This unsheltered Maui community is stepping up to improve the road they call home
It’s shower and laundry day at Holomua Road in Pāʻia, where nearly 30 Maui residents live unsheltered.
“Hey Danny, come on in, there’s butter rolls and sushi, and we got some cold water over there!” said Mōʻī Kawaʻakoa, as she welcomed residents to the tent. She leads a hui called Holomua Outreach that's been working to support the unhoused community there over the past year.
Once lined with piled-up rubbish, the road is now cleaner thanks to regular community cleanups by residents and volunteers. There’s a makeshift hub with donated food, water and supplies. Kawaʻakoa also connects residents to support services like SNAP, or food stamps, and helps them get state ID cards.
“What matters is breaking through those barriers,” she said. “Walking out of those facilities, successful that I got seven out of eight people their IDs. The whole community to come over here and shower and laundry, cleaning up the community, and connecting our sheltered community here, bridging that gap by cleanups.”
Maui Rescue Mission visits Holomua every two weeks to bring its shower and laundry trailer services to residents, led by Executive Director Scott Hansen, seated in this photo.
Every two weeks, Maui Rescue Mission brings its mobile shower and laundry trailer to Holomua.
Scott Hansen, the executive director of the organization, makes regular rounds of the island’s unsheltered communities.
“It's like a one-stop shop kind of thing, so people that have a hard time with transportation, or don't know where to go to get the help they need, it all comes to them,” Hansen said. “We also are trying to create a sense of family, ‘ohana, a sense of community, so that people don't feel like they're just in this on their own and they're just trying to figure it all out on their own.”
At Holomua Outreach, the unsheltered community is close to Kawaʻakoa’s heart. She said her dad has been homeless for decades, and her sister lives at Holomua Road.
Some there say they became houseless because of the high cost of rent, and others couldn’t find a place that would accommodate their dogs.
