SEO Key Term: Poverty in Hawaii

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Dylan Priday Tallahassee, Florida

Everything you need to know about poverty in Hawaii

Hawaii is located more than 2,000 miles away from the mainland United States. The archipelago

comprises eight major islands that feature tropical beaches and hundreds of miles of coastline.

Between the 4th and 7th century CE, Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands traveled to Hawaii

and established stable communities upon the islands.

https://www.nps.gov/locations/hawaii/heritage.htm#:~:text=Superb%20voyagers%2C%20Polyne

sians%20from%20the,new%20rulers%20of%20Hawai%60i.

Modern day Native Hawaiians are representative of an indigenous ethnic group of people whose

ancestors were original Polynesian settlers. In 1893, Hawaii was annexed by the United States

and Western culture subsequently permeated indigenous Hawaiian culture. Today, indigenous

Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately affected by problems caused by

overcrowding and overtourism. One out of every nine residents in Hawaii live in poverty, and

15% of Native Hawaiians live in poverty.

https://www.welfareinfo.org/poverty-rate/hawaii/

[Housing Problems]

Poverty in Hawaii is largely caused by a lack of affordable housing. Hawaii has one of the lowest

home ownership rates in the nation, with an estimated rate of 56%.

https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/economic/reports/SelectedRacesCharacteristics_HawaiiReport.pdf

(Page ii bottom of the page)

Hawaii is a popular tourism destination, and attracts developers who are primarily interested in

income generating properties. The increasing development of condominiums, vacation rental

properties, and luxury real estate properties in Hawaii has led to a displacement of native

Hawaiian residents. In recent years, real estate prices have skyrocketed in Hawaii and effectively

priced out many native residents of the state. In 2015, indigenous Hawaiian people and Pacific

Islanders accounted for 10% of the state’s population, but represented an overwhelming 39% of

the state’s homeless population.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-research-072417.html

Housing is the largest expense that renters and low income households have to account for, and

with a lack of affordable housing in Hawaii, many people are facing the risk of homelessness.

Affordable housing is one of the most cost effective ways of reducing poverty and providing

economic stability for vulnerable households. As developers continue to prioritize lucrative

vacation properties, homeless people in Hawaii continue to struggle with a lack of permanent

affordable housing.

https://nhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/p2p-2015-sup.pdf

[Tourism Related Problems]

Tourism in Hawaii has exploded over past decades and its demands have exceeded the capacity

of what the state can support. Poverty in Hawaii is exacerbated by an unsustainable amount of

tourists. The unprecedented numbers of tourists visiting Hawaii have put a large strain upon

Hawaii’s natural resources. On Hawaii’s largest island, the tourism sector is responsible for over
21% of total energy consumption, over 44% of its water consumption, and over 10% of its waste

generation.

https://atmos.earth/hawaii-water-crisis-tourism-navy/

The state’s unbridled growth in tourism comes at the expense of its indigenous people who rely

upon Hawaii’s natural resources. Unsustainable consumption of Hawaii’s aquifers threatens the

state’s natural springs and overall natural ecosystem. Additionally, cruise ships and the expansion

of marine recreation in Hawaii leads to an increase in ocean pollution and marine debris, which

threatens the local wildlife populations that balance Hawaii’s ecosystems. As a result, the overall

overexploitation of Hawaii’s natural resources hurts poor and vulnerable populations by putting

them at risk of unequal access to resources and infrastructure.

[Hunger in Hawaii]

Hunger is a problem in Hawaii, and one out of every five families is dependent upon a food bank

or a food pantry for their groceries. This rate doubles for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander

families.

https://ihshawaii.org/hunger-homelessness/

Hawaii has a shortage of affordable land, housing, and infrastructure to support large scale

sustainable food production. Large portions of Hawaii’s viable farmland have been transformed

or destroyed in order to accommodate a tourism based economy. Hawaii’s current agricultural

sector is centered around exporting goods such as sugar and coffee outside of the state. As a

result, Hawaii has inadequate food resources for its growing population, which forces its

residents to become dependent upon imported goods. A dependency upon imports exacerbates

the problems that native Hawaiian residents face and contributes to Hawaii’s food insecurity
problem. Many of Hawaii’s poor and vulnerable residents also struggle with food insecurity as a

result of unmanageably high housing costs.

[Room for Improvement]

Poverty in Hawaii can be addressed by adopting a concentrated focus upon managing Hawaii’s

growing tourism sector and limiting the amount of tourists that visit the islands. This would

likely help attenuate the problems associated with over tourism such as overconsumption of

resources and the overexploitation of the land. Hawaii’s poor and most vulnerable populations

would most likely benefit from the development of affordable housing, as well as an effort to

expand sustainable food production within Hawaii. Especially vulnerable populations such as

indigenous Hawaiian people and native Pacific Islanders would benefit from donations and from

financial assistance programs in order to combat the disproportionate levels of homelessness and

food insecurity that they are impacted by.