Comments - Hawaii sets aside $100,000 to offer homeless people a one-way ticket home - 12160 Social Network2024-03-28T21:04:46Zhttps://12160.info/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=2649739%3ABlogPost%3A1275752&xn_auth=noI had an old black dude from…tag:12160.info,2013-08-01:2649739:Comment:12759892013-08-01T07:23:14.099ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p>I had an old black dude from Compton get rude with my wife the other night. I ask, How does a homeless man from Compton end up in Waikiki???</p>
<p>I had an old black dude from Compton get rude with my wife the other night. I ask, How does a homeless man from Compton end up in Waikiki???</p> But if other States are dumpi…tag:12160.info,2013-08-01:2649739:Comment:12762562013-08-01T07:18:50.305ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p>But if other States are dumping their problem on Hawaii, that's not good</p>
<p>But if other States are dumping their problem on Hawaii, that's not good</p> http://12160.info/forum/topic…tag:12160.info,2013-08-01:2649739:Comment:12762552013-08-01T07:17:29.944ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p><a href="http://12160.info/forum/topics/aloha-hawaii-to-offer-homeless-one-way-ticket-out-of-state?xg_source=activity" target="_blank">http://12160.info/forum/topics/aloha-hawaii-to-offer-homeless-one-way-ticket-out-of-state?xg_source=activity</a></p>
<p><a href="http://12160.info/forum/topics/aloha-hawaii-to-offer-homeless-one-way-ticket-out-of-state?xg_source=activity" target="_blank">http://12160.info/forum/topics/aloha-hawaii-to-offer-homeless-one-way-ticket-out-of-state?xg_source=activity</a></p> I agree Scotty
tag:12160.info,2013-08-01:2649739:Comment:12762542013-08-01T07:17:22.267ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p>I agree Scotty</p>
<p></p>
<p>I agree Scotty</p>
<p></p> Your second report sheds new…tag:12160.info,2013-07-31:2649739:Comment:12756572013-07-31T21:39:34.579Zscotty michele brownhttps://12160.info/profile/scottymichelebrown
<p>Your second report sheds new light on the matter. We have a shelter in my town(about 6 blocks from me) It is in a large building that used to be a church. The residents have to do chores in the home and/or work in the mission thrift shop. They are helped to find a job, and then pay inexpensive rent to stay until they can move out. I have always felt that if people are in need of charity and able to work for it, they should have to.</p>
<p>Your second report sheds new light on the matter. We have a shelter in my town(about 6 blocks from me) It is in a large building that used to be a church. The residents have to do chores in the home and/or work in the mission thrift shop. They are helped to find a job, and then pay inexpensive rent to stay until they can move out. I have always felt that if people are in need of charity and able to work for it, they should have to.</p> http://www.civilbeat.com/topi…tag:12160.info,2013-07-31:2649739:Comment:12757712013-07-31T21:33:31.870ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p><a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/topics/hawaii-homelessness/" target="_blank">http://www.civilbeat.com/topics/hawaii-homelessness/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/topics/hawaii-homelessness/" target="_blank">http://www.civilbeat.com/topics/hawaii-homelessness/</a></p> Perhaps but if your going to…tag:12160.info,2013-07-31:2649739:Comment:12757642013-07-31T21:28:04.728ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p>Perhaps but if your going to be homeless, which would you prefer?</p>
<p><img style="cursor: -moz-zoom-in;" alt="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/982494/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-HOMELESS-NEMO-facebook.jpg" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/982494/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-HOMELESS-NEMO-facebook.jpg" height="842" width="1245"/> OR</p>
<p><img alt="http://shedexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Honolulu_Waikiki_Beach.jpg" src="http://shedexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Honolulu_Waikiki_Beach.jpg"/></p>
<p>Perhaps but if your going to be homeless, which would you prefer?</p>
<p><img style="cursor: -moz-zoom-in;" alt="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/982494/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-HOMELESS-NEMO-facebook.jpg" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/982494/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-HOMELESS-NEMO-facebook.jpg" height="842" width="1245"/> OR</p>
