Huge tent city takes root in Hawaii

Hawaii homeless camps cover 50 acres, from Waipio Point, around Middle Loch to Pearl City

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/711b59ab7bd8.jpg[/atsimg]

Source: www.staradvertiser.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/193bb243f24f.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/25d11559904f.jpg[/atsimg]

Unfortunately, these places are springing up more and more, yet TPTB (whomever you believe them to be) keep telling us that our economy is coming back on track, minus the jobs of course. Tell me, how is our economy going to come back if the jobs lost are lost for good? Certain influences have rode our economy dry and they continue to suck every last drop out of. Sooner or later, we are going to hit an "event horizon", to where this slow decline is no longer slow. When this happens, there will be chaos and lawlessness (I believe).

In fact, I see the government already preparing for an event. All of these policies being set, as far as activating a military command to operate within our own borders, the drones and the militarization of the police. These are all tell-tale signs that our government is preparing for the inevitable. It's really anyone's guess as to what will actually occur when our economy completely tanks.

I'm not trying fear-monger here as that is not my intent with this thread, rather I'm trying to open eyes because the American public is still letting these people suckle our economy to death. I'm afraid that once Americans finally realize the shape that we are actually in, it will be too late to do anything about it, as the policies of our government is stripping our liberties away, one by one.

It's one thing to have our economy collapse but to where we retain our liberties and it is a completely different situation to have our economy collapse and our liberties to be gone with it. We are one of the richest economies on the planet, yet tent cities are popping up everywhere. That should show us just how corrupt the system really is.

--airspoon

Not that this makes it right or anything but Hawaii has always had a massive homeless population. At any given point in time Hawaii is either the biggest welfare using state or the next biggest. Granted Hawaii is loaded with programs to make it easier to get onto such programs and just about everyone qualifies.

Tourist areas aside Hawaii has been a bankrupt and failed state for a very long time now. Just like California.

To my knowledge the only areas in Hawaii that do even remotely well excluding the hyper-rich celebrity riddled areas are the areas with high secessionist populations and the various communes. Their relatively stable status likely has much to do with their desire to remove themselves from the financial stupidity of their state and their country.

What I really do not get about people is the inability to pick up after themselves. Making a pile is not picking up.

Clearly the picture above has some recyclable qualities, and if it doesn't, then use the initiative to drag it to a refuse or give it to someone that can use it. Why do people become the center of refuse?

Burn it, mulch it, create with it. I really do not get why that is so hard to figure out.

To be honest, the pictures above look like the backyards of people in my own town, and those are working stiffs struggling none the less but just as unaware of their surroundings or their effect on nature.

You plop me down in that spot, in Hawaii, and I will have transformed the space into a personal sanctuary with little or no money.

People are disgusting pigs in their hearts and even if they were in a house this picture is a reflection of their inner beauty and they would trash that too.

Ascension starts in your own front yard! Clean that mess up and be proud of being alive. Good God we are doomed!

reply to post by airspoon


The government is a completely lawless organization of looters.

By definition, the Constitution is the final law.

Since the Federal Government does not obey the constraints put on it by this charter, we can say it is lawless in a literal sense.

The economic impoverishment has come at the hands of fascist politicians that do the bidding of special interest groups on both sides of the aisle.

Unions, banks, lawyers, defense contractors, all funded and bailed out on the backs of the working stiff.

Democrat or republican, it makes no difference. Society has devolved into a free for all of looting and pillaging with each group of people looting the other. - of course, the central bank is at the top of all of it.

I seriously fear for myself as this whole looting criminal organization collapses in on itself.

Tyranny is coming.

reply to post by Greensage


These people are out on their arse and all you can think of is decorating tips? While I agree with you that it is filth, there isn't much one family or one person can do about it. Honestly, I'd like to see you go into a homeless camp and try to put your hands on someone else's junk. That's a quick way to get a knife in the belly. You have to remember that these people are out of whaty used to be their life, some with children to look after. I'm sure that their neighbors cleanliness is the last things on their mind. Many of these people have paid taxes all of their lives and instead of that money going into making a better life for its citizens, that money was given away to banks, while the people are loosing what little they already had.

--airspoon

Honolulu's jobless rate is 5.2%. That is the 13th lowest in the country. The job outlook has been improving steadily since last summer.
www.staradvertiser.com...

