Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 1, 1 January 1986 — Maili Housing — Hurrah [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Maili Housing — Hurrah

By Hayden F. Burgess Trustee, Oahu

Passing through Nanakuli and Waianae is mueh more pleasant nowadays. The houseless people on the beaches at last have alternative housing at Maili, thanks to the kind contribution of land by the Catholic Church. This holiday season, the children will not be in the cold and rain under

puna canvas ana wet sneets. Congratulations to all those who helped. Those who struggled at Sand Island, Makua Beach and throughout Hawaii since the mid 70's to the present should all be commended for their accumulated work toward this small triumph in Maili. The leadership of the Coalition for the Homeless, the independent church groups and individuals who supported this struggle, including members of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the only Hawaiian organization whieh formally called for the halting of beach evictions, deserve recognition. But what about the rest of Oahu, the rest of Hawaii? Many people continue without adequate housing. The prob!em is still critical. We still laek 62,000 housing units in Hawaii. We must not relax. The underlying reason for this housing shortage is still with us. This society allows, in fact encourages, a cycle of deprivation to oppress our people. We find our schools in predominantly Hawaiian communities underfunded, poorly staffed and doing a poor job. There is no land for many of us to sustain ourselves, while mueh land go unused. The vast oeean borders us completely, yet, there is no real effort to train our people to properly gather from the sea. Only a few large fishing enterprises control fishing. We have no programs to teach us to use the natural herbs, the healing qualities of the kai, or of the sun, and of course the power of prayer. And most important, there really has been no major thrust in breaking this laek of respect many of our people hold for one another, for our kupuna and for ourselves. We are still caught in this web of deprivation. Houselessness is just one sign of this disease. More houses is not the total cure. To overcome this web of deprivation, we must strive for an improved quality of life, not more material accumulation. To heighten the quality of life, we must respect cultures, especially the first culture here, hula (not limited to a dance but the form of expressing life through the human being); we must respect 'aina, not as an eeonomie commodity but as our basic source of life; we must promote eeonomie growth that will preserve our environment and respect the dignity of all human beings and not destroy our source of health and pride. And we must breed in ourselves, then in our children, self resp>ect. If these fundamentals are not addressed, the structural fibre of our society will remain diseased, and the evils of deprivation will eonhnue to appear through Hawaii nei. Mueh work remains for us. But for now, a small rejoicing for a few houses in Maili, a small victory for Hawaii.