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When my daughter went to school at Kea'au HS over 90% of the students were on a free lunch program. I don't know exactly what that means but I think that means their families were on some sort of public assistance.
So to answer the OPs question, I would say the answer is public assistance.
When I dropped our daughter off to school each morning, or picked her up in the afternoon, she was embarrassed about the rusty 1995 Dodge pickup truck I picked her up in. Must have been the crappiest vehicle in the line of cars to drop off or pickup students. I guess that's life in the 10%. Don't get me started about how all her friends had iPhones...
Let's be focused on ourselves. Let's not worry about who works hard, who is materialistic, who is lazy. Simply focus only on yourself, or improving yourself. Only being concerned with others if someone is impeding your happiness (danger to you, etc.), or if you want to show loving compassion. Otherwise, worry about YOU - and only you - your life, your finances, your relationships. Judging others will never make you happy.
Let's forget poverty in Hawaii. The bigger question might be: How do poor people make it through life in Third World countries? Answer: they just do - they know no differently. And some live there happily ever after. Happiness is not external - it's a state of mind.
Is Hawaii a Sanctuary City? Usually, Sanctuary cities have lots of goodies in place to help poor people, for example: New York City, being a Sanctuary city, has loads of rent subsidized buildings where the rent is kept at a minimum for people of low income or the rent will go up very minimally per year. They have also have lots of laws to protect the poor, and immigrants, which this is made possible through government grants.
I am not an expert on Hawaii in that field but it is a Democratic state so i presume they offer a lot of goodies for homeless. In fact my brother who is an avid reader when it comes to local stuff says Hawaii are the best place to be if you are homeless. They take best care of you from whole the states compared...
I thought Honolulu was supposed to be so expensive?! My GF and I are looking at ocean view condos and one is 3,100 square feet penthouse for $800,000. That’s extremely cheap! Every condo we’ve found in the search is stupidly cheap, especially given exponentially lower property taxes. Definitely a place we will be buying a vacation condo one day. I don’t know any other city where you could buy a cheaper condo among major cities. Wow, I must be missing something.
I thought Honolulu was supposed to be so expensive?! My GF and I are looking at ocean view condos and one is 3,100 square feet penthouse for $800,000. That’s extremely cheap! Every condo we’ve found in the search is stupidly cheap, especially given exponentially lower property taxes. Definitely a place we will be buying a vacation condo one day. I don’t know any other city where you could buy a cheaper condo among major cities. Wow, I must be missing something.
Was that a fee simple or leasehold property? What is the monthly maintenance fee? Is parking included, or does it cost extra? Is the building newer or older? Older buildings can require extensive costly maintenance which can be added as a special assessment, costing you a lot of money. Are there crime problems in the area, or other problems that could be reducing the value? Is renting the property when you’re not using it allowed?
I thought Honolulu was supposed to be so expensive?! My GF and I are looking at ocean view condos and one is 3,100 square feet penthouse for $800,000. That’s extremely cheap! Every condo we’ve found in the search is stupidly cheap, especially given exponentially lower property taxes. Definitely a place we will be buying a vacation condo one day. I don’t know any other city where you could buy a cheaper condo among major cities. Wow, I must be missing something.
That unit is a fee simple foreclosure sale. I would agree the price is low for the market given the size and condition of the unit. However, the tax and HOA fees of $4,300 per month are not cheap and likely make the property more difficult to sell. Thus the foreclosure bank is pricing low to get the property off its books as quickly as it can.
If it were located in a hot area of Kakaako, then it would likely be priced higher. But as a foreclosure with a very high HOA, the bank just wants it gone.
I am not an expert on Hawaii in that field but it is a Democratic state so i presume they offer a lot of goodies for homeless. In fact my brother who is an avid reader when it comes to local stuff says Hawaii are the best place to be if you are homeless. They take best care of you from whole the states compared...
I don't want to be homeless. Nothing to be jealous of. If one has ever been homeless for a length of time, no place seems ideal to be it.
