Worth Replicating?

Second Of Two Parts

the often neglected role of transportation and the complexity of the crisis of homelessness in the united states were described in the first installment of this essay last month. because of the crucial role of various means of transport in providing some form of shelter for the homeless, the U.S. code and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have formalized the contribution of transportation systems from parked cars, to buses, train stations and airports.

Yet notwithstanding the formal role, the problem of homelessness has until recently far outpaced the effort to cope with the problem. However, as ridership has in some instances declined and user complaints increased, transit authorities have increasingly turned their attention to the problem.

EEuu. El precio de la vivienda se había disparado tanto que, finalmente, 487 de cada 100 000 residentes no podían pagar por vivir ahí. La media de precios hipotecarios durante este período era de $700 000, y los alquileres promedio en Honolulu fueron de casi $2000 por mes por una pequeña unidad de dos habitaciones.

Hawaii made a particularly noteworthy early contribution. As beautiful of a place as it may be, according to famed journalist Timothy Schuler, in 2017 Hawaii had the largest per capita homeless population in the U.S. Home prices had skyrocketed so far out of reach that eventually 487 out of every 100,000 residents could not afford housing. Mean home mortgage prices during this period were at $700,000, and average rentals in Honolulu were at nearly $2,000 per month for a small two-bedroom unit.

El destacado empresario y propietario Duane Kurisu, como tantos otros hawaianos y viajeros internacionales, no pudo evitar notar la monstruosidad creada por una lagunacampamento de 11 acres cerca del aeropuerto de Honolulu, habitada continúa a la vuelta

Prominent businessman and property owner Duane Kurisu, like so many other Hawaiians and international travelers, couldn’t help but notice the eyesore created by an 11-acre lagoon and wasteland occupied by a homeless encampment near the Honolulu Airport. t he City owned the property. strangulated by a massive highway interchange, there were dozens of haphazardly built huts out of tarps, trash, and whatever else the residents could get continued on next page

Homelessness on the move from the previous page their hands on as they lived cut-off from the rest of the city. t he President of United Laundry also vetted in the project and committed to hiring residents of the newly dubbed “Kahauiki Village ” to provide laundry service to some of the larger hotels in Hawaii from the former highway lagoon encampment. Mr. Kurisu, who has earned the community’s affection, summed it up best: “While we’re saying this is a solution for homelessness, this is really a solution for affordable housing, not only here but nationwide.”

After gazing upon the messy encampment from his airplane, Mr. Kurisu saw an opportunity instead of an eyesore. As a real estate investor, he chose to view the resident homeless population as potential contributors to the economy that just needed a foothold.

After working with the governor to secure an emergency declaration, the local government was able to procure and build 30 prefabricated steel emergency shelters on the property recycled from the 2011 Tsunami in Japan. The units included a small kitchen, living space and a small bedroom.

When interviewed, most transit authorities acknowledge that they should address homelessness in some way, and their tendency is to favor a combination of punishment and positive outreach (e.g. referring unhoused people to social services). For the better part, this unfortunately seems to equivocate to finding different ways (like offering one way bus tickets to shelters) to shift unhoused people out

Sin-techo y en tránsito viene de la vuelta por indigentes. La laguna y los terrenos eriazos que la rodeaban eran propiedad del Ayuntamiento. Estrangulada por un enorme laberinto de cruces viales, había docenas de chozas de lonas, basura o cualquier otra cosa que los residentes pudieran obtener, protegidos al estar aislados del resto de la ciudad.

Después de contemplar el desordenado campamento desde su avión, en lugar de una monstruosidad, el Sr. Kurisu vio una oportunidad. Como inversionista de bienes raíces, eligió ver a esa población sin recursos como potenciales contribuyentes a la economía —y que solo necesitaba un punto de apoyo.

Después de trabajar con el gobernador para obtener una declaración de emergencia oficial, el gobierno local pudo adquirir y construir 30 refugios de emergencia de acero prefabricados en la propiedad reciclada del tsunami de 2011 en Japón. Las unidades incluían una pequeña cocina, of their jurisdiction instead of resolving the root cause and trying to transform them into paying customers that are housed. below and center in this page there is a table from “Homelessness in Transit Environments ” that summarizes strategies of transportation agencies use to respond to homelessness that tend to vary between punitive and constructive responses. t he Los Angeles County Metropolitan transportation Authority (LA Metro), whose challenge with decreased ridership was at least partly influenced by homelessness, tried to resolve their challenges with a different approach: offer services and, when possible, create a space for the unhoused within their jurisdiction instead of punishing them. i n 2018, their Board of Directors requested that staff explore how they can repurpose swaths of vacant property near Metro stations to provide services to the unhoused. one solution they came up with was to provide lockers, showers, and safe parking places in unused bus lots for families that live out of their cars and ride the Metro. i n another facet of this multi- pronged strategy, LA Metro launched an effort to beef up positive outreach by hiring and employing homeless ambas - sala de estar y un pequeño dormitorio.

El presidente de united Laundry también investigó el proyecto y se comprometió a contratar a los residentes de la recién denominada “Villa Kahauiki” para brindar servicio de lavandería a algunos de los hoteles más grandes de Hawái desde el antiguo campamento de “la laguna de la autopista”. El Sr. Kurisu, que se ha ganado el afecto de la comunidad, lo resumió mejor: “si bien decimos que esta es una solución para las personas sin hogar, en realidad es una solución para viviendas asequibles, no solo aquí sino en todo el país”.

Cuando son entrevistados, la mayoría de las autoridades de tránsito reconocen que deberían abordar la falta de vivienda de alguna manera, y su tendencia es favorecer una combinación de castigo y divulgación positiva (por ejemplo, remitir a los indigentes a los servicios sociales). En su mayor parte, desafortunadamente, ofrecer boletos de autobús de ida a los refugios no parece ser solución alguna para sacar a las personas sin-techo de su jurisdicción... en lugar de resolver la génesis del problema y tratar de transformarlos en clientes alojados que paguen.

Arriba y al centro se incluye una tabla de “Personas sin Hogar en Entornos de transporte Público” que resume las estrategias que usan las agencias de transporte para responder a los indigentes, y que tienden a variar entre respuestas punitivas y constructivas:

La Jurisdicción de Transporte Publico del Condado y Los Ángeles Metropolitano (LA Metro), cuyo problema con la disminución del número de pasajeros estuvo influenciado, al menos en parte, por la presencia de indigentes sin casa, trató de resolver sus desafíos con un enfoque diferente: ofrecer servicios y, cuando sea posible, crear un espacio para las personas sin hogar dentro de su dependencias en lugar de castigarlos. En 2018, su Directorio solicitó que el personal explore cómo pueden reutilizar franjas de propiedad vacante cerca de las estaciones de metro para brindar servicios a las personas sin hogar. una solución que se les ocurrió fue pro -