problem appear less prevalent than it actually is.
The first two misconceptions can be debunked with simple statistics. Bridging the Gap (BTG), the continuum of care servicing neighbor islands, uses data from the state’s Homeless Management Information System to determine how many individuals and households receive some form of homeless services on every island, as well as to create demographic breakdowns of those people.
Between July of 2017 and June of 2018, BTG provided services of some sort to 2,453 individuals comprising 1,341 households across Hawaii Island.
Only 8 percent of all those who received homeless services had lived in Hawaii for less than one year.
In fact, 67 percent of households BTG serviced during the same time period identified as residents of Hawaii for 20 years or more. And 64 percent of households possessed at least some measure of authentic Hawaiian lineage.
The numbers show conclusively that homelessness isn’t a problem being dumped on the islands from the mainland — the “other states buy homeless one-way plane tickets and send them over here” argument so frequently tossed around in conversations or during interactions on social media platforms.
An astute follower of the issue might read the numbers above and believe they lend validity to the notion that the county and state aren’t being honest with the public about how significant the homeless population is.
After all, the 2018 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count only registered 869 homeless individuals on Hawaii Island. In 2016, the worst year for homeless statistics in Hawaii history, that tally was 1,394.
It doesn’t take a math degree to notice the highest ever PIT Count homeless total of 1,394 is just a little more than half of the population BTG reported serving between 2017-2018 — two years after the 2016 count, by which time authorities had claimed a 38 percent drop in the homeless population.
If the homeless population is down significantly over the last two years, then why is BTG providing homeless services to almost twice as many people as the PIT Count tallied two years ago when the problem what at its apex on Hawaii Island?
Sharon Hirota, executive assistant to Mayor Harry Kim who has taken point on several of the county’s key homeless concerns, explained the discrepancy.
Firstly, she acknowledged the PIT Count is comprised only of the number of homeless people that service providers and volunteers can track down during the week they’re out pounding the pavement.
No one close to the issue has ever believed PIT Count tallies serve as completely accurate representations of homeless presence, only that they provide some scale of the problem and offer a way to measure trends.
Secondly, Hirota said the total number of people serviced is reflective of sways in the homeless population. Some given services may have become homeless after the most recent count and/or may be housed by the time the next count rolls around.
Finally, some receiving homeless services, such as rental assistance, aren’t actually homeless. They get a little help to navigate a financial bind and avoid losing the roof over their heads. Counters tally such individuals as having received homeless services all the same.
As for the PIT Count itself, it has well-established flaws. It’s unscientific, self-reported and collected in good part by volunteers. One thing the count is not, however, is misleading — the third common misconception about homelessness in Hawaii when combined with the notion authorities make it misleading to serve their own ends.
The most recent count concluded Monday, running six days. Surveyors asked people they found canvassing a simple question:
“Where did you sleep this past Tuesday, January 22nd?”
That’s it, aside from questions asked to collect background and demographic information.
If they had a roof over their heads that night, even if they didn’t the night after or for months or years prior, they were not considered to be homeless for purposes of the count. That’s because the point of the count is to create as close to a true snapshot of one given night as possible.
Hirota went out three times last week to participate in the count and said she ran into two people who fit such a description.
One of the highest ranking officials in county government working alongside Mayor Kim, Hirota wasn’t pleased she couldn’t count those individuals. It was the opposite. She was disappointed. But the count is a national process. It must be conducted uniformly or it loses its value as a gauge for trends and comparisons in the homeless population.
Every year, however, organizers work hard to paint a more accurate picture. If anything changes, it’s an addition of a question or a tool, a way to gather more information.
Hirota said this year, that manifested in the addition of a GIS system — a latitude, longitude and coordinate system to track the geography of where homeless were contacted.
The purpose, she explained, was to gain a better sense of where homeless individuals are congregating, making for more accurate surveys and outreach services in the months and years to come.
I don’t believe people are angry with homeless people in general, but they are legitimately angry with the people in Old A, along Alii Drive and Brewery Block that constantly cause problems and harass passers by. Social service organization need to continue there efforts in assisting people in need but the police department need to address the criminal activity by the people causing the problems, whether homeless or not.
Anyone who spends any time at these locations know who the regular offenders are, so the police must surely know them by sight and name. HPD has many issues to address throughout the island. They actively pursue DUI and using cell phones while driving by setting up check points. Why not use these same resources to periodically sweep these locations and arrest people who are breaking the law?
This reporter should ask the chief what his position is. I was told the Chief and side kick are afraid of ACLU suing them.
Being a bum and being homeless are not the same thing. The sonne of man hath not where to lay his head.
Many became disadvantaged because of actions by the oligarchy. Some by poor personal life choices.
Philanthropic organizations help, but a bigger responsibility lies with the authorities.
It’s so obvious that there is a affordable housing shortage. It’s the mentally ill that are usually the problem. Many a cat feeder or trapper has been terrorized with little response from athouritys. Common sense tells you if you close all the bathrooms people will go somewhere. Please someone bring some sense and compassion to the table.
“…affordable housing shortage” We pray you are not indicating that we throw more tax monies at that issue. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. In this economy of today (Trump’s economy) there is indications that positive things are happening. One thing that isn’t happening is that the businesses that are thriving are not giving pay raises to their employees. That sector of the labor force, employees represented by unions ( a sector that the multinational corporations are striving to totally eliminate), are having some success in getting pay raises for their employees. When the labor force gets more money, more money flows in the economy. Part of this money is diverted to human services agencies ( not for profit and government entities) . A solution for the homeless: Provide when you can but it will always be with us. Authorities may have some success in juggling them between one location and the next. Live with it or invite one to stay in your home.
Haaa, Haaa, Haaaa!
We have jobs begging for people to do them but
….the leeches, loafers, and druggies are “too retired” to do anything
and the WHT folk get paid to propagandize about it!!
…not to mention “food stamp” folk where the “jobs are too far away…”!
Haaa, Haaa, Haaa!
I have this bridge from Hawi to Hanna to sell ya, cheap!
I suspect the Hawaiian Tourist Organizations are playing down the homeless situation. They don’t want to turn off the tourists coming to Hawaii. Homelessness is aggravated by chronic Socialism/Marxism in Hawaii. After all, didn’t Karl Marx say, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”? (Oops, I just let the cat out of the bag!)
just quit giving them free stuff-if you want it than do something for it-have them pick up trash along the side of the road instead of the county workers doing it and therefore the county workers can be more useful some where else.
Curious question. Why isn’t HHL building more affordable homes on the land they have for Hawaiians? Why is there a five or ten year waiting list to get in to A HHL lot?. PERHAPS If they Were more motivated homelessness could be reduced, for hawaiian kanaka, at least on all islands.
So you ask the drug addicted, criminal minded, freeloading homeless a few questions: 1) Are you of Hawaiian decent? (64% say yes) 2) How long have you lived here 67% said more than 20 years.
As long as we are discussing statistics ask yourself this question.. what is the chance that most of these people are lying” I would say its a 100%.
Also as I read this it seems to try and make the case that although the number of people receiving homeless services has risen substantially the number of homeless has gone down. That and the homeless do not pass the smell test.
We manage this just like everything else nowadays, we give trophies for participation, punishment
is nonexistent, we don’t enforce laws we already have on the books,
we don’t make parents vaccinate their kids. People have figured this out and
skirted the system to get by with whatever suits them. We have grown soft and
should except our situation. We don’t have the balls to fix these big problems
anymore, no amount of money can get us out of this mess(.Y.)