General Hawaii Information

Everymanalion

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Just wondering if anyone has ever been homeless in Hawaii? I watch Dog the bounty hunter and was there a few times when i was in my teens but that was family vacation stuff, is spanging easy? hospitable? It looks like a wonderful place as long as you stay lowkey and do not get addicted to drugs. I heard they can "deport" you back to the mainland, this true? Any info helps, thanks!
 

Kale

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I'm planning on doing this very thing a year from November. I'm gonna save up 5k and just live outside until I run out of cash so when the time comes I'll do a few posts about it if you're still interested
 

RockyTheFlyingSquirrel

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Hawaii is the easiest place to be Homeless in the states, man, hit up the beach communities, it's not out of place for people to live in tents there, the entire community is very accepting of it, and getting around without a vehicle is as easy as one two three. Not to mention it gives the highest amount of food stamps in the USA.
 
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Kim Chee

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I lived in Hawaii for half a year in a B&B. It was one of those million dollar places with an ocean view where you can rent a room or two and stay during your vacation. I had free meals and a place to stay in exchange for a little work on the farm. Just to keep it real, I did sleep outside a few times and would often dumpster dive on Taco Smell. The owner even offered me the opportunity to build a tree house to live in. It would have been sweet, but I had other things in mind. I couldn't tell you about spanging. I think in tourist areas you may have some luck, but I don't have any personal experience to offer. Hawaii is part of the United States and you will not be deported to another state. Big difference in deportation and extradition, so if somebody wants to tell a story about how their vagina hurts from being deported, whatever. I would recommend getting on CL while on the mainland, try to develop some contacts (yes, multiple) and follow up on them when you get there. There's already enough bums on Hawaii and the locals will be glad to tell you so. There's lots of places you can set up a work/trade situation and get to stay there long term.

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/lbg/2988332267.html
Work Trade on Farm (Kapoho)
Work consists of harvesting, pruning, thinning, clearing weeds, etc. Also starting gardens. Work requirements 15-20 hrs/week.
Private campsite provided. Electricity for charging batteries is available, as well as internet.
Will upgrade campsites to cabins for right candidates.
Also potential income opportunity for right individual(s) after probationary period.
Please respond with email address, phone number, and a little info about yourself.
 

iamwhatiam

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i've been homeless in hawaii before on several occasions... and at least on oahu, good luck spanging. for one, people from all over the world come to hawaii for vacation, and if they see your dirty ass sitting there with your hand out - they'll probaly say to themselves, "wow, this guy is homeless in hawaii? why i should i fund his vacation here?". and if you plan on busking here, you'd better be pretty good and know at least some hawaiian songs. there's people who busk here, but they have a nice setup with mikes etc....or they a local group playin hawaiian songs. there are worktrade possibilities here, or you could always recycle cans and bottles............better be REAL careful about where you squat! go on the wrong property, and the locals won't hesitate to shoot your ass and throw your body in the ocean. also, a lot of the locals don't like people (especially haoles) coming from the mainland...this place is already overcrowded. so you might not get the best reception if you camp in one of those tent communities rocky was talking about. oh yea, big part of the homeless pop here are meth addicts....so your stuff will probably get stolen, unless you're in a really good hidden spot (good luck finding one). and you're not gonna wanna be packing all your gear all the time in this heat! so better hide it well........just above all, don't be disrepectful to the locals and be careful who you try and socialize with, some of the locals here are just straight up ignorant racist thugs that will fuck with you
 
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iamwhatiam

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but really, if you come to hawaii....i'd recommend saving up some money and just buyin a van to live in or somewhere cheap to stay. normally i would say fuck money...but in this case, its good to have some. or at least enough to buy your plane ticket back to the mainland if you realize its not working out for you here. oh yea.....and i'm pretty sure its like a requirement that you learn how to surf while you're here :)
 

keg

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or the krisnas are really in need now.You can tell how stressed they are,and trying harder than normal to get fresh blood.The greenpeace people where everyplace about a year ago but have not seen them in long time,but they might be still around.Just do what all the white kids do that come from the mainland,sell.The 2 main people just left and are not coming back,so act quick and
 

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Finally came full circle. Lost the job, couldn't pay rent, landlord gave me a full month and a half before filing, just kept bullshitting to buy time to get dough. Judge is kicking my ass out so I'll be out the day before the sheriff is due to assist me in leaving. Didn't save enough to rubber tramp it out of the cold so I bit the bullet and did what seemed best to do during December in the midwest, got a one way ticket to Honolulu.

Any advice would be definitely appreciated. There's a lot of good info around here about Honolulu and Hawaii in general, but if you got anything extra that'd be awesome.

