Caring for Maui's Unsheltered

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Published 2024-07-18

Many in our community have wondered how the County responds to the needs of our unsheltered residents. As you will see in this video, the County of Maui makes every effort to respond with compassion, offering them housing, storage for their belongings, and access to health care and other basic needs.

"A lot of our community partners gather together, come to our hub," said Maui Police Department CORE Sgt. Jan Pontanilla. "Itʻs mobile, meant to move around the community. We need to be out there, instead of having them come to us. Whatever we can do to give them a hand up, we will be here."

At the same time, the County also takes seriously the concerns of residents, including their requests to return the safe use of County parks and public spaces for all park users.

Balancing these community needs with those of the unsheltered takes a commitment to addressing complex challenges through collaborative efforts. By working with partner agencies, the County is able to provide support for mental health, substance abuse and housing for unsheltered residents.

“Our approach has been to engage our community, engage our partners, and most importantly engage the unsheltered community to approach them with that care and compassion in order to offer them a better situation," Mayor Richard Bissen said.

Holomua Road in Pāi‘a and Wahikuli Wayside Park in Lahaina are some areas where people have sought refuge from life’s challenges.

"Our beach parks are a place where people heal," County of Maui Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Shane Dudoit said. “We want to do it with love and aloha. We also want to do it where it's beneficial to everyone."

County of Maui video / Mia A‘i

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