Those who are forced into being without an abode and/or dwelling are all to quickly deemed less than citizens. In many regards are even treated as less than human. How about thinking that we are NOT homeless, nor last-class citizens or non-human? We think, have feelings, have intellect and struggle. How would you feel to be thought of as anything less than human just for circumstances due to those of profit/gain/control?
Posted:
Aug 12, 2013 4:16 PM EST
Updated:
Aug 12, 2013 4:35 PM EST
By Ian Scheuring
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
(Editors Note: After his appearance on Hawaii News Now
Sunrise on Monday, Mayor Caldwell stuck around to answer more of the
viewer questions that were posted to our Facebook page. His answers can
be found below, with each question taken from Facebook. Mayor Caldwell
will return to Sunrise each month for another "Ask The Mayor" segment to
answer your questions from Facebook.)
Hawaii Mayor Caldwell
Ask the Mayor, part 1 (12 August, 2013)
Ask the Mayor, part 2 (12 August, 2013)
Sylvia Dahlby: How does the city plan on maintaining the rail system when it can't maintain roads, water mains, and schools?
Mayor Caldwell: Rail, when it is up and running,
will have only 300 employees, as opposed to TheBus, which has 1,800
employees. The operation and maintenance of rail is going to be less
than TheBus system by a lot. The entire system is going to cost more,
but we're going to need fewer buses, meaning an all-bus system in 2030
would cost more than a bus-rail system.
Michele Golujuch: Would you ever consider a bill that required Honolulu residents to pay for trash pick-up to help pay for that service?
Mayor Caldwell: Commercial trash pick-up is
something that a lot of people have to pay for in Waikiki, like
restaurants and things like that. Perhaps we should explore charging
[other commercial customers, like private schools] just like other
establishments have to pay. If we did look at doing this, it would
probably be in the commercial sector first.
Traci Powers: Cleaning up sidewalks and parks is
akin to sweeping the problem under the rug. What are the long term plans
to alleviate the homeless population?
Mayor Caldwell: Just moving homeless people from one
place to another is crazy and I think it's the definition of insanity.
We have pushed this thing called ‘Housing First,' it's a pilot project,
where we are going to house the most chronic homeless, the drug addicted
or who have a mental illness of some sort, on site, in a home, where
they get their treatment.
Gary Gonsalves: What is it going to take to impose a law making it illegal to migrate homeless people from the mainland to Hawaii?
Mayor Caldwell: I wish I could pass such a law.
Unfortunately, since we are part of the United States, it is illegal to
prohibit people from traveling between states. Therefore, we need to
develop alternative solutions, such as working with providers to return
homeless back to their families.
Barbara Bonura: Potholes! Why such expensive registration for vehicles but the roads still suck!
Mayor Caldwell: As of December, 43% of our roads are
graded substandard. We have a program in which all of those roads will
be repaved within 5 years at 300 lane miles per year. We are on target
to hit the first 300 miles this December, and are working hard to
improve our roads for years to come.
Marie Hite: Our traffic problems on the North Shore
at Lani's... Turtle Beach.. is now an everyday problem. What used to
take 10 minutes Monday through Friday is now taking drivers half an
hour. Weekends are far worse. Please send someone out there to figure
out how to solve this traffic. Way too many people crossing the streets
to go to the beach. It's an accident waiting to happen.
Mayor Caldwell: I sympathize with the plight of
those who live on the North Shore, particularly on weekends when the
surf is large during the winter. Kamehameha Highway is a state owned
road, though the City is considering several alternatives at Laniakea
and will need the state's cooperation to implement them. One is to offer
angled parking with barriers for crossing only in certain areas. The
long term solution is to move Kam Highway mauka around Laniakea, but
this is going to take a while, since it is a wetland on the mauka side
of the road and will need EPA clearance along with other federal and
state permits.
Candice Kehaulani: When will the city start paving
the roads that REALLY need it! Like the Meheula Parkway in front of the
Mililani Post Office! They are always paving roads that don't need it.
Mayor Caldwell: Meheula Parkway is one of the roads that will be repaved within the next 12 months.
Michele Golojuch: When will the building of our wonderful rail system begin again? I'm tired of driving to work. I can't wait to ride!
Mayor Caldwell: If everything goes well, we anticipate starting construction again next month.
Linda Fowler: How will you handle the noticeable
rise of crime in our state? It seems like every week I read the news
someone has been mugged, shot, or murdered and I bet that's not even the
half of it. Please justify the pay raise that HPD has gotten when the
crime rate has raised so much in the last few years.
