By Ohana Big Island News Team
Date: July 6, 2025

Hawai‘i, the land known worldwide for its aloha spirit, now stands at a moral crossroads. The ongoing and visible crisis of homelessness across the islands—especially on the Big Island—is not just a humanitarian emergency. It is the clearest evidence yet of a system that has lost its soul.

While millions of dollars flow through government agencies, non-profits, and federal programs claiming to “fight homelessness,” more families sleep in cars, more kupuna die on the streets under the blistering sun, and more children grow up in tents without hope. Where is the aloha in that?

When Aloha Becomes a Hashtag, Not a Way of Life

Hawai‘i’s leaders continue to speak about aloha in political speeches and marketing campaigns, yet ignore the cries of those suffering on sidewalks and beaches. True aloha—the deep, ancestral value of compassion, care, and shared responsibility—has been traded for grants, media optics, and inflated construction contracts that rarely result in permanent housing.

For years, billions have been funneled into so-called solutions. But where’s the outcome? The truth is brutal: much of this money disappears into administrative overhead, inflated salaries, and corrupt partnerships. “Affordable housing” projects take years to break ground while empty buildings rot across towns. Permitting delays, insider deals, and zoning games benefit developers, not the homeless.

A System Built to Pretend, Not to Solve

If a garbage can burns in Hilo, the community reacts. But if a homeless man burns under the same sun until his body gives out, no one blinks. It’s not just inhumane. It’s institutionalized neglect. State and county workers drive past the suffering daily, windows up, A/C blasting, numbed to what they’ve become part of.

This is no longer just a housing issue—it’s a mirror reflecting a deeper sickness in our system:

• Corruption masquerading as charity

• Bureaucracy killing action

• Prioritizing profit over people

• Silence over truth
  
  

The People Deserve Better

It’s time we stop pretending this is acceptable. Hawai‘i’s people deserve better. The homeless deserve better. Aloha is not a branding tool—it’s a sacred responsibility. And if we continue to allow the failure of aloha, we will all be homeless in spirit.

The message is clear. Homelessness in Hawai‘i is not the failure of the people. It is the failure of leadership, of greed, and of a system that protects the powerful while abandoning the vulnerable.

At Ohana Big Island, we won’t stop asking the hard questions or speaking truth. Because when aloha dies in the streets, we all lose.