Displacement. Art of Surviving: What Frontline Voices Want You to Know

This post offers a recap of the September 13, 2025 panel conversation exploring the realities of houselessness in Hawaiʻi and the efforts to address it. Amongst the featured guests include our very own Rose "Loke" Chung-Lono and Kaulana "KaLa" Paishon.

At the East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center, a packed room gathered for a conversation that Hawaiʻi can no longer afford to push aside: What does houselessness really look like across our islands, and what solutions are actually working?

The panel brought together a mix of voices—a county official, frontline providers, and community leaders from Puʻuhonua o Waiʻanae (POW). Each carried a different piece of a story we often see but seldom hear: the struggle, resilience, and daily innovations that shape the lives of thousands of Hawaiʻi residents navigating housing insecurity.

What emerged was more than a discussion. It was a collective truth-telling about survival, relationship-building, and what it means to create home on your own terms when the system doesn’t—or can’t—keep up.

“We came from nothing… now we have more than we need.”

The Power of Community at Puʻuhonua o Waiʻanae.

When Loke and KaLa spoke of their home at Puʻuhonua o Waiʻanae, the room quieted. POW is not a shelter. It’s a self-governed village built through grit, compassion, and community rules shaped by lived experience.

They care for the land surrounding them. They build relationships with state agencies. They show up for others who have no one.

Most importantly, they listen.

“People don’t like programs. But when they know we live the same way they do, they come out. They wait for us. That’s community love.”

POW’s story challenges dominant narratives about houselessness. It shows what happens when people are empowered to design their own solutions—solutions rooted in kuleana, dignity, and the belief that everyone deserves to be seen.

Why Hawaiʻi’s Housing Crisis Hits Differently

Several panelists touched on what makes Hawaiʻi unique—and uniquely vulnerable:

• The highest cost of living in the nation

• A chronic shortage of affordable units

• Cultural ties that draw many to live near ʻāina and ocean instead of urban streets

• Unresolved trauma, untreated chronic conditions, and longstanding stigma

• The growing number of people arriving from the continental U.S. who later fall into homelessness

As one provider shared bluntly:

“Our people are being priced out of their own home.”

The result is a complex, layered crisis—one that can’t be solved with a single model borrowed from the mainland.

Government Efforts: Big Moves, Long Timelines

Sharon Hirota from Hawaiʻi County’s Office of Housing and Community Development offered hopeful updates:

• The county now dedicates $9–$10 million annually specifically for housing and homelessness solutions.

• A new youth drop-in center in Hilo offers respite, food, connection, and a safe place to charge phones or talk story.

• The county launched a mobile health van to reach people in rural West Hawaiʻi.

• A real-time data system now tracks unsheltered residents daily, revealing communities that point-in-time counts miss.

• Construction has begun on a new tiny-home-style emergency shelter in Kona, the first of its kind in the region.

• Hilo’s overnight cot program (50 beds) has already moved nearly 80 people into longer-term shelter options.

Real progress is happening, though bureaucracy and construction timelines—famously slow in Hawaiʻi—remain major challenges.

What Frontline Providers Are Seeing:

More Behavioral Health Needs, Fewer Housing Options

HOPE Services Hawaiʻi described a growing divide between “easy-to-house” and “high-barrier” clients:

• People who lose housing due to job loss or rising rents often re-enter housing quickly.

• Those living with untreated mental illness, substance use disorders, or chronic medical issues require far more time, trust-building, and care.

• There simply aren’t enough affordable units for people with vouchers.

• Some residents are not ready to leave the street; others are overwhelmed by the system.

To respond, HOPE is expanding into behavioral health and medical care, not just shelter services. Their medical respite program—built with Hilo Medical Center—gives unhoused patients a safe place to recover rather than sending them back to the street.

Language Matters: Words Have Weight

Joshua Fuentes of Partners in Care reminded the audience that even the word “homeless” can flatten the complexity of people’s lived experiences.

Housing insecurity is not one thing. It’s not rooted in one cause. And in Hawaiʻi, many unhoused residents are deeply connected to place, culture, and community even without a physical house.

Words shape how we think—and how we act.

A Shared Message: Listen First, Then Build

Across all five panelists, one theme rang the loudest:

Relationships—not programs—change lives.

Whether through county staff walking with people who’ve given up on the system, HOPE’s street medicine teams building rapport over months, or POW’s community-led outreach to those who distrust formal services, the path to healing begins with listening.

And when people with lived experience take the lead, solutions grow from the ground up.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The panel made clear that Hawaiʻi’s housing crisis won’t be solved by a single agency or approach. It requires:

• Greater behavioral health support

• Flexible, innovative shelter models

• Community-led decision-making

• Long-term housing inventory growth

• Cross-agency cooperation instead of siloed work

But above all, it requires recognizing the humanity—and the wisdom—of those who are surviving this crisis every day.

Their voices aren’t just “part of the conversation.”

They are the foundation of the solution.

Mahalo!

Watch: Displacement. Art of Surviving: Panel Discussion September 13th, 2025 at East Hawai'i Cultural Center