Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/379384
ByCathyBussewitz The Associated Press HONOLULU Jim Trevar- then used to teach tourists how to surf on Hawaii's famed Waikiki Beach. These days, the 62-year- old is homeless after his Waikiki landlord canceled his lease and hiked the rent, he said. He spends his days reading surfside and figur- ing out where he's going to get his next meal, and his nights finding a safe place to rest where he won't be shooed away by police. Trevarthen is one of the many homeless people who live on the shores of para- dise, but he's feeling the im- pact of Honolulu's ramped up efforts to move its home- less population away from its tourist meccas. Under pressure from the visitor industry, the Hono- lulu City Council is tak- ing up a slew of proposals to ban sitting, lying down, defecating and urinating on sidewalks in Waikiki and other public places. In another proposal, the city may allow some of Oa- hu's estimated 4,700 home- less people to camp on Sand Island, a remote, mostly in- dustrial island far from re- sorts that was used during World War II as an intern- ment camp for Japanese- Americans and is home to a wastewater treatment plant and former dump. "We are pushing to make it illegal to sleep on the sidewalks of Waikiki, because we've heard from our hotel industry that it's very concerned about keep- ing Waikiki as an attractive visitor destination," said Jesse Broder Van Dyke, spokesman for Mayor Kirk Caldwell. Tourism officials say visi- tors are complaining about the homeless population on the islands and warning they may not return for an- other vacation. Caldwell gets several let- ters every week from tour- ists, especially from Asia, who complain about in- teractions with Hawaii's homeless people, Broder Van Dyke said. The com- plaints range from seeing someone urinate in pub- lic to being upset after an intoxicated person con- fronted a family. "Waikiki has seen an in- flux of homeless individuals who sit and lie on the side- walks, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk on the sidewalk or access busi- nesses, which can create an unsafe and uninviting sit- uation," Mike McCartney, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, told the City Council. Homeless people in Waikiki say that if the pro- posals pass, it won't alter their lives very much, be- cause they are already of- ten cited for camping out — racking up tickets they can't afford to pay. "They're trying to ha- rass everyone, and they're doing a pretty good job of it," Trevarthen said. Caldwell's administra- tion is working to imple- ment Housing First, a pro- gram that will provide per- manent housing units for the chronically homeless on Oahu, aiming to house people in the communities where they reside. But while $45 million for the program has been approved, it will be about a year before individuals can move into permanent housing, Broder Van Dyke said. That's why the city is putting together the tempo- rary Housing First Transi- tion Center on Sand Island, which will be operational for one to three years. At the vacant lot far from hotels and resorts, the city will provide overnight se- curity, mobile bathrooms and a shuttle bus so camp- ers can connect with the public bus system. The city exhaustively searched 25 locations, but most were deemed unus- able because they were too close to residential ar- eas or schools. It will ac- commodate an estimated 100 people, leaving home- less advocates wondering where the rest of the popu- lation will go. "These are the people who refuse to go to shel- ters," said Breene Hari- moto, a city councilman who plans to oppose the measures. "Without side- walks, where do they go? They get arrested, they get a criminal record, and now it's more difficult for them to get out of their situation." Banning sitting and lying on sidewalks goes against a Hawaiian tradition es- tablished by King Kame- hameha I, who encouraged islanders to lie by the road- side without fear of harm, said Bishop Stephen Ran- dolph Sykes, president of the Interfaith Alliance Hawaii. VISITOR INDUSTURY Ho no lu lu w ei gh s mo vi ng homeless from tourist hubs CATHYBUSSEWITZ‑THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Jim Trevarthen, 62, watches the surfers Monday near Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Trevarthen is one of many homeless people who is unhappy with the city's proposals to ban sitting and lying down on sidewalks in the tourist mecca. LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE ‑ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Rosemary Anderson of Watsonville, Calif., testifies on, Wednesday, before the US Senate Aging Committee. By Kimberly Hefling The Associated Press WASHINGTON Rosemary Anderson could be 81 by the time she pays off her student loans. After strug- gling with divorce, health problems and an under- water home mortgage, the 57-year-old anticipates there could come a day when her Social Security benefits will be docked to make the payments. Like Anderson, a growing percentage of aging Amer- icans struggle to pay back their student debt. Tens of thousands of them even see their Social Security bene- fits garnished when they cannot do so. Among Americans ages 65 to 74, 4 percent in 2010 carried federal student loan debt, up from 1 percent six years earlier, according to a Government Accountabil- ity Office report released Wednesday at a Senate Ag- ing Committee hearing. For all seniors, the collective amount of student loan debt grew from about $2.8 bil- lion in 2005 to about $18.2 billion last year. Student debt for all ages totals $1 trillion. "Some may think of stu- dent loan debt as just a young person's problem," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the committee. "Well, as it turns out, that's increasingly not the case." Anderson, of Watsonville, California, amassed $64,000 in student loans, beginning in her 30s, as she worked to- ward her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She