Homelessness and joblessness are not necessarily effect and cause, there are other factors including mental illness and drug addiction to consider. Add Hawaii's mild climate to the mix and it is not too surprising that there is a substantial homeless population. For some it is a choice. There are shelters available but because of the rules (curfews, no drugs) many prefer tents on the beach. It should also be noted that there is such a thing as the working homeless.

[edit on 7/1/2010 by Phage]

I am begining to wonder if America's present ongoing problems with the oil gusher in the GOM, decline in the value of the dollar, the decline of America's status in the world in general, the illegal and unjustified ongoing wars driven by pure greed, the imminent crashing of the American Dream due to real poverty in the general population, are just the overdue effects of Karma.

reply to post by Phage


You're wrong on a couple of issues, one being Hawaii's unemployment statistics and the other being the availability of homeless shelters.

There are plenty of other reasons that people don't or can't get into shelters. The biggest two reasons being safety and availability. Also, most shelters are a "day by day" sort of thing, meaning that you can't exactly keep your things or children there during the day. For someone who has to pack up their homes, what little items they have left, a shelter isn't exactly a viable option nor is it for people with small children. Also, a lot of shelters don't accept children at all and if they do, most don't accept parents of both sexes. For this reason alone, families don't have too many options as far as shelters go.

Now we move along to Hawaii's jobless rate. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobless rate in Hawaii is 6.6 percent (as of May 2010), not 5.2 percent. With that being said, these numbers are really superficial as they don't count all unemployed. Many people believe these BLS estimates to be on the extreme low side. For one thing, families who have lost their homes (or telephones), can not take part in the monthly survey, meaning this demographic is not counted at all. You also have to take into account the government's interest in keeping these numbers as low as possible. There are a lot more factors to include when deciding how accurate these BLS statistics actually are, such as counting people with part-time employment or under-qualified employment that pays minimum wage. For brevity's sake, I won't list them all here but you are free to research to get a good idea of what they are.

If we can accept that the unemployment numbers are low, as most economists do, then the difference between 6.6 and 5.2 is superficial, since we can easily assume that even the higher number is on the far low side.

In sum, many families don't have any other options when it comes to choosing between tent cities or shelters. There are many factors other than drugs or a person's laziness that keeps them out of shelters. The cold hearted fact is that many people who are forced into these tent-cities aren't drug addicts or insane homeless people, rather they are families and people with previous employment and homes.

You can't ignore the state or shape of economy because even if it doesn't effect us now, it can and will easily reach us/me sooner or later. It would be foolish of anyone to think that this economy can sustain itself, especially taking into account our huge trade deficits and declining or dead manufacturing base with nothing to replace it. It doesn't take an economist or accountant to see that if your budget is far higher than your income, it is only a matter of time that you can live off of your credit cards (this goes for coutnries too). The only thing that we have going for us, is the dollar being the world's reserve currency and the standard currency for international transactions. That status won't last for ever.

--airspoon


p.s. - we also have to take into account the plethora of people employed temporarily through the Census Bureau. These people actually drive the jobless numbers down, even though they are just starting to be layed off.

[edit on 1-7-2010 by airspoon]

reply to post by airspoon


It's Friggin' Hawaii for God's Sake! Just stick a stick in the ground and it grows!

Just because people are homeless does not mean they are mentally incompetent; obviously this trait was part of them prior to this predicament.

I highly doubt a bit of beautification will be nearly as harmful. If they were given the land would they still live like rats? Of course they would.

If any of them attack bellies with knifes then it only confirms that they are mentally psychotic.

You make your bed don't you? Every day? It is the least you can do for yourself. I swear I am going to make a post on the importance of sanctuaries. We are truly Lost, money is just an illusion! It doesn't cost a damn thing to pick up after yourself!

You are stereo typing. These people aren't working together, many of them have been forced into this encampment through misfortune and other chaotic circumstances. Add this to the fact that there are probably child molestors and violent criminals mixed in with the tents, and you don't really have a joyful commune there. Remember, this isn't a commune, as it collects people of all stripes. There is no governmening body. For one, it's most likely illegal for them to be there. So, the actions of a few or the cleanliness of the camp, can't be blamed on the entire camp. You most likely would not be able to fair any better, as you yourself can't control your neighbors, especially if some of those neighbors are ex-convicts or have mental diseases. These people didn't get together and decide that they want to start a tent-city, rather one by one they have been forced out there for whatever reason. Most of them probably don't know each other from Adam and probably have nothing in common, what so ever. Again, it's not a commune to where everyone is willing or able to work together. Sure, there are some scum bags out there, but that doesn't and shouldn't reflect on everyone out there.

