Homeless have a story
Sprawled in the grass next to a Kihei sidewalk, the man in baggy clothes could have been dead from an overdose, or sleeping, we weren’t sure.
Approaching the scene on our morning walk, we watched a man on a bicycle make a U-turn, park and kneel beside him. Gently cupping the man’s face in one hand, speaking softly into his ear, the bicycle rider confirmed he was alive. Wearing a relieved smile, he picked up something nearby and placed it in the sleeping man’s hand. We assumed it was a wallet or other valuable.
The tenderness of the exchange has stayed with us. What were their stories? We saw perhaps 40 seconds worth of two lives. What past brought them to the point where one is passed out in public and the other is rendering aid? What will their futures bring?
Until the past decade or so, homelessness was not common in in the area where we walk. Apart from a pair of gas stations, it lacked the amenities found in Maui’s more urban tracts. Then a camp popped up on a stalled development project. Hidden on the other side of a fence and behind a mound of dirt, the smoke of its morning cook fires gave it away. That and the people climbing over the fence in the morning.
Last school year there was a young mother who appeared to be living in her car with her daughter. We would see them nearly every morning, parked in front of a commercial building, waiting to use the restroom to get ready for work and school. The mom was always quick with a smile and “good morning” when our paths crossed. Like many mothers around the world, she was doing the best she could for her child under trying circumstances.
What would it be like to raise a daughter in a little green car?
Homelessness was still on our mind after the tender sidewalk tableau when we did some banking in Kahului. Sitting in traffic on our way to the bank, we watched a man perform calisthenics outside one of the shopping cart tents pitched in front of old Kahului Armory. As we made our deposit, a seemingly confused customer dressed only in tiny shorts danced and chanted in front of a young, poker-faced teller.
What story would she tell her family when she got home?
If we had a solution to Maui’s homeless challenge, we would offer it here. The fact is, people who are a lot smarter than us have been working on this complex issue for years. There have been some successes, but doesn’t it seem like there are more unhoused people than ever living on our island’s streets and in its hidden places?
It pays to remember they all had a mother. They all have a past, a future and a story to tell.