I’ve never been homeless before. This is my first time.
Sometimes I feel no matter how hard you try,
there's always a barrier here in Hawai'i.
Native Hawaiians are being priced out of Hawai’i.
No way could I afford to even live here just me alone.
And that’s the sad part of it. We can’t afford to be here.
Hawai’i is the most expensive state to live in the U.S.
And out-of-state buyers continue to turn housing units
into vacation rentals or second homes.
As tourists flock to the state’s resorts, golf courses and beaches,
local residents are facing a housing affordability crisis.
They want a million dollars for a place.
This is Maui - it’s not like you can just drive to another island.
Rent is also increasing and salaries are not keeping up with the rising cost of living.
Gentrification isn’t new.
But for Native Hawaiians, being priced out can mean being forced to move off-island entirely,
thousands of miles away from their ancestral lands.
This is our land.
It was stolen from us in 1893.
We’re the Indigenous peoples that belong here. Yet we can’t even afford to be here.
This is Maui — homeland of the Kānaka Maoli,
who were branded Native Hawaiians during colonization.
On one side of the island, tens of thousands of tourists
are concentrated into condos and high-end hotels.
On the other side, Jessica Lau is living in her car,
partly because she couldn’t afford her rent.
- I mean, I have family
that offered me to stay with them,
but they’re on HUD housing, and
I’m not trying to get anybody to lose their home because of me, yeah.
But I like it here, this is where my mom’s scattered.
She uses the facilities at the boat harbor to shower and get ready for work.
- My dad got me to be a member here.
So I use the restroom here.
And if I wanted to use, they have a gas stove in the inside that they say I can use.
So I either use their hose or I bring my hose here.
Jessica worked as a tour bus guide and operator for over four years.
But long days on jungle roads
meant she often couldn’t use the bathroom for hours at a time.
To prevent more serious bladder and kidney issues, she quit.
She now works at a temp agency.
- This is what it’s like to be unsheltered in Hawai’i.
But it will be a matter of time, you know what I mean?
To come up with first month, last month and deposit.
With the pandemic and the pay rates down, right now it’s hard.
I have to be work at 5. I get off work at 1:30 and then I go to my other job in the evening.
Jessica ran out of money, so she moved into her car to avoid an eviction on her record.
Even without Jessica’s obstacles,
an average salary in tourism isn’t enough to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment.
So now, Jessica parks with a few other unhoused individuals at the harbor.
From where she sleeps, she can see where she used to live.
- Here. I used to live here.
I was paying $1,450 for a two-bedroom. Then the owner decided to sell.
So then I moved to the next building, which the rent came up to $1,600.
Hawai’i has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the U.S.
While the government sponsors programs like shelters and housing subsidies,
relief is often temporary, with waitlists up to five years.
And in general, there just aren’t enough permanent, affordable housing units.
Short-term solutions that exist elsewhere in the states aren’t available in Maui.
In California, you can stay at a motel and pay $46 a night
and not have to be homeless.
Here in Maui, they don’t have no motels or anything, they only have hotels here.
And those hotels can cost on average $500 per night.
The U.S. government took control of the Hawaiian islands in 1898.
The majority of Kānaka Maoli protested the move as illegal.
The U.S. never provided them reservation land.
But they did sponsor a program called Hawaiian Home Lands,
which is meant to provide land for them to lease.
There’s currently a backlog of 28,000 applicants on the waitlist.
Many applicants, like Carol Lee Kamekona, have been waiting for decades.
You’ll see this, where it lists as of December 2020, the different islands.
You can see the Maui waitlist here.
I went on the waitlist in 2002. This is 2021.
So 19 years I've been on Maui's waitlist.
An average price for a house in Maui hit a record $1.1 million this summer.
Carol Lee would like to buy a home, but without government help, it would be impossible.
She now lives with her elderly mother and adult son
because none of them can afford rent on their own.
These homes can run about $850,000 and up to $1 million,
not because of the houses and the way they look, because of the location of the houses.
Is that affordable for a Kānaka Maoli?
No.
Not even if you're working three jobs with two incomes in the household.
So that's why Kānaka Maoli have a lot of multigenerational homes,
where you have two, three, possibly even four generations living in one household,
just so that we could survive and live here at home.
My mom, she's 87. For me, I'm 64. And my son is 30.
So three of us live here in a three-bedroom, one-bath house.
No way could I afford to even live here, just me alone.
My son, with what he makes in the tourism industry, wouldn't be able to rent a house.
Carol Lee has seven children
and none of them are eligible to apply for Hawaiian Home Lands.
Applicants need at least 50% Native Hawaiian blood quantum to qualify.
I have the 50%.
My kids don't have 50% because of an interracial marriage.
So they're less than 50%.
So I cannot give it to them. None of my kids.
Even if Carol Lee’s name was called,
the lease offered to her would only be temporary,
with no pathway to actually own the land.
The plots can be expensive —
with homes on them that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,
which she couldn’t afford.
So I have to wait for them to give me a lot.
When that happens, in my lifetime, you think?
Probably not.
This probably means that my kids will never, ever get a chance
to buy a home here.
Because once I die, once my mom dies,
there is no more 50% blood quantum for my family.
It's genocide. It’s a way to get rid of the people.
Six out of seven of Carol Lee’s children already live on the mainland.
But for Carol Lee, leaving is not an option.
Even my kids ask, “Mom, just come already. You guys can live with us.”
I don't want it. I love my home here.
One in three Kānaka Maoli households is at risk of homelessness.
As the government works on long-term solutions, Jessica is still living in her car.
- Lori Tsuhako, director of County Department of Housing and Human Concerns,
said that some of the unsheltered are employed, but their income is insufficient
to afford rent.
It is true.
Like I don't have a problem paying rent or working,
but to come up with first month and last month and deposit
is hard for many of us guys, especially during this pandemic.
I make half of what I used to make when I did tours.
So anywhere between $13, $14, $15, that's what I'm making now,
versus the $24.52 that I used to make back then.
Jessica also doesn’t have any plans to leave.
Despite her struggles at her old job,
Jessica enjoyed being able to share her love for Maui as a tour guide.
She hopes to find a way back to the industry
while still protecting her health.
This mountain right here besides us is Haleakalā Mountain.
That’s the mountain I drove around for 4 1/2 years, 129 miles.
And that's how you get around the island.
I look forward to going back to that occupation.
In the meantime, I'll just take whatever needs to be taken
so I can be able to stay above water and not have to suffer.