Mayor Caldwell: We are lucky that Honolulu is one of
the safest big cities in America. HPD is out there every day making
sure that we are safe as we go about our daily lives. During the summer
we do see an increase in property crime that does decrease in the fall,
and police are working as hard as they can to deal with that property
crime problem.
PuaOlena Ngatuvai: Why are the camping permits so
expensive now? $300 a day to camp? If that's the case, bathrooms should
be clean (always toilet paper, no graffiti, etc).Also it should stay
opened 24 hours. There are thousands that camp at Kokololio Beach &
there is no light in parking lot, should also be provided by the state,
security should be around the clock, for $300 it better be worth it!
Mayor Caldwell: You can get a city camping permit for as little as 32 dollars for three days. Click here to see how.
Officials are
concerned about a voluntary Department of Human Services program that
would fly homeless people back to the mainland.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013, 5:40 AM
Hawaii may implement a program that will allow homeless people to get a free flight back to the mainland.
M Sweet/Getty Images/Flickr RM
A program that would fly homeless people in Hawaii back to the mainland
is being greeted with skepticism by officials and groups that help the
homeless.
A provision allowing the state Department of Human Services to run a
voluntary “return to home” program is included in a new state law. The
department said it doesn’t have immediate plans to implement the
program, but officials still are worried.
“It’s encouraging people on the mainland to take a chance in coming to
Hawaii, knowing they can be returned,” said Marc Alexander of the
Institute for Human Services, the top homeless service provider in the
state.
Aloha! Hawaii caters to "Haves", "Have-more" while flying (forcing) the "Have-less" & "Have-not" off islands
Although it's nothing new, cities, towns and/or States have for sometime now, paid the fare to remove "The Houseless" from their communities. Some areas use more drastic and harmful methods such as trickery, deception and/or starvation. Yes, this is true and happens more times than not in the United States of America. This from a country of people who profess to be "christians" and give false and/or misleading impressions of caring, empathy and compassion. Not all mind you are as such in the United States of America, but more and more these days it has become the business of "Help" instead of actually being helpful unto our fellow neighbors.
In Jefferson County Tennessee, authorities and churches have been known to use all sorts of deceitful and/or harmful ways to rid their exclusive county of "The Houseless".
One company, Tarr Chevrolet, and/or some its employees even with knowing about "The Houseless", stood by without doing in accordance with Scripture, and not only took advantage of "The Houseless", but also profited by his removal.
A small town in Norfolk, Connecticut which falsely represents itself as being helpful, caring ... has been proven to be anything but so (in development): http://norfolk-now.houseless.net/
Published time: July 31, 2013 08:15
Edited time: July 31, 2013 14:46
AFP Photo / Kent Nishimura
Hawaii is set to embark on an unusual new program for reducing the
size of the state’s homeless population by offering them a one-way
ticket back home.
Under a program dubbed 'return to home' the Aloha State is
looking to cut back on the expenditures currently going to food,
shelter and other services for its homeless population, currently
numbering some 17,000.
The three-year pilot program is set to be launched during the
current fiscal year, as $100,000 has been appropriated to fund
one-way airline tickets, and possibly even spots on cruise ships,
to return the homeless back to the continental US.
The program itself will be run by the state’s Department of Human
Services, which recently told MSN News that it had certain
reservations regarding the concept of one-way trips out of the
state for those with limited means.
"The administrative requirements ... are costly and
administratively burdensome," department spokeswoman Kayla
Rosenfeld said Tuesday.
"Provisions include: transportation to the airport, orientation
regarding airport security and ensuring proper hygiene.
Additionally, if state funds were utilized for the purpose of
sending people home, the participants would be required to sign
voluntary departure agreements that would need to be recorded in
databases.Given these requirements and others, and a minimal
appropriation of $100,000 for a three-year pilot project,
providers are understandably reluctant to take on a state-funded
return to home program," she added.
Rosenfeld also expressed concerns that the 'return to home'
program would be perceived by some as “an invitation to
purchase a one-way ticket to Hawaii with a guaranteed return
flight home."
Likewise, local media has found plenty of conflicting opinions on
Hawaii’s pilot program.
"It’s a controversial idea. Critics point to potential abuse
of the program and view it as a Band-Aid approach to a deeply
rooted problem," wrote Nathan Eagle of the Honolulu Civil
Beat.
"But supporters see it as a win-win. The homeless get a fresh
start in a supportive environment and the state can focus its
limited funding on local residents."
Still, even those working with Hawaii’s homeless population
believe the program, though seemingly draconian, could have its
uses.
Victor Geminiani, executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed
Center for Law and Economic Justice, a nonprofit that works on
affordable housing issues, told the Honolulu Civil Beat that the
return-to-home program “fills a gap.”
