Has Honolulu’s mayor really gone nuts?

Has Honolulu’s obstinate vagrant population and intractable homelessness crisis pushed Mayor Kirk Caldwell over the edge and prompted him to consider checking into a mental health facility?

Well, that’s probably not what the newspaper really meant with this headline, but then again they may be trying to hint at something.

Because somewhere in the deep recesses of the mayor’s mind, he surely must remember spending more than $6 million in taxpayer money two years ago on a new “state of the art” homeless services center in Iwilei that still hasn’t opened, even though the building was already constructed.

It sure is confusing when Caldwell ponders out loud the need for “some sort of facility where (hardcore vagrants) would get assessed for substance abuse and mental health issues until they can get housed.”

Because that’s just what the Iwilei center is supposed to be, if it ever opens: “an epicenter for homeless services that will include a 24-hour urgent care center with primary and mental health services; a rapid detox and wound care center; and a place for the most critical patients to stay for up to 30 days while being treated for chronic diseases, mental illness and other serious health conditions.”

The media people seem to have a little lava on the brain too, because they’ve forgotten all about this scheme or can’t seem to muster the faculties to inquire about it.

Is there some sort of huge problem with the Iwilei building that has made the whole project a massive boondoggle that Caldwell just wants everyone to forget about while he ships more druggies and stumble-bums off to Waianae?

Oh well, it’s only: a homelessness crisis of such crushing magnitude that it’s been declared a state of emergency; a veritable sea of human suffering and mental anguish; a dangerous environment for everyone else; and more than six million taxpayer dollars just for the Iwilei center alone, and many, many millions more for the constant police calls and emergency medical responses, along with the endless cleanups of turds and needles.

Is Caldwell really just absentmindedly ruminating and wondering what to do about all of this, after six years in office — and two years after announcing the city’s purchase of the Iwilei property?

Is he out of his goddamned mind?

Or is there much more to this saga?