Another Side of Hawaii

I decided to show you something a little different today, something you won't see in too many vacation photo albums or visitor guides. By now you have all seen a million pictures of Hawaii and its beautiful landscapes and infrastructure . . . and as most of you know, there is a whole lot of money floating around these parts. But there are also a lot of people here without money, people who find themselves struggling to live here, people who can't afford to stay and can't afford to leave. There are also a lot of people who are simply angered by what Hawaii has turned into and refuse to spend money on rent because they think it's overpriced. There are several homeless shelters here in Hawaii, but most of the time they are close to empty, mainly because these shelters impose curfews and have a no alcohol/drug policy. So, this is the result . . .








The leeward (west) side of the island is littered with these homeless camps, where you will sometimes see a single tent standing alone, or sometimes more like fifty or sixty tents all standing close together, like a small town. Not surprisingly, they are often bundled near beach park bathrooms and beach showers. As you can see from the pictures, many of these tents have bar-b-ques, children's toys, landscaping, and several working cars parked out front . . . because truth be told, many of the individuals in these camps work regular jobs and buy regular stuff, but they are homeless because they either can't or don't want to pay high rent prices. These pictures represent some of the nicer camps . . . there are many that are much worse, with horrific amounts of garbage, waste, and smells that you can't even imagine . . . but they aren't exactly safe places to be snapping pictures. Many of these camps have semi-domestic dogs, usually pit bull breeds (which are very popular on the island) wandering around, mainly for protection purposes. You will see many children running around without shoes and few clothes on, playing around like normal kids, as if this is the way life is supposed to be. In a lot of ways, Oahu is like a second world country, but most people don't see this when they come to visit because they stick to the tourist areas. It's very interesting, heartbreaking, and eye-opening all at the same time. Does this side of Hawaii surprise you?