LeAnne S <cherokeecowgurl@gmail.com>
Tue, Feb 2, 12:31 PM (22 hours ago)
to AH.committee
To the Housing committee,
Please hear our cries! This has been out of control for years and the rents have gotten ridiculous for our local families. Most of us are working two or more jobs and still struggle! What about our single parents?
Your graphs and numbers are catered to the rich! The average family does not make close to your exuberant numbers! They are "fairy tail numbers." Most employers don't even offer full-time hours in this day and age. You must remember with our wages it all should not ALL be dumped into rent and or house payment. I don't know about you but here is a list of my additional expenses.
1.Electric
2. Water
3. Trash
4. Phone
5. Food
6. Car Payment, car insurance, safety check, registration
7. Medical Insurance
8. Clothes (personal and family)
9. Hygiene care
10. Sport fees
and as you well know, the list goes on.
My husband and I struggle and our single daughter struggles and has had more stress in her life trying to keep a shelter over her and her children's head, more than you could ever imagine. There have been a few times when a few of my children and even my husband and I went houseless because we could not come up with thousands of dollars to move into a home. We are good hardworking people that always left a property ten times better than when we moved on it! My husband and children are of Hawaiian ancestry which to me is SINFUL to not help the FIRST PEOPLE of their own land!
This is what I have been seeing, foreigners, moving here from the many places that they derive from, signing up for government help and or going to homeless shelters, and being bumped up ahead of the people that actually live here and have been here for years and our local keep waiting at the bottom! This is NOT okay nor fair in any way!
We should not have to move to the mainland to survive. It is high time our government helps the people of this aina! We moved to the mainland as Hawaii rental prices were overpriced years ago. We felt so sad not being around our children and watching our grandchildren grow up. We came back to Maui and we really tried to make a go of it. The high rent prices made it seem hopeless for us to obtain a home. We ended moving back to Molokai where rents are somewhat cheaper. Unfortunately, the same thing is happening here at a very fast rate. Again, we are separated from our family due to living where we can afford it. We hardly see our children and and grandchildren which was not the idea of returning home and being with ohana!
The rich are moving here and buying up properties. Our local people just keep getting pushed out. This is their home and they are treated like second class citizens with no rights. Hawaiian homes is another joke! Thousands of familys have been on the waiting list and hundreds have died waiting. They have every excuse in the book but yet they lease to non Hawaiians. Our islands have been run by greedy, cheating people.
Testimonies received from AH Committee
Please see attached testimony.
Mahalo,
Joe Kent
Executive vice president
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Please see attached testimony.
Affordable housing
LeAnne S <cherokeecowgurl@gmail.com>
Tue, Feb 2, 12:31 PM (22 hours ago)
to AH.committee
To the Housing committee,
Please hear our cries! This has been out of control for years and the rents have gotten ridiculous for our local families. Most of us are working two or more jobs and still struggle! What about our single parents?
Your graphs and numbers are catered to the rich! The average family does not make close to your exuberant numbers! They are "fairy tail numbers." Most employers don't even offer full-time hours in this day and age. You must remember with our wages it all should not ALL be dumped into rent and or house payment. I don't know about you but here is a list of my additional expenses.
1.Electric
2. Water
3. Trash
4. Phone
5. Food
6. Car Payment, car insurance, safety check, registration
7. Medical Insurance
8. Clothes (personal and family)
9. Hygiene care
10. Sport fees
and as you well know, the list goes on.
My husband and I struggle and our single daughter struggles and has had more stress in her life trying to keep a shelter over her and her children's head, more than you could ever imagine. There have been a few times when a few of my children and even my husband and I went houseless because we could not come up with thousands of dollars to move into a home. We are good hardworking people that always left a property ten times better than when we moved on it! My husband and children are of Hawaiian ancestry which to me is SINFUL to not help the FIRST PEOPLE of their own land!
This is what I have been seeing, foreigners, moving here from the many places that they derive from, signing up for government help and or going to homeless shelters, and being bumped up ahead of the people that actually live here and have been here for years and our local keep waiting at the bottom! This is NOT okay nor fair in any way!
We should not have to move to the mainland to survive. It is high time our government helps the people of this aina! We moved to the mainland as Hawaii rental prices were overpriced years ago. We felt so sad not being around our children and watching our grandchildren grow up. We came back to Maui and we really tried to make a go of it. The high rent prices made it seem hopeless for us to obtain a home. We ended moving back to Molokai where rents are somewhat cheaper. Unfortunately, the same thing is happening here at a very fast rate. Again, we are separated from our family due to living where we can afford it. We hardly see our children and and grandchildren which was not the idea of returning home and being with ohana!
The rich are moving here and buying up properties. Our local people just keep getting pushed out. This is their home and they are treated like second class citizens with no rights. Hawaiian homes is another joke! Thousands of familys have been on the waiting list and hundreds have died waiting. They have every excuse in the book but yet they lease to non Hawaiians. Our islands have been run by greedy, cheating people.
Time for changes!!!!
LeAnne Stephens
Molokai resident