Also wondering if I should grab food stamps in Ohio before I head out. I've heard Hawaii gives way more if you just tell em you've been "homeless" there for awhile but they take two weeks rather than six days to get you them.
 
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iamwhatiam

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make sure you have enough saved up for a ticket back to the mainland...
 

East

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make sure you have enough saved up for a ticket back to the mainland...

Yeah I've seen your posts (good information), no worries, I have enough to get out. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this if I didn't already know some people considering the bullshit that comes with the territory tbh. Did that seafood company get you a ticket back to Alaska btw?
 
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iamwhatiam

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paid for my own ticket there. i'll probably go back up and work for another seafood company in another town tho next summer
 

birdsonthebat

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You've got alot ahead of you and you'll figure this stuff out quickly. Don't stay in Chinatown beyond leisure activity. You will find the best night to night (b/c that's all it is anyway) squatting in/around diamond head. There's alot of beach space that's easily accessible and you'll always know when you're too close b/c there's a shower near-by. showers will be easy. Waikiki is great and it's unlikely you'll ever have trouble but Hawaii is the homeless capitol of and amerika and it's pretty controversial. They buy plane tickets back to Haole land for some. Get used to hearing haole, I guess you're a
haole but I don't know...if you're gonna be a squatter stay in/around Honolulu and away from the rural parts unless it's some touristy place. The North shore prolly doesn't want you there but alot end up around there and Their's a place you can even camp, just ask when you're at the North shore.

If you're gonna stay long termish goto Kauai. The homeless pop there is much smaller and several beaches will allow you to pitch your tent without worry. Food stamps are easy. Honolulu takes a little longer maybe but no more than a week since you don't have an address they'll think you're homeless or something. 3 days is prolly more like it. Hawaiians are running shit Hawaiian but it runs pretty smooth. It's all just my opinion but you're way better off on the big island to start. The transportation is free there and the buses go everywhere and on time plus, hell, it's the big island so more good squatting. Dude Oahu is Fucking sketchy and beautiful and places like barbers point or Chinatown are places you need to just avoid unless of course you have a really good reason. Or something. you're gonna find everything but coconuts and sunshine had to be shipped there so it's expensive, whatever it is is expensive dude. Hope you like spam and rice. Wish I was going. Wish I were there. good luck
Finally came full circle. Lost the job, couldn't pay rent, landlord gave me a full month and a half before filing, just kept bullshitting to buy time to get dough. Judge is kicking my ass out so I'll be out the day before the sheriff is due to assist me in leaving. Didn't save enough to rubber tramp it out of the cold so I bit the bullet and did what seemed best to do during December in the midwest, got a one way ticket to Honolulu.

Any advice would be definitely appreciated. There's a lot of good info around here about Honolulu and Hawaii in general, but if you got anything extra that'd be awesome.

Also wondering if I should grab food stamps in Ohio before I head out. I've heard Hawaii gives way more if you just tell em you've been "homeless" there for awhile but they take two weeks rather than six days to get you them.
 

birdsonthebat

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Oh...I wish someone had suggested this to me but if I had to do it over once I had picked my baggage up I'd get on any city bus leaving b/c eventually every bus goes to the main terminal and it's soooo much easier trying to figure out where Togo when you're there. You'll end up in diamond head unless you're brave enough to pitch on the sidewalk like hundreds of others.
 

birdsonthebat

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Maybe you'll find something in this useful: making and keeping $ is gonna be a real job and it's entirely unlikely you'll find a job. Just not gonna happen. If you're on Oahu you can def busk but only the talented do really well and a good spot is hard to find b/c the most talented get them. There's alot of street performers in Waikiki tho and that was one of the things i enjoyed the most.

You can make $ picking up shells. Each island has its own shell unique to that islands eco system. The beaches they are found are few and the people picking them are highly territorial about their spots but they are public beaches so anyone can pick them. The Oahu shell,I forget the name, is one of the few that's easier to collect hence it's more common and worth less. In a few hours time you could make a few bracelets from coconut twine (within arms reach everywhere) and the Oahu shell and sell them in Waikiki for like 10$ each. Coconut twine is easy to make.

