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Jacie Hayata-Ano

Mr. Ryan Smith

English 11 Section 3

25 March 2021

Homelessness: Solving Homelessness In Hawaii

Introduction

Homelessness is a worldwide issue that continues to rapidly grow over the years. In Hawaii alone

their homeless population is 6,458 people. With almost 2,000 of them experiencing chronic homelessness

and around 505 of them are veterans. This statistic, however, is not including the public-school students

who experience homelessness over the course of the school year. 3,101 kids have experienced

homelessness within the school year of 2019 in Hawaii. Kids should not have to be experiencing

homelessness so early on in their life. They shouldn’t be worrying about food, money, or where they are

going to sleep at night and can’t imagine the responsibilities, they must go through.

In the society that we live in today, most consider homeless as lazy, dirty individuals and in the

homeless eyes, they think that society has turned a blind eye to them. What the society has failed to see

and consider, is how these human beings got there. Most homeless people are in that position because of

mental illnesses, addiction, family issues, financial issues, or a very small percentage want to be there.

Society today doesn’t like to associate themselves with homelessness which is a part of the issue.

However, these people are the ones that need our help the most.

Even though homelessness is such a widespread issue, the change isn’t something that would

happen overnight. All it takes is to help one family/homeless person at a time and that will slowly bring

the homeless population and issue down. The issue with other homeless solutions is that they focus on the

temporary. By temporarily helping the homeless, providing them with things that won’t last long and then

forgetting about them. Although that does help them as homeless, it doesn’t solve the solution. Our

society needs to come up with a solution that will make a difference in the homeless population by
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helping them find homes and put an end to their problem. My team and I will try our best to start this

solution. By helping one homeless family at a time by providing them essential needs and finding them a

home or shelter to get them started on their journey back to a healthy living.

Problem

One of the main reasons why Hawaii has such a big population of homeless people is because of

how expensive it is to live there. Living on the Hawaiian Islands, everything has to be imported from

other places, which then leads to the cost of the imported goods to rise. For example, a gallon of milk in

California is around $3, compared to a gallon of milk in Hawaii would be around almost $8 at most.

Small things like this can really impact someone's life especially when they are already struggling to get

by day by day. Another thing that contributes to money problems in Hawaii, could be the minimum wage.

For someone who doesn't have any high education, a high paying job is very unlikely or hard to get.

Meaning a minimum wage job might be the highest paying job one would have to rely on. With Hawaii's

minimum wage only being $10.10 it can be hard to start a living for that amount of pay. Again,

comparing to California, their minimum payment is $12.00 an hour, something like getting 2 more dollars

an hour can go a long way. I know this from experience, I live in Hawaii and also have a minimum wage

job. Even though I don't get a lot of hours at work because I have a busy schedule, I know that even if I

did it's still hard to start a living with that amount of pay in Hawaii. Even the housing system in Hawaii is

way too expensive for an average Hawaii family. I personally know a lot of people on the islands that are

experiencing problems paying off rent or housing bills. Even looking for new houses is a struggle because

of the rising prices.

As of right now Hawaii sits in 3rd place for the state with the highest unemployment rates. That is

a major issue that can result to being homeless. During this pandemic a lot of local people in Hawaii have

lost their jobs to their whole business'. Even though unemployment rates have risen everywhere due to the

pandemic, on Forbes.com, I found out that even before the pandemic Hawaii was the second highest state

with unemployment rate. Meaning that something has to change. Finding a job is a necessity in life, but

what do we do if there is no jobs for us to work at? How is someone who is homeless supposed to find a
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job, if people who aren't homeless can't even find one? A reason why the unemployment rate is so high

could be because of how overpopulated the island is. Hawaii is an island so there is limited amount of

space to build more structures for more jobs. However, the State provides unemployment benefits, yet

that's if you are eligible. All most all homeless people are not eligible to file for unemployment and gain

those benefits. There should be something the State can do to provide benefits like these to them.

