Hawaii is different from mainland America. One of the first things I noticed was the large amount of homelessness unlike anywhere I had seen before!
After arriving, I walked out of the airport and decided to take a long walk and explore. During the beginning of my walk, I was next to a highway with overpasses. Underneath one of the roads that rose up was what looked like a homeless city. Many people lived underneath that road.
Up ahead I saw a homeless man walk out of the darkness from underneath the large road and he turned and looked at me. He was a large man and had no shirt on and looked mean from a distance but when I got closer, he smiled and asked "hey, are you Amish?" Haha, I probably looked a little Amish because of my facial hair and my straw hat.
When I went to Hawaii my plan was to technically be without a home myself. Hawaii can be an expensive place and I did quite a bit of camping to save money on accommodation, however, that turned out to be a lot harder than expected because of legal shit. The government hates it.
I hope I don't sound mean or ignorant but from what I've seen in mainland America, I've always got the impression that the majority of homeless people are crazy or not quite right mentally.
In Hawaii, I got a different impression. It actually seemed "normal".
One day I was walking in a mall and I also was carrying my big backpack. A man working behind the counter of a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop asked me where I was from as I was walking by. During our conversation, he told me that he sleeps under the bridge. I was shocked to learn that he was employed and homeless! He informed me that a large percentage of people are homeless in Hawaii. I asked why. "because It's easy!", he said excitedly.
I guess It's easy to see why. There is lots of fruit, It's warm and It's beautiful.
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| Me chilling in a secret spot. |
As I was walking along the beach in Waikiki one night, I was surprised to see many people were sleeping on it. I even saw a mother with her kid wrapped up together in blankets and sleeping. I usually try to hide when looking for a spot to sleep but from what I saw, It didn't look like many people even made an effort to hide. Waikiki was a generally crowded and touristy place and not very easy to find a hidden spot on the beach in that area.
Seeing so many sleeping on the beach gave me the impression that it might be safe...
But, please don't sleep on the beach in Waikiki, you might get woken up by some extroverted tweaker at 4 a.m. like I was.
I know now the importance of hiding. So, I was shocked when I was walking around and saw many people camping in the city, On the sidewalk! What the fuck??? Why?
Later, I read somewhere that in 2008, they passed a law in Hawaii that forbids people from camping on the beach which is what a lot of homeless people were doing back then. Of course, the reason for the law is about money. The government was afraid that people camping on the beach would look bad to tourists and tourism is a huge industry in Hawaii.
So they all got kicked off the beach and now they camp on the sidewalk in the city and technically there is no law that says they can't.
Some people are pushing for a law to keep them from pitching a tent on the sidewalk too but luckily for the homeless, they haven't been able to get that law approved yet.
I was able to camp on the beach successfully but I had to be super careful and hide and I was caught and kicked out of my tent once even though I was about a mile away from a town. I was surprised to learn that some people are paid to search for campers.
However, the extreme strictness is mainly in Oahu. Oahu is a touristy island. I also went to Kauai which is a lot different from Oahu. Still had a lot of homeless though.
There are no big cities like Honolulu. It has more towns and more countryside and a lot of the tourists that go there go there for hiking.
When I first arrived in Kauai, I was very paranoid about cops because I had just come from Oahu. I had gotten chased by the cops in Oahu for simple things like starting a fire on the beach(not allowed), drinking pineapple wine on the beach(also not allowed), and one other minor third thing that I'm not going to put in this blog post(yet again, not allowed).
Alright, so the beach is public and it's fine to be on it but not legal to set up any kind of structure, even if it rains.
That would be considered camping.
So I just decided to dig a big hole. Here's a pic of the shelter I made...
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| The hole I slept in for 2 nights. |
It was comfortable and dark and it even did a decent job of protecting me from rain.
After spending a couple nights in my special sleeping hole, I continued to explore the island and walked to the next town. That night I searched the beach for a good camping spot. I walked a little far and found a very dark area of beach. It was quiet and seemed like a great spot. Just when I was about to open up my backpack, I heard a voice say "hello"
"Whoa! I didn't expect anyone was here" I replied surprised.
"Yeah, I sleep here sometimes" she said. "really?, I was thinking of sleeping here tonight too." I said.
When she learned that I had a tent,she seemed very surprised. "You have a TENT?!! I just have a tarp". She got out her tarp and unfolded it and spread it out on the ground and then with a distressed and sad voice she said, "Oh No! It's wet"
Even, though Hawaii is a warm place, it was December at the time and can get a little chilly at night.
I was standing there awkwardly looking down at the homeless woman who was lying down on the middle of a wet tarp in a fetal position.
She had a light jacket on but no sleeping bag or anything.
"... uh, you look cold" I said. "Yes, I am cold"
Even though my vision was limited from the darkness, It was a pathetically sad looking scene. I knew there was only one thing I could do to help and I felt uneasy about suggesting it to this person I just met.
"Well, my tent is big enough for 2 people if you want to share".
She was extremely grateful and when we got in the tent she said,
"It's so warm in here, wow, this is First Class!"
We both agreed that sand is a very comfortable substance to sleep on. Beaches are very enjoyable places to camp, well, if I don't have to worry about cops kicking me out.
If you wish to read and have not already; I wrote about some of my camping struggles in an earlier blog post.
--> Be-careful-when-camping-in-oahu.
I got the impression that homeless people don't get as much sympathy in Hawaii. A friend who I met in Kauai and who was also homeless at the time told me that his Mom had been homeless in New York City before and had to steal food to survive. Obviously, it was a lot colder there too. So he got 0 amount of sympathy from her.
He said that his Mom would always tell him something like, "So what? You're in Hawaii, go pick fruit."
In this post are just some of my experiences with homelessness in Hawaii.
Thanks for reading.
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