Homeless encampment demolished to protect public safety, but dozens are now displaced
By Kristen Consillio
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KALAELOA, Hawaii (KITV) — Dozens of homeless people living here in the old Barber’s Point air strip were recently displaced and now they say they have no place to go.
George Bailey says he and his companions have lived deep in a wooded area filled with overgrown kiawe trees for more than a year, unbothered.
“We just want a safe place to be so that they don’t bother us no more,” he said. “A place that we can call our home.”
Some families made homes in old airplane hangers hidden away in Kalaeloa — tapping into a main power line to get electricity, and into their neighbor’s water system and even had a portable toilet that drained into a cave in the ground.
But they eventually caught the eye of authorities who recently demolished the encampment.
“Maybe some people there were there because of the houseless crisis, but some of them were doing a chop shop, doing their own business and having their own illegal empire,” said Sen. Kurt Fevella, who represents ‘Ewa Beach. “Fire, fire, fire, shooting, fighting — everything you could think of that was happening in there was getting out of control. But the reason why we went in there was nothing to do with the stolen stuff to tell you the truth, it was because of public safety.”
But for many — it’s also a humanity issue.
“Everyone falls upon hard times. But there should be a different solution. Obviously, these homeless people can’t afford homes,” said Fawn Bailey, former wife of George. “They all have gone through something traumatic in their lives and then losing what they were able to accumulate for themselves have it destroyed, it creates not only instability in them, but you know, they have nothing.”
Bailey, who asked not to be on camera, says she has other family members — including her son — living on the streets. She hopes the state can come up with land the homeless can use as a safe haven.
“There’s many pieces of property here in Oahu who there are open bunkers. There are buildings on Hawaiian homelands,” she said. “There’s pieces of the mountain that I feel they should be given to be able to have a safe place — have a safe haven — and have resources be given to them to help them in their situations to get them back on path.”
But Fevella says there are options already available.
“The problem with a lot of them out there that are living in these kinds of encampments is they don’t want to follow rules,” he said. “I would love to give one piece of land for anybody to go and stay there until they can find shelter, but the reality of it is we don’t have that.”
He says the Honu program is one of them. That’s coming to ‘Ewa Beach in November.
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