As Hawai‘i continues to wrestle with the highest rate of homelessness in the nation, one Maui group has come up with a creative solution to alleviate the problem. Eileen Chao has more from The Maui News.
The Family Life Center in Kahului has provided emergency shelter and housing for the island's homeless for more than three decades, but the nonprofit is considering a new approach to help those in need. Instead of housing the homeless, the group is launching a new program that will fly them out of state. The group has identified about 120 homeless people on Maui as possible candidates for the program. And they'll have to make a contribution too. Each person who qualifies will have to pay half the cost of their plane ticket.
The Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association donated $25,000 to the project earlier this month. Those funds will be able to help about 80 people fly back to the Mainland. State officials estimate there are more than a thousand homeless people living in Maui County. Maui homeless advocacy groups say the actual number is closer to two thousand, and expected to grow in coming years. If successful, officials hope to expand the program to Kauai and the Big Island.