“Selectively used, it is a way of providing an appropriate
solution for people in a particular situation,” said
Geminiani. “But the devil is in the details.”
A 2010 profile by NPR on Hawaii’s growing number of homeless
cited a $3 daily cost of living for those who made the trek to
the archipelago state.
At the Sumner Homeless Men's Shelter in downtown Honolulu the
number of homeless was increasing by a rate of 10 percent over
the previous rate, with one-third of all new arrivals -
1,300 annually at that point - coming from out of state.
If Hawaii’s new program sounds unusual, it is actually not the
first of its kind. A similar program was profiled by the New York
Times in 2009 which also paid for one-way trips for the homeless
out of the city, with such exotic faraway destinations as Paris,
Johannesburg and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the past, the city
government had also worked with the Salvation Army through a
similar program called "Homeward Bound".
Beyond New York, other cities in the US have previously offered
one-way transportation for the homeless, including San Francisco,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"These kinds of programs have been used historically to
ship homeless people out of town," Michael Stoops, director
of community organizing for the National Coalition for the
Homeless, told MSN News.
"In the homelessness field it was once called greyhound
therapy. Hawaii now goes a step higher with airplane therapy.
Oftentimes local police departments run such programs offering
the stark choices of going to a shelter, jail or hopping on a bus
or plane home."
State legislators backing Hawaii’s program, which was floated in
the past but rejected for the high cost of airfares out of the
state, told the Huffington Post that it is not meant to be a
“silver bullet.”
"It's fractional, it's not for 5,000 homeless people,"
said State Rep. John Mizuno. "It's going to be a handful of
homeless people that we send home, again – home to their support
unit."
Those opting to take advantage of a free trip from Hawaii back
home will do so purely on a voluntary basis. In order to be
eligible, individuals must demonstrate that they have a support
system in place back in their home state, and can only
participate in the program once.
Hawaii's new 'return to home' program will pay for homeless people to return to the continental US. AP Photo: Marco Garcia
July 30, 2013 By James Eng
of MSN News
Hawaii hopes the "return to home" program will help the state save on
the millions it spends each year on food, shelter and other services for
the homeless.
Hawaii is trying a new approach to cut down on the number of homeless
in the Aloha State: Ship some of them back to the mainland.
Under
a "return to home" three-year pilot program set to launch this fiscal
year, the state will buy one-way tickets on planes — and possible even
beds on cruise ships — to return eligible homeless people to their
families in the continental U.S.
Lawmakers have appropriated an
initial $100,000 to fund the program, which will be run by the state
Department of Human Services.
The department has expressed concerns about the program's cost and the nature of services to be provided, among other issues.
"The
administrative requirements ... are costly and administratively
burdensome," department spokeswoman Kayla Rosenfeld said Tuesday in a
statement to MSN News. "Provisions include: transportation
to the airport, orientation regarding airport security and ensuring
proper hygiene.
Additionally, if state funds were utilized for the
purpose of sending people home, the participants would be required to
sign voluntary departure agreements that would need to be recorded in
databases. Given these requirements and others, and a
minimal appropriation of $100,000 for a three-year pilot project,
providers are understandably reluctant to take on a state-funded return
to home program."
"The DHS will continue to dialogue
with the community around these issues. At the end of the day, however,
we remain concerned this program is an invitation to purchase a one-way
ticket to Hawaii with a guaranteed return flight home," Rosenfeld said.
NO SILVER BULLET
The program's supporters
said the pilot is not a silver bullet in the fight against homelessness,
but will help cut down on the millions the state spends each year on
welfare and support services.
Rep.
Rida Cabanilla said even if the homeless return after a few months, the
state will have saved thousands of dollars on food, shelter and medical
costs, Honolulu Civil Beat reported.
Hawaii has an estimated 17,000 homeless people.
The
"return to home" program is voluntary. To be eligible, individuals must
have a support system in place in their home state and be indigent
and unable to fly back on their own. They can only participate once in
the program.
Paying to send homeless people away isn't a novel
tactic. New York City; San Francisco; Baton Rouge, La.; and Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., are among the cities that have offered one-way
transport tickets to homeless people.
"These kinds of
programs have been used historically to ship homeless people out of
town," Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless,
told MSN News. "In the homelessness field it was once called greyhound
therapy. Hawaii now goes a step higher with airplane therapy. Oftentimes
local police departments run such programs offering the stark choices
of going to a shelter, jail or hopping on a bus or plane home."