--airspoon

p.s. - I had a much better and well thought out reply to you, then windows crashed so I had to start all over and well, this is what you got.

reply to post by airspoon

The economy is improving. In Hawaii at least. I know this because I live here. These are not newly homeless we are talking about.

Doran J. Porter, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, believes more and more homeless encampments like the one behind Waipahu High School are springing up on Oahu as Honolulu police and city officials continue to push Oahu's homeless off of beaches and out of city parks.

www.staradvertiser.com...

Remember 2006? Remember how the economy was? Pretty darned good but the boom also contributed to the numbers of homeless.

HONOLULU, Dec. 4 — When the home she had rented for 30 years for $300 a month was sold, Alice Greenwood and her 6-year-old son joined an estimated 1,000 people living in tents along the 13 miles of beaches on the Waianae Coast of Oahu.

Hawaii’s economy has been strong in the last two years, and the state consistently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. The real estate market has skyrocketed along with the job growth, and houses on the Waianae Coast that rented for $200 or $300 a month a couple of years ago are now advertised for more than $1,000.

www.nytimes.com...

So you just can't win for losin' it seems. And you can't blame the homeless situation on the poor economy. They've been around for quite a while, for various causes. Often through their own actions. Often, believe it or not, by choice. The speed freaks aren't using ice because the economy is bad and unfortunately they sometimes have families. The mentally ill did not get that way because of the economy. And then there are those who used to be called beach bums.

Honolulu's homeless demographic — on the streets and in shelters — is changing. The University of Hawaii's Center on the Family estimates the city's homeless street population has shifted from being 21 percent Caucasian in 2005 to more than 43 percent today.

Many are single, middle-aged men from the mainland, like former computer programmer Gary Titleman.

"Well, I was kind of homeless in Flagstaff and Prescott [Arizona], and a guy told me that you could go to Hawaii for $150, so I had some savings and bought a ticket," he says.

He chooses to work odd jobs at minimum wage. Soon it will be time to move on.

"Well, I may go to Alaska during the summer," he said. "Also go back to the mainland. I'm originally from Virginia, but I moved out West a while back. So who knows?"

Connie Mitchell says the resource drain caused by newly arrived single male transients is getting more acute. She says Hawaiian lawmakers need to develop policies to address this problem.

"I think that we really need to begin to look at who's really homeless — not by choice and by misfortune — and who's really homeless by choice, and have a different solution for the two different populations."

www.npr.org...



[edit on 7/1/2010 by Phage]

Originally posted by airspoon

p.s. - I had a much better and well thought out reply to you, then windows crashed so I had to start all over and well, this is what you got.

Perhaps Great Spirit wants to bring to your attention that your statement "decorating Tips" was enough of a personal attack of my opinions. Sorry you took this so personally and now you feel I am stereotyping.

I am clearly pointing out that fact that people are incompetent at the most basic level. Had this been Odessa, TX, or Midland, had this been Detroit, I would have dismissed my statements because clearly those are not "conditions of Natural Paradise". Hawaii is a natural paradise and yes I am aware that there are many zones and natures to Hawaii, but that does not make it any less of a paradise on Earth.

This is the factor of statement on my behalf. If, in the most beautiful place on Earth, a human cannot live better than trash, then we are LOST.

My biggest fear is that America will fall, not just monetarily but now even more so because people will die by the millions from Toxic waste and gases (GOM Crisis). When this happens people will spread out far and wide and I can only imagine the diseases and death that will ensue just by the habits of the consumers that don't even understand basic yardwork!

Please don't attack my sensibilities with your diatribe and accusations. There is no excuse any more.

reply to post by Greensage


Relax, I was only making fun at what seemed like decorating tips. Here, we are talking about homeless people in a seeming situation of despair, and your acting as if you would come in, announce yourself as governor and clean up the place. I was only pointing out that this is not so easily done, since the place isn't a commune and has hundreds of people all acting on their own, and for good reason too. Your speaking as if this place is governed, a commune or as if these people are all working together. You were speaking as if people have incentive or can give incentive to influence their microcosmic economy.

Also, while you may consider Hawaii to be paradise, others might not. I sure don't, relatively speaking. I consider Switzerland or Alaska to be paradise. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Believe it or not, I also consider Odessa, TX to be beautiful, as I love "dryer" climates. So, while you may consider an island in the Pacific to be paradise, the next guy may consider the mountains or even the swamps to be paradise.

--airspoon