Nonprofit helps fly homeless woman, son home to N.Y.

A local nonprofit, church and business partnership raised air fare to fly a homeless woman and her two-year-old son home to New York in late August after they were stranded in the islands for a month. The homecoming will be the third the group has sponsored this summer. The effort that has been funded entirely with the private money after the state Legislature shot down a pilot program earlier this year.

The success of the return home program led some lawmakers to say the one-way tickets should be included in government plans to reduce Hawaii’s homeless population. The House committees on housing and human services held a briefing on the matter on Aug. 18.

The mother and son, New York natives, were stranded on Oahu after plans for their return trip fell through because the woman’s estranged mother reneged on a promise to pay for their return. They ended up at the Institute for Human Services. After calling her fiancé, the woman contacted several shelters and support organizations before being referred to Help the Hawaii Homeless, a nonprofit that has spearheaded this summer’s return efforts. Contributing to the effort were Word of Life, Pacific Revival Center, and the Quality Air Conditioning Company.

At the hearing, Help the Hawaii Homeless Executive Director Tisha Woytenko said, while the program has been effective at helping a few of Honolulu's homeless, the one-way tickets are not the only answer and cannot be applied to everyone. Help the Hawaii Homeless has a list of 12 candidates under review; each must go through an exhaustive verification process. “We’d hate for people to think that we are exporting homeless people,” she said.