"If
such programs are truly voluntary and that a home at the other end has
been confirmed (not a shelter), this is acceptable," he said. "Some
homeless people yearn to be reunited with their loved ones or wish to
return to their home community."
And the U.S.A. isn't the only country developing evil against something which can't be helped - poverty:
Hungary's lawmakers are considering constitutional changes to allow
authorities to force homeless citizens off the streets. Critics of the
proposal say it criminalizes thousands who live in poverty.
BUDAPEST, Hungary
— Homeless men and women huddle on street corners amid Budapest's
majestic domed palaces, shivering under old blankets and cardboard boxes
in frigid winter weather.
It's an image that critics say Prime
Minister Viktor Orban doesn't want the world to see. And if he has his
way, the homeless could be fined and even jailed for sleeping outside —
even though some of the country's homeless shelters are already
overflowing and short of beds.
Orban's punitive ideas for the
homeless have set him up for his latest clash with the constitutional
court and civil rights groups as he tries to reshape the country in a
conservative image by centralizing power. Since winning power in 2010,
Orban and his party have undermined independent institutions and
democratic standards in a nation that was once an icon of democratic
struggle for throwing off communism in 1989.
Now Orban is carrying
out an informal referendum at town hall meetings around the country to
gauge support for a constitutional amendment that would enshrine
punishments for the homeless in the charter itself.
Hungary's
homeless policy has revived accusations by human rights groups that
Orban's ruling Fidesz party cares little about the country's
disadvantaged. In just one recent controversy, one of the party's
founding members, journalist Zsolt Bayer wrote in a newspaper column
that many of the country's Gypsies, or Roma — an impoverished minority
that faces entrenched discrimination — "are animals" and "unfit for
coexistence."
Fidesz refused to distance itself from the column,
saying it understood citizens' anger about crimes committed by Roma and
called on those demanding Bayer's expulsion from the party "to refrain
from standing on the side of the criminals."
The homeless issue
has been brewing for several years. At the end of 2011, Orban's ruling
right-wing Fidesz party used its overwhelming parliamentary majority to
make the punitive regulations first introduced earlier that year by the
Fidesz-backed mayor of Budapest — including fines of up to $650 for
repeat offenders and the threat of up to 60 days in jail — applicable
nationwide.
"This is a method to demoralize or intimidate us,"
said Gyula Balog, 53, who has been homeless for nearly 20 years. "No one
was jailed, but quite a few had to pay fines. It's frivolous to fine
those who have nothing."
At the time, even the United Nations
expressed concerns, saying the obligation to provide shelter "cannot
serve as an excuse for the criminalization or forced detention of
homeless persons."
"By a wave of the legislative pen, the
Hungarian Parliament has labeled tens of thousands of homeless people in
Hungary as potential criminals," said a statement from two U.N. human
rights experts. "Moreover, the law has a discriminatory impact on those
living in poverty."
At least 1,500 homeless are believed to be
currently living rough in Budapest, even as temperatures are expected to
remain below freezing in coming days and dozens of homeless are found
frozen to death each year on the streets.
In the winter, many head
to the warmest spots they can find, usually the entrance halls of
subway stations, sometimes quietly holding out a paper cup for money
from passersby or by selling street newspapers.
AP Photo: Bela Szandelszky
Authorities recently inaugurated two more shelters in the capital,
and the government spent $38.4 million on the homeless in 2012, with a
similar figure planned this year. But some of the most popular refuges,
like the "Heated Street" run by the Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood,
are full far beyond capacity, with many people sleeping on mats on the
floor.
The issue of the fines re-emerged in November when the
constitutional court struck down the punishments, saying homelessness
was a social issue that should not be handled as a criminal matter.
There
are no exact figures on the number of homeless in Hungary, but the U.N.
last year put the figure at between 30,000 and 35,000. A survey carried
out each year on Feb. 3 in Budapest and the larger Hungarian cities by
NGOs, counted 8,641 in 2012, up from 7,199 in 2011.
Many cities
across the United States also ban activities such as "urban camping,"
panhandling, "lodging" outdoors and similar actions, often resulting in
fines or jail time for offenders.
The Hungarian government argues
that it is simply acting out of concern for the dozens of homeless
people who freeze to death every year, implying that fines are meant to
push the displaced to seek refuge in warm shelters.
"There are
more places in heated shelters than there are homeless living in
Hungary," Orban said last month in Parliament. "So no one ... is forced
to survive winter under the open sky."
But social workers and the homeless themselves accuse the government of caring only about the country's image.
"They
simply want to clean up the areas frequented by tourists," said Balog,
speaking outside the department store where he sold Commodore 64
computers during communism, before losing his job and family because of
his alcoholism.