Kauai has the ainini shell and you'll only have access to one beach, ainini beach on the North shore, that has them. The ainini shell is the size of this @ symbol so imagine being on your hands and knees under an Hawaiian sun looking for that. They come in just about every color but mostly pinkish-white and sell--in pristine condition--for .15 apiece the less common colors go for as much as .25 cents. This is a very doable thing and I met real people that picked them up and made paper money doing it. A mason jar of ainini shells would go for about 3k bucks dude. The big island shells are worth practically nothing and they are hard to get but, yes, Oahu, Kauai and Maui has shells an industrious person could find a plane ticket in the sand if they scratched around long enough. Maui has a highly desirable shell and the beaches you find it at are more accessible and less competition to pick. The shells have established buyers so find them sell them. If you learn your shells their are some really rare finds that go for twenty bucks but they are very rare and even when you find one it's likely it's not in pristine condition and a shell not pristine is worth nothing.

An easy way to get cash on Oahu is when you get your food stamps goto Chinatown and but the twenty $ bags of rice and then on some open sidewalk sell them for fifteen. You'll sell every bag you have in thirty minutes. Food will absolutely never be a problem for you. If you go hungry in Hawaii you're just not trying. Their's a vegetarian soup kitchen outside of waimea Kauai that would cost about 15$ to eat a meal at were it a real restaurant. Those women that run it care dude. They want folks to have a good, nutritious meal and they hold up their end. Boxes of good are given away and meals are brought to numerous parks. You will not go hungry in Hawaiian.

If you're completely broke and doing the hand to mouth sustenance living your living options are, IMO, completely limited and I've done this myself so with alot of confidence I'll say it's strictly enforced. Hawaii is cool to homeless folks. Geez, Hawaii is soooo laid back it gets some people in trouble b/c they don't realize it's just a facade, man. Sure, they want everyone to aloha like da kine but you really can get arrested on one of their smoking weed (or Meth
 

birdsonthebat

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Accidentally hit post. But yeh drinking Mickeys and smoking dope in public is actually illegal there. You'd never know it until you forget that. Dude the cops don't give a fuck if you drink a forty or smoke dope out in the open there but if you take that as a license to behave inappropriately...you goto jail.

I don't know but you prolly are not gonna love Oahu. Getting around the islands is easy peezies b/c it's cheap. I'd get food stamps, buy/sell rice, get ticket to Kauai or Maui and look for shells.

You're gonna be arriving in the teeth of the rainy season and it's gonna rain everyday and it's gonna rain hard and it's gonna rain for hours if not days on end and it's not gonna stop raining till about June. all the islands have an area that it rains less or, for example, poipu on Kauai it almost never rains. If you want to stay dry only so many of those places are actually available for you to squat. Maui has a dry area this time of year and it's available, the drier spots on Oahu aren't available to a squatter. The big island you'll find a much easier time staying dry. You're gonna get wet. Just face it, learn to love it b/c you're gonna get wet. Their's some other shit I could pass along to you about specific places to stay and cool shit to do on Kauai b/c I know the most about it but I spent nearly a month each on Maui hilo Oahu. Hawaii is cool. Anybody would love Hawaii
 
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birdsonthebat

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Soooo...yeh, go on-line and try to print off pics of the $ shells. If you apply yourself to the shell game it'll be a guaranteed cash pay back. Meth is to the Hawaiians what slavery is to black people in amerika. I don't speak for them but Meth is a really big prob there and for what it's worth you should prolly just go ahead and make the base assumption that if things start to seem off when you're dealing with someone, well, it's Meth. It just is. This is gonna be an everyday all the time sorta thing.

If you do goto Kauai and I highly recommend you do you'll prolly end up in one of three places. It's been about two years since I was last there but doubtful anything has changed and I still chat with one person and according to them nothing has changed there.
lihue is an easy place to squat. Next to Walmart is good, the airport area, the park has lots of great spots but you have to be packed up in the mornings.

If you're the typical, white haole type they have a place reserved for you and an entire task force assigned to making life more difficult for you. Still, the typical, white haole type ends up more often than not on the north shore and it's pretty close to a mad max situation. Lots and lots and seriously drugged out kids. Lots. Like no shortage of dude and their lives aren't easy to be sure.

The average, typical, Joe Hawaiian (or Jane) really does believe the whole aloha thing. It's not a cliche for them dude they are really sincere about living the aloha life and in some part it's live and let live. I'm sure Their's more to aloha than just that and not saying I know what it is but Hawaiians got aloha and not solely when it's convenient for them. They express aloha when it's not convenient. They got aloha.

As an aside capt cook said the Hawaiians were the most honest in all their dealings through the South Pacific and the kauaians the most honest of all. I guess people are people everywhere but they're also different too and the Hawaiians had alot of practice getting along with others on a small rock in the middle of nowhere before the Haoles arrived and started mucking shit up but, hey, haoles brought the pake lolo so they did something right too. Not that they didn't bring mosquitoes too. Imagine that. Those guys used to live life without mosquitoes and they're damn ferocious these days.
 

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