Honolulu cracks down on floating encampments near Keehi Lagoon amid backlash
The article on the city and state's 'enforcement actions' against the floating encampments near Keehi Lagoon discusses multiple times that the presence of unhoused communities near Kahauiki Village 'sends the wrong message' to families living there, indicating that the encampment's proximity is somehow discouraging to others (Cleanup underway of floating homeless encampments, Star-Advertiser, April 21). This is an extremely dehumanizing message being portrayed to readers by both the city's director of homeless solutions and the executive director of the largest nonprofit working with unhoused folks in the state. That, on its own, communicates how the most vulnerable in our communities are viewed - as eyesores.
I don't wish to discredit the Institute for Human Services and Kahauiki Village's hard work in supporting families with housing. However, it's unnecessary and destructive to pit one population higher than another. We must discuss this issue with the sensitivity and respect that every person deserves.
Martyn Benjamin Salt Lake
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EXPRESS YOURSELF
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