Majority of Hawaii voters think homelessness has increased

A majority of Hawaii voters participating in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Hawaii Poll indicate they have seen no improvement in homelessness in the islands, with 67% saying the problem has gotten worse over the past 12 months.

“Homelessness, I noticed, got worse,” said Ariunaa Maeda, a poll respondent from Honolulu. “I just see them everywhere. … The system is just not working. There should be a better solution for the homeless.”

Only 29% of people surveyed said the level of homelessness in Hawaii has remained the same.

However, sentiments expressed in the poll run counter to data collected from this year’s homeless Point-in-Time Count, a census that found there has been a 24% decrease in the number of homeless in shelters and only a marginal 0.4% increase in unsheltered homeless people. Overall, the 2022 Point-in-Time Count saw an 11% drop in the overall homeless population compared with the previous count in 2020. The 2021 count was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest Point-in-Time Count recorded 3,951 homeless people on the night of March 10.

The Star-Advertiser’s 2020 Hawaii Poll posed the same question on homelessness, and while the percentage of respondents who indicated the problem had worsened stayed the same in 2022, the percentage of those who indicated homelessness had improved decreased.

In the 2020 poll, 7% of respondents said they thought that homelessness had improved, but in 2022 that dropped to 2%.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy of Washington, D.C., conducted the latest poll July 12-17. A total of 800 registered Hawaii voters were interviewed statewide by landline telephone and cellphone. The margin for error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

One of the respondents, Stephen Stansel from Honolulu, said he did not think the policies that have been implemented have done much to solve the problem.

“Their policies don’t really deal with it at all because they just kind of move people around,” he said. “They just push (the problem) to different parts of the island.”

Stansel’s observation was possibly reflected in the 2022 Point-in-Time Count, which also tracks the location of the homeless.

The downtown, Kalihi and Nuuanu area in the 2022 count had the highest number, 26% of the total homeless population counted, down from the 32% recorded in 2020. However, East Honolulu had the second-highest number with 24%, an increase from 18% in 2020.

On Oahu the city has focused its efforts on revitalizing the downtown/Chinatown area such as increasing its police presence, implementing the “Weed and Seed” program, which is supposed to “weed” out crime in the area specifically and “seed” community initiatives.

It also has implemented the “Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement” program in the area, utilizing a separate team of first responders to address nonviolent homeless emergency calls. This program was also expanded to Pearl City and Waipahu, as well as Kailua and Kaneohe.

Honolulu is not the only county where respondents said homelessness problems have increased. Kauai and Maui respondents showed an even higher percentage of those who indicated homelessness has increased over the past 12 months.

Of the Kauai respondents, 78% said homelessness has increased, and no one said there had been a decrease. Of the Maui respondents, 71% said homelessness increased and 2% said it decreased.

Poll respondent Elizabeth Toledo from Wailuku said she is concerned about the number of homeless people with mental health or drug abuse issues, but added that Hawaii’s high cost of living makes it difficult for local families to stay housed.

“If they’re getting out of control, (the police) arrest them and then let them go again because there’s nowhere for them to go,” she said.

“A lot of families struggle. I’m a single mom myself with two kids, and I struggle. I don’t know if I’ll be homeless. I may move … to the mainland because it’s hard for me to afford to live here. … It’s heart-shattering.”