Top 40 radio deejays used to say: “…and the hits just keep on coming!” Which was fun. But some hits that keep on coming locally are not fun; they stun. In 2017, an Aloha United Way (AUW) commissioned report showed that 48% of people in Hawai`i were living below the $72,000 threshold a family of four needs for basics- food, clothing, housing, health care, et al. This ALICE Report (“Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed”) reported that a mind-boggling 212,000 local households lived at or below this perilous poverty line.
A new Hawai`i Community Foundation study done in conjunction with the Financial Health Network looked at people’s abilities here to pay bills on time, have sufficient long-term and liquid (available) savings, have manageable debt and appropriate insurance, and have money systems in place to allow them to sleep somewhat comfortably. The report stated that 69% of adults surveyed were struggling in regard to these items.
The University of Hawai`i’ Economic Research Organization (UHERO) annually comes out with surveys reminding us about our high cost of living, the emigration of local people (three years in a row we’ve lost population), and how personal incomes are simply too low for too many.
We know people who work two or more jobs, live in multi-generational homes, and cannot retire here “early” in life (gosh, late 60s?). And we know that realistic answers must involve creativity, public/private/academic partnerships, egoless cooperation, truly affordable housing, modern education, outside success stories which include “best practices”, and immediate action with accountability. Solutions cannot constantly require that struggling households keep getting nickel-and-dimed with tax bumps or that small businesses suffer unfairly, or must pass costs down.
While it might be hard to call this growing financial hardship scenario an immediate emergency, like the coronavirus, we surely need to treat it with a greater sense of urgency. It is a crisis. These people dealing with constant concerns- and there are quite a few as every survey keeps showing us- are our family, neighbors and friends. We can’t afford 10-years of relative inaction. Our population is aging. We can’t keep ignoring the obvious. “Our keiki are our future”. Prove it. Unemployment here is at a record low, while tourist numbers are at a record high. Those numbers won’t last forever… nor can these known problems if we want Hawai`i to remain a special place.
Think about it…