The TV news was chirping away the other night about how the Big Island’s mayor has created “the state’s only safe zone for homeless campers.”
That’s totally ridiculous, of course.
The enormous squatter colony at the Waianae Boat Harbor on Oahu has been a safe zone for a decade or more and is at least four times as large as the Big Island setup.
And anyone who doesn’t think the harbor colony is a safe zone is just fooling themself.
Of course it is. It’s on state land, its existence is well-documented, even romanticized, authorities know all about it and allow the residents to build unpermitted semi-permanent structures to live in and to use public resources that everyone else pays for (like the harbor’s restrooms and water supply), service providers visit them for outreach, etc., etc.
Beyond that, the state has simply shrugged and failed to take any responsibility to either remove the squatter colony and provide alternative housing, or to provide safe and sanitary dwellings and appropriate facilities there for the residents who live in decrepit tents and hovels, including lots and lots of children.
Instead, authorities have done virtually nothing. For all these years.
In fact, the harbor colony’s leaders very openly decide who can live there or even pass through. That’s right, the state has willfully allowed squatters to not only seize control of public land for a decade, but to also prevent other members of the public from accessing that public land.
And I really don’t blame the squatters for taking control of their situation. Somebody has to. It’s what reasonable people should do. With the complete failure of government authorities and so many women and children living there, somebody had to step up and impose some sort of order to ensure a semblance of safety and community.
But that dynamic also underscores just how badly the state has failed to address the situation for so long.
It’s just heartbreaking to see so many kids growing up like this. This is chronic neglect and an epic failure of our state’s government.
And isn’t it strange that with hundreds of homeless people living on the beach in Waianae for all these years, there were at least 33 empty beds last week at the Waianae Civic Center homeless shelter just down the road, which have now been filled with squatters who had been illegally camping around Blaisdell Park in Aiea?
It sure seems like authorities are not only failing to encourage or require homeless people in Waianae to avail themselves of available shelter space, but are also now making Waianae a dumping ground for squatters who are rousted from other sites miles away.
Prediction: The Aiea squatters in the Waianae shelter will soon be building their own shacks and shanties on the beach in Waianae, either at the harbor or somewhere nearby.
Either way, the Waianae Boat Harbor squatter colony is one of the state’s largest and oldest safe zones, even if the state and the media remain in chronic denial.
Honolulu Homeless Crisis 