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Hawaii News| Obituaries

Advocate for homeless was

woman in search of justice
By Timothy Hurley
Posted July 21, 2017
July 21, 2017

STAR-ADVERTISER

Alice Ululani Greenwood, with her adopted son Makalii Hatchie in 2007, became an outspoken advocate for the rights of the
homeless after she unexpectedly became homeless herself. Greenwood died July 8 at age 71.

There was a time when Alice Greenwood looked down and scoed at the homeless.
Then she became homeless herself.

Greenwood, who died July 8 at the age of 71, not only pulled herself up o Maili Beach,
but went on to become a high-prole advocate for the areas homeless community as
well as a champion for many other issues aecting the Leeward coast.

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She was a role model, said Patty Teruya, a 22-year member of the Nanakuli-Maili
Neighborhood Board. The bottom line is that she made a very big dierence.

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As a spokeswoman for the Concerned Elders of Waianae and Nani o Waianae,

Greenwood fought social and environmental injustice, researching issues and lobbying
at myriad neighborhood board, City Council, state commission and legislative
meetings.

She was one of three Oahu homeless mothers who won a 2008 lawsuit to protect their
childrens right to a stable education, including not having to change schools if they
move to a shelter and receiving help with transportation to school.

In recent years she fought an industrial park planned for Lualualei, pushed for the
creation of the states environmental court and served on the board of directors of the
Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.

Greenwood, a full-blooded Native Hawaiian who served on the Oahu Island Burial
Council, also was publisher of a monthly newspaper known as Street Beat, described
as news for and by Hawaiis people without housing.

Alice Ululani Greenwood, born on Oahu, was married briey twice before spending 25
years with James Hatchie, a retired Marine who took on the role of father to her
children. Before Hatchie died in 2001, he persuaded Greenwood to raise his newly
born nephew, Makalii Hatchie, whom she later adopted.

Greenwood told Leslie Wilcox on PBS Hawaii in 2014 that she used to call the
homeless lazy.

But in June 2005 the house she had rented for 35 years was sold, and she couldnt
aord a rent increase that soared to nearly $1,000 from $300 a month.

Thats when she and Makalii moved to a tent at Maili Beach Park. She was at the park
for nine months becoming a leader among the homeless on the beach, taking on
the responsibility of cleaning the restrooms and talking to her homeless neighbors
about their rights before moving to an emergency shelter and then into transitional
housing.

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She understood she was a great spokesperson for the homeless, because she was on
the other side and all of a sudden it was her problem, said Will Hoover, a former
Honolulu Advertiser newspaper reporter who covered the Waianae Coast.

Lucy Gay, director of Waianae Educational Opportunities, remembers Greenwood as a

star student in her kupuna computer and community engagement class at Leeward
Community College in the early 2000s.

She was a woman in search of justice, whether it was social, environmental,

educational or whatever, Gay said. Her strength was that she knew how to research
using a computer.

Cynthia Rezentes, chairwoman of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board, said

Greenwoods passion for the community burned bright.

The love of her life was the Waianae Coast, Rezentes said. She was a treasure for the
community. She did whatever she could to make sure things beneted the community
and was not a detriment to the community.

Gay said Greenwood was always open to learning.

She was a woman who didnt let the circumstances of her life dene her, she said.
You could see that in the way she carried herself. There was always a pride in the way
she walked and in the way she carried herself.

A celebration of life is planned for Saturday at the same park where Greenwood was
homeless: Maili Beach Park. The celebration will start at 11 a.m., followed by services
at noon.

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