<p><img alt="http://shedexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Honolulu_Waikiki_Beach.jpg" src="http://shedexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Honolulu_Waikiki_Beach.jpg"/></p> That might work. If a person…tag:12160.info,2013-07-31:2649739:Comment:12755452013-07-31T21:20:52.964Zscotty michele brownhttps://12160.info/profile/scottymichelebrown
<p>That might work. If a person went to Hawaii and their job fell through or some other tragedy, they might not have money to go back home.</p>
<p>That might work. If a person went to Hawaii and their job fell through or some other tragedy, they might not have money to go back home.</p> A tourist in Hawaii spends an…tag:12160.info,2013-07-31:2649739:Comment:12758362013-07-31T21:13:40.382ZNobody Will Observehttps://12160.info/profile/Troy969
<p>A tourist in Hawaii spends an average of $200 a day for a hotel room, meals and entertainment. But there's another class of visitors given room and board, full health care benefits and more for just $3 a day. It's not a luxury vacation package — just homeless benefits courtesy of Hawaii's taxpayers.</p>
<p>At the Sumner Homeless Men's Shelter in downtown Honolulu — less than a mile from Honolulu Harbor, where luxury cruise ships are docked — shelter operations assistant Alfred Ho'opi'i tells…</p>
<p>A tourist in Hawaii spends an average of $200 a day for a hotel room, meals and entertainment. But there's another class of visitors given room and board, full health care benefits and more for just $3 a day. It's not a luxury vacation package — just homeless benefits courtesy of Hawaii's taxpayers.</p>
<p>At the Sumner Homeless Men's Shelter in downtown Honolulu — less than a mile from Honolulu Harbor, where luxury cruise ships are docked — shelter operations assistant Alfred Ho'opi'i tells guests to line up for their lunch.</p>
<p>"The majority of people that I can see here are from the mainland," he says. "You have your locals, but not too many."</p>
<p>The meal is chopped beef steak with vegetables, mashed potatoes, bread, a fresh apple and cake. Ho'opi'i and his volunteers serve from 750 to 900 meals a day at the three shelters operated by the nonprofit Institute for Human Services.</p>
<p>The shelters' resident population has increased 10 percent in the past year, and one-third of all the guests — 1,300 annually — come from out of state.</p>
<p>Gary Phillips purchased a $400 airline ticket to Hawaii three months ago. He was homeless in San Diego for years, but is now earning cash from Hawaii's 5-cent redemption program for plastic bottles and aluminum cans.</p>
<p>"I recycle here," he says. "I make money doing that." Some days, over $40, he says.</p>
<p>And he sleeps at the IHS shelter for $3 a day, with three free meals, $200 worth of food stamps and the state's free health care program.</p>
<p>"I went to the dentist today, and I had a tooth pulled," Phillips says. "It cost me nothing."</p>
<p>The shelter's annual operating budget of $2 million is funded largely by state taxpayers. Connie Mitchell is executive director. She says 28 percent of her shelter and food budget is spent on new arrivals from the mainland.</p>
<p>"We are a tourist destination that attracts people who are homeless or people who have resources, and that's something that we really can't control," Mitchell says. "But I think that if people do want to take up that particular lifestyle, that it shouldn't be at the public's expense."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hawaiian taxpayers face a $1.2 billion budget deficit, which is being addressed in part with deferred state tax refunds and deferred Medicaid reimbursements.</p>
<p>Honolulu's homeless demographic — on the streets and in shelters — is changing. The University of Hawaii's Center on the Family estimates the city's homeless street population has shifted from being 21 percent Caucasian in 2005 to more than 43 percent today.</p>
<p>Many are single, middle-aged men from the mainland, like former computer programmer Gary Titleman.</p>
<p>"Well, I was kind of homeless in Flagstaff and Prescott [Arizona], and a guy told me that you could go to Hawaii for $150, so I had some savings and bought a ticket," he says.</p>
<p>He chooses to work odd jobs at minimum wage. Soon it will be time to move on.</p>
<p>"Well, I may go to Alaska during the summer," he said. "Also go back to the mainland. I'm originally from Virginia, but I moved out West a while back. So who knows?"</p>
<p>Connie Mitchell says the resource drain caused by newly arrived single male transients is getting more acute. She says Hawaiian lawmakers need to develop policies to address this problem.</p>
<p>"I think that we really need to begin to look at who's really homeless — not by choice and by misfortune — and who's really homeless by choice, and have a different solution for the two different populations."</p>
<p><em>Wayne Yoshioka reports for member station KHPR in Honolulu.</em></p>