Not sure how downing the weakest people in society brings about any happiness. Disparaging any group of people for that matter has no hopes of bringing about happiness - waste of time. It arouses negative emotions in oneself. Sure, if someone is hurting me physically, threatening/harassing me, or polluting my drinking water, I am going to yell....but just to stop the suffering or potential suffering it causes/may cause.
I am not an expert on Hawaii in that field but it is a Democratic state so i presume they offer a lot of goodies for homeless.
I can't compare it to other states, but I worked with the homeless in Honolulu and the idea of the State giving them "goodies" is utterly ridiculous. The "best" thing about being homeless in Hawaii is the beautiful weather - not because the State gives great benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WaikikiBoy
However, the tax and HOA fees of $4,300 per month are not cheap and likely make the property more difficult to sell.
The taxes and HOA are what keep me from being able to afford a humble condo I wanted. Ironically it was my landlady who would have sold it to me, but alas...
That unit is a fee simple foreclosure sale. I would agree the price is low for the market given the size and condition of the unit. However, the tax and HOA fees of $4,300 per month are not cheap and likely make the property more difficult to sell. Thus the foreclosure bank is pricing low to get the property off its books as quickly as it can.
If it were located in a hot area of Kakaako, then it would likely be priced higher. But as a foreclosure with a very high HOA, the bank just wants it gone.
How do poor people survive in Hawaii? With great difficulty. Mostly by living in large groups. When I first moved to Hawaii in driving around all the neighborhoods on Oahu looking for a place to live I was floored by all the cars parked at the homes. I thought WOW these people really love their cars, but that wasn't it at all, the reason there were so many cars is because multiple generations were all living together to be able to survive and they aren't all living in massive 4,000 sq foot homes, but in small modest 1300-1500 sq foot and I do mean modest.
On the island of Oahu the federal government considers $80k per year and below is as poverty level income.
To give you and example. I have two friends, (brothers) both of them college educated, working in what would be considered professional careers, saving everything they could and living with their parents in a modest home in Kaneohe, (modest by Hawaii standards, by mainland standards it would be considered tiny) until they were in their late twenties/early thirties. They both got engaged to be married at around the same time and at that point needed to move as their parent's house was too small to accommodate them, their parents and their wives. So did they take what they had been saving for years and buy houses or maybe condos? No, because they couldn't afford them. What they had to do in order to have a place to live was one built a small and I mean small house in their grandmother's backyard and the other added an apartment onto the grandmother's house, and these weren't paid for cash they still had a mortgage.
So many people in Hawaii who have incomes that would be considered healthy in most places on the mainland live paycheck to paycheck, just one crisis away from a financial meltdown. Hawaii has some of the highest credit card debt in the nation. Why? Because if there is some kind of emergency like your car breaks down, water heater goes out etc, the only way they have to pay for those things in on credit and those are the fortunate ones. Many locals who have lived in Hawaii all their lives, whose grandparent and great grand parents were born in Hawaii have to leave if they have any chance at the American Dream, ie owning a modest home, being able to buy a new car once in a while, taking a nice vacation every now and then etc.
I love Hawaii and miss it desperately, but I had to leave it, I had a plan that would enable us to have our house almost paid off by retirement with enough solar panels to eliminate our electric bill and to be able to buy two fairly new used cars, (cash) just before I retired that would with care last us until we went to that great Luau in the sky. Unfortunately, I became ill and despite my best efforts to continue working ended up disabled and after being cheated out of my long term disability I didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of remaining on Oahu with what I was getting.
But there is one thing that you have to realize about living in Hawaii. If your coming from the mainland, unless your wealthy, your standard of living is going to go down from what you had on the mainland, but your quality of life will go up. We had a very nice semi-custom home when we left the California Central Valley, but we both knew that as long as we lived in Hawaii we would never be able to afford a home like that again.
Living in Hawaii is more about quality of life versus standard of living and most who come to love Hawaii will fight tooth and nails to stay there despite the financial hardships it entails.
Gordon
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Poor people in Hawaii
