TV news finally starts sniffing at Iwilei homeless center debacle

A day after police shot and killed a machete-swinging loon outside the governor’s bedroom window, people are finally starting to question what’s going on with the city’s long-delayed “state-of-the-art” homeless center in Iwilei, which is supposed to provide mental health services and address many other needs of street dwellers.

But they’re not getting many answers.

The project is kind of delayed, we’re told.  Well no shit, Sherlock.  We’re not told why it’s delayed, other than some vague mumbling by the mayor about how you can’t rush the procurement process.

But the stoned-looking mayor seemed to be addressing the process of selecting a nonprofit to run the facility, and not the delays in remodeling and furnishing the former light industrial building the city bought amid much self-serving re-election campaign fanfare more than two years ago.

And the news folks apparently didn’t even bother to ask about the skyrocketing costs of the project.  Simply amazing.

The timing and location of the shooting are hugely ironic.

It all went down in the parking lot of the state Department of Health, no less, which is just across a small access road from the governor’s official residence, and across Beretania Street from the state capitol (where the annual Children and Youth Day outdoor fair was just kicking off), and down the street from The Queen’s Medical Center — the emergency room of which is a revolving door for downtown’s growing horde of bums, nuts, and junkies — and about a block away from City Hall.

Yep, the very epicenter of We-Just-Can’t-Get-Our-Shit-Together Land.

Could the new homeless center have prevented the tragedy?  There’s no way to know.  At this point, it’s been suggested and reasonably assumed that the deceased was homeless and mentally ill, but that has not been explicitly stated.

It will be interesting to know whether he was indeed homeless, whether he was known to be mentally ill, whether he was under the influence of drugs, whether he had prior arrests or convictions for violent crimes, and whether he had recently been discharged from the nearby hospital.

And did they really have to kill him?

One cop shot a taser; at the same time, another shot live rounds.  Body-cam video has been promised “if it won’t compromise the investigation.”  Which sounds a lot like “if no relatives threaten to sue us.”

It will also be interesting to know when, specifically, the new homeless center is really going to open, how much it’s going to really cost, why it’s been delayed so long, and who’s going to run it.  The state senator and soon-to-be lieutenant governor who squawked about it yesterday heads one nonprofit that’s bidding for the job, which seems to be, well, kinda questionable.

Will mentally ill homeless people with violent histories be welcome there?  If not, what’s the plan for dealing with them?  Those type of problems sure seem to be growing steadily worse, and simply have to be tackled.  Immediately.

Remember, this is supposed to be a goddamned emergency.

Whether or not the new center would have made any difference regarding this particular incident, the fact remains that Honolulu is experiencing an epic homelessness, drug abuse, and mental health crisis that is not being adequately or competently addressed by the people in charge.

That has to change.