Homeless in Hawaii Our World

A wise glamorous image as a picture postcard paradise belies

We've the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country,

which is ironic because we have some of the greatest concentrations

I think it could be a tempest building up and that pressure,

A surge in homelessness is pushing the system to breaking point,

exposing an ugly social divide in the Aloha state.

I think we're one of the stronger communities as far as getting

together and saying we don't want the homeless in our neighbourhood

and we need to be strong and vocal and try to do whatever we can

You can't have a civil society where it's OK for someone

to defecate in front of Burberry's and wipe their ass on the corner

I'm sorry, all right, it doesn't work.

With authorities cracking down on homeless camps,

there's growing disquiet about criminalising

You know, we are living in our cultural rights.

You know, some tell us that we're living wrong,

As the crisis worsens, a remarkable group of women

are forging ahead with their own solution.

Before you leave this place, I will make sure that

I changed your mind about homeless and houseless people.

In just a few years, Hawaii has been caught up

Thousands live rough on beaches, in parks and on streets,

their lives mired in poverty and trauma.

Authorities are struggling to contain the spread.

If you won't give me water, get out of my face.

To say that we were caught off guard may be only part of the story.

We were, to a degree, but also we saw an incredible surge,

It's why it's become our biggest issue.

I'd say it's attracted more attention, at least

from my perspective, than any other issue in the last 20

It's very expensive to live in Hawaii.

In most cases, people have to work two jobs to pay their rent

So it's always been expensive, but then when there was a surge

in costs because there's been an inventory shortage,

we saw it become impossible for some middle-class people to afford

Now you had poverty, increased cost of living,

There was a wave of drug addiction which really fries people's brains

and that makes it impossible to function in normal society,

and a lot of those people end up on the street.

About a fifth of Hawaii's homeless population have recently moved

Attracted by the idea that life is easier in the island state,

they often discover a different reality.

In Honolulu, filthy hovels inside stormwater drains and under

motorways have sparked panicked alarms over public

As elsewhere in the United States, here, the average life expectancy

for a homeless individual is just 51 years old.

My name is Nick Grube, I'm a reporter with Honolulu Civil Beat,

and we are an investigative news outlet based in Honolulu,

I've walked this street several times before,

It's just continued to grow to where now, as you can see,

we're walking through the middle of the street right now

because the sidewalks are covered in people's homes.

Basically, the city is looking at including this street

in its sit-lie ban which would mean that all of this will have to go,

but the question is - where will the people go?

And that's what the city's been struggling with for years.

Now they're going to have to pack up and move on,

The idea is, is that if you've been disrupted,

it will make you uncomfortable enough to maybe, perhaps,

make better decisions about your life and accept the help

that's being offered, because there is a great deal

The sit and lie laws are controversial, with critics

claiming that they criminalise the homeless.

It was along Waikiki Beach that the city first introduced

its sit and lie crackdown after hotels and other businesses

loudly complained that the homeless camps were spooking tourists.

A lot of people have ideological and emotional blinders on that

If you kiss on the tourist industry, there's a huge economic cost that

will create more poverty and will reduce the tax base which,

by the way, homeless services are dependent upon.

Even though they've cleared out, they come back.

Layne Goodall says she's on a mission to keep her community

We have laws in Hawaii that state it's illegal to live on the streets.

And we have this state of lawlessness right now.

With the help of other local residents, she patrols the streets

of Hawaii Kai, looking for any signs of the homeless.

So again, you see the post-it sign there now for private property.

As soon as you see one tent go up, the community needs to call

the police, call the city, call the state and get

Once you have one tent, then two tents, then you're outnumbered.

When homeless camps began springing up in local parks and bushland,

residents began worrying about property values and the risk

of brush fires engulfing their million-dollar homes.

The knife, and he plunges after this man...

Like many locals in Hawaii Kai, Lane views the island's

A lot of the people here are one-way tickets from the mainland.

Word of mouth is kind of spreading and people on cell phones and social

media now - a lot of the homeless people have Facebook pages.

And so, you've got this underground movement of the homeless

and the squatters and the freeloaders, but everybody

You can't have society where you just have one factor that

Hawaii's homeless explosion isn't confined to its urban centre.

One of the biggest reasons we did this today was because this bridge

is actually a flood zone and it rains a lot in Hawaii.

So when the water comes down, we don't want people to get hurt.

Most of the people here have already left and the rest scramble

to gather their belongings and leave to avoid trouble with the police.

So you see it going all the way out to the water and then you see

There's maybe about five or six camp sites.

Spreading out into the nearby mangroves, this camp was extensive

and several young families were living here.

For young homeless outreach workers like Casey, who try to get families

It's really hard, especially because these kids go to school

and their classmates know that they're, you know,

None of those caught up in today's sweep seem interested

Do you want to stay with these friendly folks?

OK, we'll see you later then, minus the bike.

It's not against the law to be homeless.

So we can't arrest people for no apparent reason.

It gotinfected and I went to the doctor, and the doctor put me

My name is Heather, I'm the community outreach RN at IHS.

I could not believe that these people were walking,

talking and functioning, eating and able to walk

Wounds that we never saw really in school or in the hospital

because they're really big and infected and abscesses,

The homeless are the people that have the least political cloud,

-- The homeless are the people that have the least political clout

so they get forgotten too often, until the system begins to crash.

