In a tent overlooking the ocean on a warm January morning, Kaimana Kamau ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while preparing himself for the day’s errands. Tourists snorkeled just beyond the seawall, not far from his tent.
The sandwich was dropped off by volunteers from the nonprofit A Cup of Cold Water, which delivers aid to unhoused Maui residents. Kamau’s camp at Wahikuli Wayside Park is one of several stops on their Lahaina run.
In addition to sandwiches, volunteers brought clothes, shoes, bedding and hygiene items.
A Cup of Cold Water volunteer John Hirashima said the number of unhoused people the organization serves has been increasing over the last few months.
“After the fire, the numbers were very low everywhere. But now they're steadily rising to where they used to be," Hirashima said.
He can’t say why this is, but it’s possible the end of the Red Cross safe harbor period in September contributed. During safe harbor, those enrolled did not have to verify their eligibility to be housed in hotels under the Red Cross’s emergency shelter program.
The eligibility requirements included renting or owning a home that was destroyed in the fires.
Kamau was one of many unhoused people able to stay in hotel rooms before the safe harbor period ended. He had a room for about a month and a half before volunteers told him he was ineligible because he was experiencing homelessness before the fires.
“I can't stand the word homeless. Because this is my home,” he said. “I told a couple of Red Cross guys, ‘I'm not homeless. I'm from here, and welcome to my home — Maui.’”
Kamau calls his lifestyle alternative living, which he said is his choice. Before the fire, he had a tent, fishing gear, dive gear and bikes near Mala Wharf in Lahaina. Though it didn’t meet the technical definition of a house, it was his home.
He calls the fire the first crisis, and the paperwork from the Red Cross and FEMA the second.
“We didn't deal with the first crisis of the fire and (losing) our loved ones, and then here comes a financial crisis of paperwork and rules and regulations … And a lot of it is not to our standards of the way we live here in Hawaiʻi," Kamau said.
Kamau is now working with FEMA to get financial assistance. He lost his documents in the fire, but slowly, he said, he is getting them replaced. He has to go into the office in person and dropping by is his main errand for the day.
“It’s very overwhelming to get documents and paperwork done when you have none,” he said.
At a nearby beach park, Karl Schroeder sat at a picnic table drinking his morning coffee. He said he also had a hotel room for about six weeks before the safe harbor period ended. Before that, he camped behind the Lahaina Burger King with a friend. He spent most afternoons under the banyan tree selling T-shirts and writing poetry.
He said he lost several friends in the fire. Others are now scattered around the island, with his best friend staying at a shelter in Kahului.
“She stayed by me for like three years and I miss her. I talk to her on the phone. Eventually, we'll get her over here,” he said.
His friend didn’t want to return to West Maui. Schroeder, on the other hand, didn’t want to leave. He said volunteers did offer him a spot in a Kahului shelter after he lost his hotel room, but it was too short notice for him.
“They asked me if I wanted to, you know, be on a bus to go to the camp in 40 minutes time. Since I had one more day to stay at that hotel, I politely declined," Shroeder said.
Meanwhile, volunteers from A Cup of Cold Water are continuing to accept donations to fill the growing need.
John Hirashima said the organization is now serving about 40 people in Kīhei, 80 to 100 in Central Maui, and 60 to 80 in West Maui. Tents are one of the most desirable items and are distributed sparingly. Other popular items are towels, shorts, and slippers.
It’s unclear whether the number of unhoused people A Cup of Cold Water serves will continue to climb in the aftermath of the fires, or if it will level out at around the same numbers they were serving before.
Regardless, volunteers will continue their mission of bringing crucial supplies to those in need.