Another thing that most homeless struggle with is addiction. Addiction is something hard to

explain. Everyone knows what it means but do they know how it feels? How hard it is to fight off? People

with toxic addictions can't necessarily control it. When one is struggling with addiction, mental illnesses

tend to follow and it can be a rough patch in your life. Yet, many homeless are dealing with these kinds of

issues as we speak. Being homeless can take a toll on their mental health. Being all alone, fighting off

addictions (if they have any), worrying, and stressing. Thankfully on the island there is many free

rehabilitation centers and groups that one with addiction can go to. It is important that they should go if

they want to get the help they need with free counseling. Which is why it should be there.

Previous Efforts

Another thing that I consider to be a problem in Hawaii that contributes to homelessness is the

housing system. When foreigners move to Hawaii to start a life there, they usually buy out all the

housing. Considering that they are coming from a place where it is a lot cheaper to live, they have more

money and will be able to afford the housing. Compared to someone who lives down here and is

struggling, they won't be able to buy that house while competing with a foreigner. The real-estate agent

will most likely go with the foreigner because he knows that they have money and it will better for

business. Thankfully in Hawaii there is a system called Hawaii Homestead. Through this system

Hawaiian families can apply to gain property and a house for a certain number of years. Then throughout

time Hawaiian Families pass down this property through their generations. This is due to the fact that in

Hawaii it can be really hard to afford a house. This solution can actually help to reduce homelessness,

because Native Hawaiians is a great percentage of the homeless population and through this solution can

help provide them housing. However, this process is quite long and is only for Native Hawaiians that
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have a certain amount of Hawaiian in them. This is because the Hawaiian culture is a dying culture and

the percentage gets smaller and smaller.

Homelessness is nothing new to society and there has been many efforts in trying to solve and

help these people. Many of these efforts either fail or isn't really helpful at all. To take for example, in

Hawaii there is a series of "homeless sweeps". The reason why the state does these sweeps is so that they

can push the homeless to go and find shelter as a way to, “encourage homeless individuals into better

situations” (author’s last name). However, the sweeps are ineffective for that matter. Even though these

sweeps are used for good measures as where? When? Who? Duane Souza stated, “it’s a back-and-forth

war”. At the time, Souza was a homeless individual herself and experienced sweeps. From their

perspective they don't see the sweeps as motivation or help at all. They see it as the opposite, by doing

more harm than good. In the sweeps they are getting rid of most of their belongings. Meaning the

homeless have to start all over from scratch, which is putting them back to square one instead of helping

them move forward. As a society we need to find a solution that puts an end and actually helps these

people to move forward.

The mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Richard J. Berry came up with a solution called

"Theres a better way". Berry was inspired with this idea from seeing a homeless man holding up a sign

that he wants a job. Berry saw this as an opportunity to keep him to his word and give him a job. The

mayor set up this system where he picks up homeless people who want to work, in which they do get

paid. A van picks up all the workers that they can get and the mayor would have jobs for them to do

which they get paid $9.00 an hour for. Most of the time Berry had the workers doing landscaping and

working with the city waste department who monitored and helped them. From the website, the last data

showed that as a group they cleaned up more than 400 city blocks in Albuquerque and that’s only from

working a couple times a week. The workers are fed once at the job site and then are brought back to St.

Martins Hospitality Center, which is a nonprofitable organization that provides counseling, food, and

shelter. Dropping them off at St. Martins after is another smart idea by Berry. This is because when they

get dropped off there, they are able to build connections with the workers who can help them find an
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actual and higher paying job, hook them up with shelters, and help provide them with necessities. From

the data given, they held 1,700 work days, 20 people got shelter, 216 people got connected with

permanent jobs, and 150 people got connected to mental health and substance abuse services. This data

was taken back from 2015, imagine what the results would be if this continued today and every state did

it. Many lives would be changed, and the homeless population would be decreasing across the nation.

Solution

One might think that this solution was only possible because Berry was the mayor, which grants

him more opportunities and connection to make a solution like that. However, there is many ways in

which we can modify this solution so that people can enforce something like this all around the world. As

a society it's our job to take action and do it because if we don't then the government never will. We were

just lucky that Albuquerque had such a great mayor who saw this problem and actually took action about

it. The only factor we might not be able to do is pay them like how Berry got to do. Although, there could

be a way. It can be a stretch because not everyone would be comfortable doing so, however, if we could

get small businesses or any business for that matter, to hire them to do something for pay then we can

have this solution go through and start making a difference. We would do the same thing of how they got

picked up and dropped off to their location and we could have volunteers to do this. Then be fed one time

at the jobsite and taken to a local area where they can receive help such as shelter, necessities, or even

connections to an actual job. This is great opportunity for them to meet and connect with people which is

important for their mental health. Also, a great way to get a job. The only sacrifice that would have to be

made is by the people. Who is willingly to open up their business to help others and give them a chance to

better their lives? This may be the only way to follow "There's a better way". Even though it may not

work, you never know until you try.

