So Kakaako Waterfront Park has now been closed to everyone because authorities let problems there get totally out of control, resulting in an estimated half million dollars in damage to park infrastructure.
The newspaper reports today that “Between Tuesday and Sunday night, outreach workers placed 32 people into a shelter including families with children, according to state homeless coordinator Scott Morishige.”
That begs the question: If there was shelter space available for at least 32 people, including families with children, why were those families living outside in the park until then?
Why weren’t they already in shelters if space was available and the families ultimately found the space acceptable?
Was the fact that authorities were just turning a blind eye to all the squatters effectively deterring families with children from seeking or accepting shelter and, hopefully, finding permanent housing?
Does neglecting our parks and streets, and failing to enforce laws, really just promote an environment that hurts homeless families with children, as well as the rest of the community, by making it much easier to live in squalor and hopelessness than to accept help that is available?
And what about the damage to the park? Has anyone been held accountable for splicing the electric wires and allowing vicious dogs to attack passersby? Anyone? Why not?
Where will the money come from to repair the damage?
Will anyone in charge be held accountable for allowing the park to become such a poorly managed mess? Will anyone even at least just tell the truth about why enforcement ceased?
Will the dysfunction never end?
Where did the rest of the park squatters go? More than 100 people don’t just vanish overnight.
And when will the park re-open? Or, at least, when will a decision be made about when the park will re-open?
And what will be done to prevent the same damn thing from happening yet again?
We cannot allow our public officials to mismanage our public properties, let them be trashed, then just shut them down to everyone with no answers and no accountability, and then expect the public to pay for their neglect and incompetence.
Honolulu Homeless Crisis 
ACCOUNTABILITY-something not found in Hawaii’s city,county, or state governments. Who is in charge of enforcing park closure laws. Why did they not do their job in this situation? Why are they still government employees? Try and get an answer to any one of these questions. I dare you.
As a person who was homeless for 12 years, I have a real good answer for why these people are not in the shelters.
1. Cannot drink alcohol, sell or smoke meth, let your kids and dogs run wild, while you are at a shelter facility. 2. Alot of these people have been thrown out of the shelters for not following the rules. 3.The 2 main shelters are HORRIBLE environment for any human being and don’t believe one word of what anyone trying to tell you differently says. IHS is what I call “Sleeping with one eye open” thats so you can watch out for the thief who will try to rob you or the crazy that might attack you while you sleep in an open area on a beach mat. I was safer finding a quite spot on the streets. Next Step is a bed bug infested hell hole full of screaming kids,thieves, and crazies.
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