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—her family homeless, living in a van and an SUV parked most days along Kapālama Canal.