Homelessness and Natural Disasters
By Kimo Carvalho
Imagine waking up in your house, surrounded by a lifetime’s worth of personal treasures. Then, imagine going to bed 12 hours later, homeless with nothing but the clothes on your back knowing everything you’ve worked so hard for was taken away in a moment’s notice. Don’t think it could happen to you? Neither did the 17,069 individuals on Maui for whom that nightmare scenario became all too real on August 8th of 2023.
When we think of homelessness, we often think of people who struggle with mental illness or substance abuse, or who are unemployed. But homelessness can truly happen to anyone when circumstances thrust them unwillingly into the streets to the point it turns their lives completely upside down. All of a sudden, your daily routine and sense of normalcy change. And that is when and how trauma begins.
The length of time one experiences homelessness typically correlates with the depth of that trauma. This is why early intervention and response is extremely critical for those who experience a housing crisis, and why HomeAid Hawaii is committed to supporting displaced residents of Maui who are now without a place to call home. Afterall, a changing world faced with climate change, migration, diversity, equity, and justice has begun to change our definition of homelessness. My hope is that our intentional responses to housing development changes with it.
I was a Paramedic in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit where I served that community before, during, and after the storm. I learned a lot from that experience – about trauma, loss, the wounds that bind us together, and the emotions that tear us apart. My experience in New Orleans showed me that the initial trauma of the event didn’t even compare to the depth of trauma the community felt in the months and years following. Being forced to move from neighborhoods and communities, away from family and the supports they once knew... and then into suboptimal living conditions like FEMA trailers that were not a good match for our people’s healing process, or the environment of New Orleans. These experiences, as much as the event itself, resulted in emotional and physical wounds that were hard to heal and recover. For myself, it resulted in me dropping out of medical school to move back home where I now live a different life and rebuilt a 15-year career to date.
The 17,069 displaced Maui residents are currently living in hotels, Airbnb’s, and doubled up with friends or family. Despite being sheltered, they are houseless, and their residences are not a “home.” Where we help them move next will truly determine their futures and the extent to which this traumatic experience changes their lives.
Now I am again called to serve a community devastated by disaster. Instead of thinking about loss I am thinking about the opportunity to help. In Hawaii, we are one ohana (family) and feel a deep sense of kuleana (responsibility) to malama (care for) one another. I have faith in our state’s ability to come together and provide for the housing needs of the displaced.
HomeAid Hawaii was on the ground in Maui within days of it being declared safe; meeting with landowners, all levels of government, and the community to begin collaborating on a pathway toward stable housing for a newly houseless population. Since then, we have convened landowners to offer the best available land options for both short-, mid-, and long-term housing solutions. We have helped federal, state, and county governments access a considerable amount of funding to pay for infrastructure and developments. HomeAid Hawaii has supported governments by intercepting more than 100 modular and prefab companies inquiring about business opportunities to support our disaster recovery efforts.
After helping government secure federal funds, and FEMA selecting their top 4 (out of 26 assessed lands) for 18-month short-term housing developments – HomeAid Hawaii will now shift toward augmenting FEMA housing plans by building 788 homes in Central Maui. HomeAid Hawaii will support those without solutions, including FEMA-ineligible households, homeless, and immigrants.
In early 2024, we will break ground on 2 sites consisting of about 170 acres (about twice the area of a large shopping mall). This effort will not only provide housing relief to displaced Maui residents; it will also cut the County’s homeless population in half. Should all go as planned, we project our first site to be ready as early as August 2024 and the second by September 2025.
As the new Executive Director of HomeAid Hawaii, my mission is to simply build homes for the homeless, which by our definition includes those displaced by natural disasters. With a fresh mindset to evolve HomeAid Hawaii’s model toward a new era of housing development work, I know we will make a significant dent in decreasing homelessness across our State, starting with Maui County.
It will require new tools. For example, we will begin to acquire and manage land while continuing to partner with operators who can demonstrate a future workforce blending client services with property management.
While we need the government to move out of the way, we can’t work without them and must balance responsible and progressive development. This is why HomeAid Hawaii will be moving into a larger master development process alongside our state government partner to demonstrate how common sense, alternative developments under emergency proclamation can reduce permitting time and construction costs without compromising critical health, safety, culture and environment. Our Kauhale initiative in particular will be a national model – shifting from a housing-first to a community-first framework that increases retention in permanent housing simply by establishing social capital and community connection. I anticipate our evaluation of this program will save Hawaii taxpayers millions in unnecessary costs to various systems – public safety, healthcare, human services, housing subsidies, etc. Most importantly, it will demonstrate how to respond to homelessness during natural disasters.
Hawaii has always prided itself as the State to test pilot creative, innovative solutions to solving some of our nation’s most pressing problems. We have led the nation on advancing a clean energy economy to reduce reliance on oil. We are currently in process of shifting toward a regenerative tourism economy where local communities benefit equally to large tourism companies. My hope is that we continue to lead by now demonstrating how to house the homeless through our model. And with a new policy framework and tools being demonstrated through HomeAid Hawaii, I believe we will.
As many others, the needs of my community are great. Climate change and migration make it necessary to find new, creative solutions. A growing housing crisis and out migration of Hawaiians makes it urgent. But our will to collaborate and create new solutions makes it possible to achieve our goals, starting right here, right now, on Maui.