Why is nobody helping homeless woman?
For several months, a woman has been living on the sidewalk across the street from the IHS men’s emergency homeless shelter in Iwilei (across from Kmart). She has accumulated more than 67 bagfuls of “stuff.” It is especially disconcerting to me that she is so close to IHS, yet so far from assistance. This woman is known to mental health service providers. She is visited regularly by outreach workers. She has been visited a few times by a psychiatrist. But it has been explained to me that, since this woman refuses assistance, she needs to be in “imminent danger” to herself or others before the court will order her to the state hospital. To me, a female who sleeps on the sidewalk across the street from a men’s shelter and who has already been attacked is in “imminent danger.” I would welcome a response from a court judge to explain this policy. Lynn Maunakea Executive Director Institute for Human Services Supply of affordable housing is threatened Thousands of men, women and children in
