13 Jul Homeless who fly to Hawaii
May 2020 – This Hawaii News Now story was featured in April 2020. You can view the story here.
Hawaii’s largest homeless service provider has stopped allowing out-of-state arrivals in its shelters.
The new rule went into effect last week at the Institute for Human Services when the governor mandated 14-day quarantine for inbound travelers.
Now, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara says the state’s giving homeless people a choice at the airport.
“The individual would not be able to abide by the mandatory 14-day quarantine rule,” the state’s adjutant general, said. “We’ll give the option they can fly back. If they don’t fly back, those are the ones who get arrested.”
The state wasn’t able to give us a number of exactly how many homeless people have arrived in Hawaii since the traveler quarantine started last Thursday.
Hawaii News Now has received multiple reports from airline workers and official sources who say since the quarantine began at least three people with nowhere to go touched down at Honolulu’s airports.
Sources said workers wrote down the address of a homeless shelter on their paperwork and let them go.
The state didn’t confirm or deny the accusation but did acknowledge interactions with several homeless people who’d just gotten off of airplanes.
“I know of at least one on Oahu that was put into the homeless shelter. The recently stood up homeless shelter,” said Hara. “Then there were three that went to Kauai. All three were arrested.”
In the week prior to quarantine measures going into effect, the city confirms five homeless people landed in Honolulu.
The executive director of the Mayor’s Housing Office believes it’s likely a result of the cheap airfare and the fact that homeless sweeps have been suspended.
“I think people see this as an opportunity to come here,” said Marc Alexander. “There is no evidence of other states or municipalities sending homeless people here to Hawaii.”
The Hawaii Tourism Authority is helping to pay for airfare so people can return to the city they flew in from.
James Calderon
Posted at 05:50h, 20 OctoberI think that it is wrong to label every homeless person who lands here from the mainland a criminal or to be targeted as such. Geographically Hawaii both boasts and has some of the most beautiful and lush landscape on the face of the planet 💯.Is it any wonder why people are attracted to come here?? Some people fall into homelessness for many different reasons. Not all homeless people are drug addicts, or mentally and chemically unbalanced. Some are genuinely solid and stand up that withstood some crippling blows in life that landed them at the bottom where they now are looking up (everyday).☮️🙏💎💯
Ezekiel McShan
Posted at 22:47h, 07 Augustone thing that is worth noting is that lots of states and shelter programs have initiatives where they will send a homeless person back to where their family is or where they have a housing opportunity. it is very easy for SOME ( not all) programs for a person to use this system to get a free ticket to Hawaii if they want to it depends on how strict the verification process is for that particular organization to provide funding. for some, it’s just having a person on the phone verifying that they have a place to stay. ( which could be anyone)
Rayna Breaux
Posted at 08:48h, 24 NovemberCan you please help me and my family we are homeless and want to get free plane tickets to Buffalo, NY. We would be off the streets if we could just get to our family in NY.
Angie Knight
Posted at 13:19h, 02 DecemberAloha Rayna, you can reach out to our Relocation program by emailing SarahS@ihshawaii.org. Mahalo!