said she has worked multiple jobs — she's now at the Univer- sity of California, Santa Cruz — to pay off credit card debt and has renegotiated terms of her home mortgage, but hasn't been able to make a student loan payment in eight years. The amount she now owes has ballooned to $126,000. "I find it very ironic that I incurred this debt as a way to improve my life, and yet I still sit here today because the debt has become my un- doing," Anderson testified. Despite not making pay- ments, she's managed to keep the debt in good stand- ing by getting permission to defer the payments even as the amount she owes has grown, she said. Ed Boltz, a bankruptcy attorney in Durham, North Carolina, who is president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said in an inter- view that many of the se- niors he sees with student loan debt are also strug- gling with challenges such a medical problems, job loss or divorce. Seniors burdened with student debt GROWING PERCENTAGE By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON The tea party may have learned its lesson. As Congress finishes work on a must-pass spend- ing bill set for votes next week, the most conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill are eager to send a message on immigration, and stand firm against a government lending bank. But a year after they forced a 16-day partial gov- ernment shutdown over President Barack Obama's health care law, few seem to have the stomach to push their demands that far again. "No question we learned that with the aid of the news media the Democrats were able to pin the blame on us" for last year's shut- down, said conservative Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. This time around, Brooks said, "We need to pass whatever funding neces- sary to prevent a govern- ment shutdown, first and foremost." Rep. John Fleming, R-La., another tea party- aligned lawmaker, said: "I don't think any of us want to have a big battle" over the spending bill to fund gov- ernment operations into December. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Wednesday that votes on the measure would be put off to next week to give lawmakers time to weigh the Obama ad- ministration's request to in- clude authorization to aid Syrian rebels fighting Is- lamic State terrorists. Meanwhile some con- servative lawmakers said they are leaning toward supporting the legislation crafted by GOP leaders, even though outside groups on the right are pushing for a "no" vote because it in- cludes an extension of the Export-Import Bank. Many conservatives say the bank that lends to U.S. exporters amounts to corporate wel- fare. At the same time, conser- vatives are signaling they won't use the bill to make a stand over immigration. Conservatives led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, held a press conference this week demanding that Senate Democrats allow a vote on a House-passed measure to block Obama from using executive action to set im- migration policy. But Cruz, who played a lead role in last year's shut down, stopped short of threatening to op- pose the spending bill if it doesn't include such a mea- sure. And he disclosed no plans to push House mem- bers to stand firm against the legislation if it doesn't deal with immigration, like he goaded them to do last year over health care. The new dynamic repre- sents a change from the fi- nal days before Congress' August recess, when con- servatives coached by Cruz and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R- Ala., forced House GOP leaders to scuttle legisla- tion to deal with the unac- companied minors at the border, and replace it with tougher measures. This time, "They'll make their own decision about that over there," Sessions said. "No one wants to be in a shutdown mode." Even those conserva- tives who plan to oppose the spending bill for one reason or another appear to be doing so in full confi- dence that it will pass any- way, with some Democratic support. "When I looked at the bill I figured that the lead- ership's already worked this out with the Democrats," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was among the lawmakers in a meeting Tuesday night with Cruz. SPENDING BILL Te a pa rt y, l es so n le ar ne d, p la ys n ic e th is t im e The Associated Press SEATTLE The Bill & Me- linda Gates Foundation an- nounced Wednesday that it will spend $50 million — on top of $10 million already committed — to support emergency response to the Ebola outbreak in West Af- rica, marking the group's largest donation to a hu- manitarian effort. "It became clear to us over the last 7 to 10 days that the pace and scope of the epidemic was increasing significantly," Chris Elias, president of global develop- ment for the world's largest charitable foundation, told The Associated Press. The Seattle-based foun- dation said the money will go to the United Nations, the World Health Organi- zation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention and international organizations involved in fighting transmission of the virus. The money will be used to purchase supplies and to develop vaccines, thera- pies and better diagnostic tools. The foundation wants to help stop the outbreak as well as accelerate develop- ment of treatments and im- prove prevention. Elias said they have been talking to the foundation's partners around the world to assess the best use of its dollars and could not say yet how much would be spent on the emergency re- sponse and how much on research and development. "One of our key advan- tages is flexibility," he said. HUMANITARIAN EFFORT Ga te s Fo un da ti on t o sp en d $50M on Ebola response 100JacksonStreet, Red Bluff (530) 529-1220 NEW Membership Specials CallorComeIn for details PHYSICIAN REFERRAL AFREESERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 888-628-1948 New physicians arriving every month RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! 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