In a recent blog entry, Peter Apo wrote that “the core of OHA’s fiduciary duty, founded as a sacred trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians and Hawaiians, is being threatened and undermined by the out of control distraction of nation building.” Apo proposes that OHA relinquish its role in nation-building, cancel the proposed ‘Aha and reduce the scope of activities at the Washington D.C. office.

His words echo those of trustee Oswald Stender who said, in January, that “there are other issues we should be working on rather than building this government that is not going to work.”

Neither trustee has condemned nation-building in and of itself, but both have drawn attention to the large sums of money that OHA has spent in that endeavor, concluding that the office should remove itself from the nation-building process and leave the question of self-determination to other organizations.

Apo writes, “What good would it be to have a nation if our people are broke, homeless, uneducated and disabled and our most revered Hawaiian institutions struggle to survive? By focusing on improving these conditions of existence, Hawaiians will be strengthened and can make informed choices to pursue whatever forms of nation on which they can agree independent of OHA.”

Grassroot Institute President Keli’i Akina released a statement in support of Apo and Stender saying, “We applaud the words of Trustees Peter Apo and Oswald Stender, especially their honesty and their ability to recognize the inherent problems in OHA’s nation-building process. We call upon the other Trustees to step up and take the reasonable and responsible action of cancelling OHA’s efforts to build a government-sponsored, race-based nation, and redirect their attention and funds to issues that will be more effective in addressing the needs of Native Hawaiians and our state.

“Grassroot Institute is on record pointing out the serious Constitutional and practical questions of a government agency attempting to establish a sovereign nation.  We are deeply concerned that the Native Hawaiian Roll process has not served the real needs of the Hawaiian people and all citizens of the State of Hawaii,” continues Akina. “It is time to put an end to actions which divide Hawaii’s people and to start working together to unify and strengthen Hawaii.”

Each year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires Honolulu county to conduct a Point in Time (PIT) count of Oahu’s houseless. Literally a snapshot of the houseless population, the PIT happens on a random day during the year. This years’ took place on the night of January 22, 2014.

Access to the new Homeless Management Information Systems database helped the Honolulu Department of Community Services plan their count strategy better, resulting in a more accurate snapshot of Oahu’s houseless than in previous years. As was expected, this resulted in a higher count than ever before. The report also says that even with the increased accuracy, there are almost certainly houseless that still went uncounted.

This year’s count identified a total of 4,712 homeless people on O‘ahu, 2,356 individuals and 2,356 people living in families. There were 1,633 unsheltered homeless people, an 11.47% increase since 2013. There was a slight decline in the number of homeless people living in families since last year, but a 7.3% increase in homeless individuals. These numbers reflect a steady overall increase of homeless people over the last several years and is also higher due to improved execution of the PIT.

While the number of homeless individuals and families were exactly the same, 92% of Oahu’s homeless families were sheltered on the night of the count, while just 39% of homeless individuals were sheltered. There was also an increase in unsheltered chronically homeless individuals, going from 505 in 2013 to 558 this year. The PIT also revealed that a considerable segment of unsheltered chronically homeless people suffer from severe mental illness and/or substance abuse, afflictions that makes utilizing emergency or transitional shelters, most of which require treatment and sobriety as preconditions to admittance, problematic.

Mayor Caldwell released a statement in which he said, “There are people who fall through the cracks in the system and end up on the street. Whether it’s due to mental illness, substance abuse, or a combination of the two, these are the most visible and vulnerable among us, and we have the obligation to care for them. Many of our unsheltered chronically homeless people suffer from severe mental illness and substance abuse. Housing First is proven to place this extremely challenging population into permanent supportive housing.  It saves money over cycling them through our prisons, emergency rooms, and shelters, and it’s the humane thing to do.” 

Flanked by an impressive assortment of community leaders, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Pouhana Kamana‘opono Crabbe addressed the press Monday regarding the Crabbe-Kerry letter. He emphasized that he was doing his due diligence as OHA CEO, and that he had given OHA chair Colette Machado notice of his letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Following Dr. Crabbe’s remarks, Dr. Kamana Beamer announced that the petition supporting Crabbe had surpassed 1,100 signatures.

Machado was not present at the press conference.

Here’s the full audio:

Dan Ahuna, the recently-elected OHA Trustee representing Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, is stepping back from rescinding CEO Kamana‘opono Crabbe’s letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry. In a letter addressed to OHA Board Chair Colette Machado he writes that Crabbe was fulfiling his responsiblity of due digiligence as OHA’s chief executive.

Ahuna’s letter is included below.