All things a side my group and I made a solution of our own to help the homeless in our area.

However, we will need support through this journey to make this solution thrive and become a great one.

We will be "adopting" a homeless family or individual. My group and I will get to know this family and

start to build a connection with them. I believe that this is the most crucial part for the solution to thrive.
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Building a connection is for both my group and them. This will help us get to know the family or

individual better and find out what they really need to start their journey. A connection can also help the

family members or individual's mental health. It's important to have friends and be able to bond with

someone. Building this connection can really make their day better and is better if they began to trust us.

If they do then we can act as their therapist or friend and be there for them throughout this journey.

After getting to know them and their needs we can start our game plan. Here my group and I will see

what they need and try our absolute best to get everything they need from clothes, food, brushes, books,

chargers, to feminine products, etc. From here we will discuss if they are working and what they are

currently doing to better their situation. We can help them if they have a plan or start one if they currently

don't have one. From here we will discuss finding jobs, possible housing, and if they have kids possible

schooling if they aren't already going. We can also hook them up with local centers that will help them

furthermore. This might not seem like such an extraordinary solution but my team and I believe that it is

just what we need. There doesn't have to be such an extraordinary solution that's going to solve this issue

within days, that's impossible. As a society we need to focus on going one by one to each family and

make sure that they are going somewhere in life. Most of the other solutions are temporary, by helping

them temporary by giving them couple of clothes and can goods. That is not going to solve the issue.

Helping them like that will only help within that day but then the next day they're still going to be there

struggling. As a society we need to find them a home and job so that they can start getting their life back

on track and healthy again. If everyone joins in on this solution all over the world, then can we only start

to see the difference. Even though we are helping a family at a time, we would slowly start making a

difference in the population by making a permanent solution that ended their homelessness and began

their journey to a new healthy growing life ahead of them.

Research Essay Rubric

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Name: ________________________________

Criteria / Standard 1 2 3 4 Score Feedback

IDEA DEVELOPMENT
x
 Text is focused; captures the reader’s attention.
 Topic is narrow and manageable.
 Details are relevant, interesting, vivid, accurate.
 Point is clear.
 Details support the paper’s main idea.
 Ideas engage, inspire, or intrigue reader.

ORGANIZATION x

 The order compels, enhances, and moves ideas.

 Introduction intrigues, invites; conclusion resolves.
 Thoughtful transitions show how ideas connect.
 Sequencing is logical and effective.
 Pacing is well controlled and purposeful.
 Organization flows smoothly; matches purpose.

VOICE x

 Writing is compelling, engaging; aware of the

audience.
 Tone is interesting and appropriate for audience
and the purpose.
 Author’s presence is evident, powerful.
 Expository writing is committed, persuasive.
 Narrative writing is honest, engaging, personal.

WORD CHOICE x

 Words are precise, interesting, powerful.

 Words are specific; meaning is clear.
 Words and phrases are striking.
 Language is effective and appropriate.
 Verbs are lively, nouns precise, modifiers
effective.
 Choices enhance meaning and clarify meaning.

SENTENCE FLUENCY x

 The writing flows with rhythm and elegance.

 Sentences are constructed to enhance meaning.
 Sentences vary in length and structure.
 Sentences use purposeful, varied beginnings.
 Writing has cadence.

CONVENTIONS x

 Observes and uses standard conventions; few

errors.
 Spelling is mostly correct.
 Punctuation is accurate and effective.
 Capitalization skills are evident.
 Grammar and usage are correct and enhance the
text.
 Paragraphing is sound; reinforces organization.
 Writer may manipulate conventions for style.

Total Score
1 = standard not met; 2 = standard partially met; 3 = standard met; 4 = exceeds expectations
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