Nothing Wrong With Map Depicting Events Involving Homeless
Writer defends the Hawaii Kai map that state Rep. Gene Ward published in his newsletter.
Trisha Kajimura wrote a recent Community Voice editorial titled, 鈥淧ublicizing Locations, Traits of Homeless People is Unwise.鈥听听She was referring to a map state Rep.听Gene Ward published in his newsletter.
The map depicted events pertaining to the homeless that were reported to the Hawaii Kai homeless task force by citizens.听 The map did not identify any homeless person by name or even by physical description.听 The purpose of the map was:
鈥 To warn residents of potential dangers.
鈥 To support our arguments that allowing homeless to live unsheltered is a bad idea.
As it turns out, the map has a third purpose.听The Institute for Human Services听wants us to create an updated version to help with its point-in-time count.听We never thought for a moment the map had anything to do with finding solutions to the homeless crisis.听For that, we have a to end homelessness now, with money the state is already spending.听
We also offer the homeless help through social service organizations. However, in the four months since our founding, not one homeless person accepted our offers of assistance.听Addicts didn鈥檛 want to be in programs that might pressure them into sobriety.听Others didn鈥檛 want to participate in housing programs if it meant spending time in shelters or pressuring them to find a job.
I鈥檓 not in the business of propagating stereotypes about any group.听But we have to face facts: There is a big difference between the 鈥渆conomic homeless,鈥 for example, those who became homeless solely because of the cost of housing and financial difficulties, and the chronic homeless.
National statistics show that about 80 percent of the chronic homeless are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or a combination of the two. A small percentage are also 鈥渨illfully homeless,鈥 for example, they choose homelessness over the challenges of a more traditional life.
These statistics comport with events reported to us in Hawaii Kai by residents.听For example, in November, a homeless methamphetamine addict in Portlock ran naked down a street wielding kitchen knives.听Another meth addict in Portlock threatened people and was apparently so dangerous that his own mother had a restraining order against him.
A mentally ill homeless man terrified shoppers in Towne Center by screaming epithets at them.听A homeless man used a charcoal barbecue near a jug of gasoline in a heavily wooded area, and another lit an illegal campfire threatening homes on Lunalilo Home Road. The Hawaii Kai Marina Community Association spent $83,000 to clean trash left by 20听homeless trespassers, and Kamehameha Schools spent $50,000 to clean rubbish left by only six.
There were many other incidents.
Tristia Bauman, an attorney with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, D.C., claimed the map was at odds with the constitutional right to 鈥漨ove in and out of neighborhoods.鈥听She failed to mention the Constitution doesn鈥檛 provide a right to trespass and damage property.
She insinuated the map threatened to criminalize innocent homeless people. She failed to mention the map listed actual crimes. If our map is unconstitutional, then so are police crime maps.
She further warned we could run afoul of medical privacy laws.听She should know reporting a mentally ill man screaming epithets at people in a mall is not a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violation.
We have great deference for the constitutional rights of the homeless. People also have the right to prevent their neighborhoods from being turned into trash dumps and toilets.
Mateo Caballero, Hawaii ACLU鈥檚 director, expressed concern the map could dehumanize the homeless, and encourage some people to target them.听
We would never have published the map if we thought that was a realistic possibility.听Mr. Caballero should also know we鈥檙e not enemies of the American Civil Liberties Union.听In fact, we list the ACLU as a homeless service on our website.
Arguing over a map is a waste of time.听We should break out of our ideological bubbles and work together to end the homeless crisis.
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