We are going to get you into the room and do

I think the biggest frustration is that you are a physician

who really wants to see their patients get better.

It is like this horrific Groundhog Day of sorts.

That occurs every two weeks with these individuals,

because they just are not able to access or have those determinants

of help with their social care, to be squirrelled away once

they leave our four walls and they suffer, they fail

and they come back, battered and beaten and broken.

Queen's Medical Centre is on the front line of Hawaii's

Seeing hundreds of patients every week.

Some of them costing more than $1 million a year each in medical care.

What do you do when you got some individuals who are struggling

greatly, who need our compassionate support, but who also

are threatening the entire health economy of our state?

In order to get to the heart of an explosive problem,

As a practising emergency room doctor, Senator Josh Green

understands the grave health risks of homelessness and he is proposing

This is going to be the first time that we are going to have a hybrid

programme, that is both seamless and integrated.

Treat homelessness as a medical condition and allow doctors

to prescribe housing for the homeless, paid

Get people into homes and save billions of dollars.

These resources are already in the budget.

But it totally flips how we use them, so we can actually avail

ourselves of a lot of housing very quickly.

If we do not, we will see the problem grow.

They could get much worse if we do not have a game-changer.

While prescribing housing could be a game-changer,

the average price of a home in Hawaii is around US$700,000

Amidst Hawaii's housing crunch, there is a growing push to recognise

Hello, my name is Twinkle Borge and I am the leader here.

The name means refugee, people of the land, the caretakers.

How you live is who you are, that is how I feel.

The recyclables, put it away where it belongs.

This is no ordinary homeless encampment.

Anyone who comes to live here must sign a contract

Amongst them, every resident must contribute eight hours a week

Each section will have their areas to concentrate on, to rebuild,

So like, they have decided to put fences in, as a community,

go and help strengthen your walls and what not.

If rubbish needs to be put out, you will see our vehicles coming

The encampment is built from tarpaulins, tent

poles and recycled goods, but there is little

So we usually use these palettes for rebuilding your flooring,

So when it rains or anything you're not in the water.

When you do get high tide here, you notice the ocean,

this water can come as far as that tree.

So these palettes play a big roll here.

This cohesive community is remarkably organised,

divided into different sections, each led by a captain.

And when it comes to the little ones, it's automatic.

We automatically protect the little ones.

Our children, our safety, our rules, everything is based

With the safety of the children paramount, there are stringent

rules and a three strikes and you're out system.

This is the donation card, we have a donation thing.

Twinkle's adopted son, Adam, helps to enforce them.

Or if it's out there and it comes in here,

you're automatically out, completely.

I will come back, Twinkle will let me know, she will give me

the papers of the violations, I will go and read it to them

And then if it happens two more times, we get three chances,

right on the third chance, I come in and I kick you right out.

She has been my inspiration for a long time.

I don't even need to be living like this.

I can go straight into a home, but I choose not to.

I choose to stay here because I love the people and I love

The resilience of this remarkable community is admirable.

The only electricity is from those lucky enough to own and fuel

a generator and the nearest toilets are hundreds of metres

With water pipes cut off to the camp, residents need to fill

bottles and cart them from a camp at the nearby marina.

It is one of the many daily chores that keeps this place going.

How come the Hawaiians are struggling here?

You came here, you took our land from us and left us like that.

Just an hour's drive from Honolulu, the reality of life for these

Hawaiians is vastly different to the one that mainland

Twinkle became homeless 14 years ago.

Creating this community has been a long struggle.

But I fell in love with someone who I thought

would never fool around on me and I became so depressed.

I had all this money that was saved, everything, to find out

that this person wiped me out of my money and everything.

Twinkle firmly believes that home is where the heart is.

For me, homeless is someone who lives in a van, who has no home.

But I live in a tent, that is my home.

I have had tour groups that come in and many times

I straightout tell them, before you leave this place,

I will make sure that I change your mind about homeless

and how homeless people that live out in the elements as we do.

They are amazed at what the people do here.

They are amazed because once they pass these double poles,

Buoyed by the success of their community, Twinkle

and her team captains have big plans for the future.

The community wants the right to lease the land where they live

and to build more durable homes with solar power and

They also want fences and security cameras to keep them safe.

But the camp's future is far from guaranteed.

Behind closed doors, there is an ongoing discussion

between those who want it dismantled and its residents put into shelters

and those who want it recognised and preserved.

Basically, we're just homeless in our own homes,

Many locals regard the camp as an eyesore

Amidst concerns that it is growing too big.

So far, despite Twinkle's pleas, Hawaii's Governor has held back

from making any commitment to letting them stay.

I believe we have over 500 and I said we cannot afford more

We can fit maybe 300 comfortably, but we usally stay

Twinkle says she will do what it takes to save her community,

but she is confident that she can convince her detractors.

We have a little squabble, I am not looking at it

I don't know why they are afraid of working with us.

As Hawaii grapples with its homeless crisis, there is also a sense

of hope that enterprising solutions can be found to

Twinkle believes her camp could serve as a model for other

houseless communities across the islands.

She says it is not only time for new ideas,

If they want to learn more about the situation

and come up with a solution, come and sit down with us.

Because the answer lies here, not there.

Not in their office, not in their books, here.

We have got some very warm weather indeed coming up over the next few

days, with the high-pressure firmly in charge of our weather.

That's going to bring very warm, if not hot, weather to most