For reference, Indigenous Hawaiians- refer to themselves as Native Hawaiians but for the sake of this class I will refer to them as Indigenous- are widely regarded as Aboriginal rather than Indigenous. This is because their ancestors were Polynesian voyageurs that travelled by canoe from the Marquesas Islands, settling on the Big Island in Hawaii in 400 C.E. in search of new land to farm on and new waters to fish. The original Kingdom of 300 000 people ruled by their monarchy dropped to 70 000 people by 1853 due to the diseases brought by colonists and the kingdom itself became annexed by the U.S. in 1898 when it was overthrown by American colonists that held control over their economy based around sugar cane farming declaring its territory of the U.S. It was in the 1890s that the last ruler, Queen Lili’oukalani was suddenly and forcefully removed from her position as queen and was imprisoned and forced to renounce her title by a group of American sugar planters working for Sanford Ballard Dole who then re-established Hawaii as the Republic of Hawaii naming himself it’s first President.
The issue I chose to focus on is the homelessness crisis in Hawaii that greatly affects many Native Hawaiian people. Nearly 15 000 people in Hawaii are homeless with 1500-2000 being chronically homeless. I found out that chronically homeless individuals were people who had been homeless for more than 6 months and had mental and/or physical health conditions. The average life expectancy for these individuals is 53 years, which is nearly 30 years less than the general population. Many of the individuals suffer from incredibly high rates of mental illness, addiction and PTSD. Some of the highest Medicaid -a low-income health insurance- users in the state are those who are chronically homeless, 3.61% of these Medicaid recipients take up 61% of the annual 2 billion dollar budget with 13 000 people spending nearly 1.2 billion yearly in Medicaid. There is a nearly complete overlap with the chronically homeless being some of the highest Medicaid users and a disproportionate amount being Native Hawaiians. The average person costs the health system $4 650 per day with the highest Medicaid users spending 82 000 per year. Creating housing for these homeless individuals and families would drop their Medicaid costs by 43%-73% resulting in saving a minimum of $300 000 000 yearly in Medicaid while also protecting these Hawaiians' health. There is a prominent link between poor health and homelessness since it can potentially worsen existing medical conditions, heighten stress levels which tax the body, the lack of ability to keep clean results in infections, they are exposed to the elements, they have a higher risk of injury and there is no safe place for them to store prescription medication.
In an attempt to rectify this statewide issue, in 2016 Governor David Ige set a goal for his administration to end homelessness by 2020, claiming that anyone on the streets would be permanently housed within a few weeks. The main objectives of his plan to end this crisis were, to put an end to encampments on state land, get people off the streets and into homes and build 10 000 new homes while focusing on affordable units. The results shown are 8700 homes being built since, 5000 of which are affordable with 3000 more in the process of being built. The Governor's office claims that 616 people are being taken off the street each month totalling around 7392 per year, nearly twice as many compared to 2016. The goal however was not met and the number of homeless individuals has remained just as high if not higher since Gov. Ige pledged to end the crisis. The Governor did recognize his shortcomings in an interview with Hawaiian News Now stating “I do think in hindsight maybe it was too aggressive, too aspirational, but it did drive us. It made us realize to be successful we need to have all hands on deck.” That being said, I still think that the Governor has made a significant impact on the issue by taking action and continuing to try and reach his goal despite his plan no doubt being derailed by COVID-19. There are conflicting perspectives on whether or not Ige's administration could do more to alleviate the crisis from many different people. Taking a deeper look into the perspective of these homeless individuals and families being victims of homelessness with unstable living circumstances, being constantly at risk of disease and danger and being desperate to feel safety and comfort, you can understand why they might feel that the Ige administration hasn’t done enough to help them. Residents who do have stable homes share a similar perspective but for different reasons, these reasons being, they feel endangered by having so many desperate people living in the streets, they deal with the inconvenience of homeless camps in public places like parks and beaches. Governor Ige and his administration do believe they achieved partial success while taking accountability for falling short of their goal. I think that you can better understand their perspective when you recognize that there is a set budget to build the housing and they might have overshot their original estimated cost. It’s also important to take into consideration that despite there being a global pandemic that hindered their final year of progress they still managed to nearly meet their goal of building 10 000 homes most of which are affordable.
Some next steps being taken would be to continue with building more affordable housing, funding more outreach programs to help with mental illness and addiction. Honolulu has taken the approach of building the Kahauiki Village, a community of affordable housing for families in need of permanent housing and the Punawai Rest Stop, a publicly accessible hygiene facility that provides a place to do laundry, shower/bathe and charge electronics.
Similar to Indigenous Hawaiians, a 2016 National Shelter Study showed Indigenous Canadians are 10 times more likely to use shelters than non-Indigenous Canadians and according to the same study nearly 30% of all people staying in shelters in Canada are Indigenous people. Overall I would say that Indigenous Hawaiians’ and Indigenous Canadians share a similar story of having their land taken and their people displaced. Then being forced to adapt to a foreign economy with no resources or support, leading to younger generations fighting to survive and struggling to have their basic need for shelter met.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2021, June 5). Sanford Ballard Dole. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sanford-Ballard-Dole.
Smithsonian.com. (2007, November 6). Hawaii - History and Heritage. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/hawaii-history-and-heritage-4164590/.
Green, J. (n.d.). Homeless In Hawaii : Facts and Resources. https://ltgov.hawaii.gov/homeless-in-hawaii-facts-and-resources/.
Hawaii Medicaid. (2021). Hawaii Medicaid / MedQuest Eligibility for Long Term Care: Income & Asset Limits. Medicaid Planning Assistance. https://www.medicaidplanningassistance.org/medicaid-eligibility-hawaii/.
Blair, A. (2020). Ige pledged to end homelessness in Hawaii by 2020. What happened? https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/01/18/ige-pledged-end-homelessness-hawaii-by-what-happened/.
YouTube. (2019). Kahauiki Village and Punawai Rest Stop: Community, Permanent Housing, and Hygiene Services. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyX9ctxZIho&t=17s.
Mayor's Office of Housing. (2019). WHAT IS THE CITY DOING TO HELP? City & County of Honolulu. http://www.honolulu.gov/housing/homelessness/ohou-what.html.
Canada, E. and S. D. (2021, February 25). Government of Canada. Canada.ca. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/reports/research/indigenous-homelessness.html.
Almeida, M. (n.d.). photograph, Hawaii.
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