Safe Space draws concerns: Residents, lawmaker worried about impact of homeless camp on area thegardenisland.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thegardenisland.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A state lawmaker has joined some Hilo residents in their concerns about a planned government-sanctioned homeless encampment near the Hilo Lagoon Center.
In this edition we have a Q&A with the new director of the Hawaii Budget and Policy Center and an update on changes to the state's behavioral health crisis call center.
The Hawaii Interagency Council on Homelessness (HICH) is calling on the Legislature to make it illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants who receive rental assistance.
What Are We Doing to Fix Hawai‘i’s Homeless Crisis?
The Aloha State now has the highest number of homeless per capita in the nation. What are we doing to help the individuals and families living on the streets?
April 22, 2015
In January, homeless service providers counted more than 400 people living in this encampment in Kaka‘ako, near the Children’s Discovery Center. Photo: Odeelo Dayondon
April Fuiava was working at the front desk of a Waikīkī Hotel, her husband was a day laborer and the two were making tough calls just about every day. With seven kids, money was always tight. After the rent was paid $2,000 for an apartment in ‘Ālewa Heights there wasn’t much for anything else. Buy groceries or keep the lights on. Pay the vehicle registration or fill up the cars with gas. “Some days, we wouldn’t have food,” Fuiava says. But even though things were bad, things were never that bad, and the 36-year-old never imagined she’d end up where she did h