When the rain and wind pick up in Hawaiʻi, Kauiomiliona Raspotnik takes cover in her makeshift shelter made of tarp, plywood and other finds.
Raspotnik has been homeless from five to eight years, and she lives on the side of Farrington Highway in Mākaha, Oʻahu. She, like many others living in encampments during a storm, refuses to seek shelter.
“Because why?” she said. “We have a lot of our belongings, and we don’t want people to steal from us. Because we are out here struggling.”
On Saturday, outreach workers across the state were trying to convince people without safe, stable housing to head to shelters during a powerful Kona storm…