SPECIAL: Up Close with Lisa of Share Your Mana

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Published on 05/22/2023 by Jason Schwartz

May 22, 2023- special segment about houselessness and solutions for right now. Jason Schwartz gets “personal” Up Close with Lisa Darcy, Exec. Director of Share Your Mana non-profit organization, hands-on helping. SPECIAL Gloves Off segment

SUMMARY &  TRANSCRIPT

  • [00:00 → 07:03] Introduction and Overview of Share Your Mana’s Mission and Approach
    Lisa Darcy, founder of the nonprofit Share Your Mana, discusses the unique and urgent work her organization undertakes in Maui’s houseless community. Unlike many government-funded or large agencies, Share Your Mana operates with nimbleness, immediacy, and deep community integration, responding instantly to needs without bureaucratic delays. Lisa emphasizes that many agencies are slow to adapt to rising acuity of houselessness problems due to funding structures and organizational inertia.

Key distinctions of Share Your Mana:

  • Immediate, on-the-ground response to individuals in crisis
  • Volunteer-based, community-supported organization free from funding-driven constraints
  • Modeling effective communication and advocacy language for other agencies
  • Prioritizing authentic and direct engagement with individuals rather than relying on distant reports or surveys
  • Educating the public to see beyond official narratives that often downplay or misrepresent realities of houselessness

Lisa expresses commitment to “taking the gloves off” — meaning addressing issues clearly, honestly, and without euphemism, while also maintaining respectful, neutral language. She underscores the importance of every interaction with unhoused individuals, highlighting the value of listening and presence over bureaucratic formalities.

  • [07:03 → 13:58] Systemic Failures and the Complexity of Needs in the Houseless Community
    The discussion turns to how government agencies often lack integration across essential services (mental health, housing, food aid), leading to fragmented and ineffective support. Lisa notes:
  • Maui’s lack of preparedness for increasing houselessness, especially among working-class and below populations, has worsened over the last decade.
  • Rising costs of living (e.g., food, housing) exacerbate the crisis, with many residents unable to qualify for subsidized housing despite having savings.
  • The housing waitlist for subsidized senior housing is around seven years, illustrating severe scarcity.
  • The tourist-driven housing market inflates rental costs, pushing locals out.

Lisa details how stress and panic in the community lead to increased crime and poor decision-making, fueled by lack of access to immediate help. She describes the critical problem of no reliable, on-demand phone support or triage system for unhoused individuals seeking shelter or services. Many have no phones or lose them, making access nearly impossible.

She highlights the vicious cycle of survival costs:

  • People must buy expensive single-serving pre-packaged food due to lack of cooking facilities, generating trash they cannot properly dispose of.
  • Attempts to share resources (“huying up”) are criminalized through citations and harassment by authorities, which breaks up natural community support networks—a practice shown by CDC and psychiatric research to increase harm.

Lisa also points out the punitive attitudes of local authorities toward houseless communities, which prevent collaborative solutions and deepen isolation.

  • [13:58 → 20:39] Employment Barriers and the Psychological Impact of Houselessness
    Lisa stresses the importance of employment or meaningful contribution for mental health and well-being. However, barriers abound:
  • Lack of transportation and hygiene facilities
  • No secure place to store belongings
  • The digital divide preventing access to higher-paying or sustainable jobs
  • The cost of maintaining cleanliness (laundry, bus fare, detergents) that consumes much of low wages

She notes that many unhoused people want to work and understand its benefits but face superhuman hurdles to participation.

Lisa shares painful anecdotes illustrating the violence and neglectfaced daily by houseless residents, including assaults against mentally ill individuals. These realities are rarely reported or funded by agencies.

  • [20:39 → 28:35] Structural Challenges in Government and Nonprofit Coordination
    Lisa describes her experience with local homelessness committees and alliances as frustrating and ineffective. Key points:
  • These committees often lack authority, budget, and power to enact real change; they serve primarily as discussion or announcement forums without follow-through.
  • Continuity is poor with rotating agency representatives attending meetings, impeding progress.
  • Proposals for collaboration or learning from other jurisdictions (e.g., Honolulu) are routinely voted down or ignored.
  • Funds allocated for homelessness efforts during the pandemic remain unspent or poorly used.
  • There is a punitive and narrow-minded approach by leadership, discouraging innovative or community-driven solutions.

Lisa emphasizes the need for a community-based, independent commission free from agency control to voice authentic needs and advocate effectively.

  • [28:35 → 38:44] The Need for Leadership, Transparency, and Inclusion of Community Voices
    Lisa critiques local leadership, including the mayor’s office and housing department, for inaction despite repeated requests for meetings and proposals. She highlights:
  • Lack of responsiveness and transparency from elected officials
  • The disconnect between agencies receiving funding and the frontline realities reported by Share Your Mana
  • Intentional exclusion of grassroots organizations and community members from decision-making processes
  • The harmful effect of “silence” and ignoring voices of those directly affected, which Lisa terms a form of violence
  • The critical need for integrated, multi-agency cooperation that centers lived experience

Lisa calls for leadership with specific skill sets, including knowledge of mental health, addiction, funding mechanisms, and systemic navigation. She stresses the importance of open dialogue where disagreement is welcomed as part of productive governance, contrasting this with Maui’s tendency to suppress conflict in favor of superficial agreement.

  • [38:44 → 50:33] Breaking the Cycle of Ineffectiveness and Building Community Resilience
    Lisa identifies historic and systemic roots of Maui’s housing crisis linked to colonialism, systemic racism, and mainland-imposed policies that marginalize Native Hawaiian and brown communities. She warns that continuing the current path risks genocide through neglect and displacement.

Lisa advocates for:

  • Holding leaders accountable to act immediately on emergency funds and resources
  • Recognizing the complex, intersecting needs of houseless populations beyond simple housing solutions
  • Creating safe spaces for community members to voice anger and frustration without repercussions
  • More frequent, accessible, and transparent public meetings with real community engagement
  • Publicizing meetings and decisions widely to increase accountability
  • Supporting grassroots efforts like Share Your Mana in coordination with formal agencies

She stresses the remarkable kindness and resilience of houseless people despite extreme adversity and calls for leadership that honors and supports this community spirit.

  • [50:33 → 56:30] Call to Action and Future Directions
    Lisa offers practical advice and encouragement for community involvement:
  • Take notes, document experiences, and communicate ideas for leadership and systemic change
  • Engage with elected officials and agencies by calling, emailing, and attending meetings
  • Understand the specialized skill sets required for effective leadership in homelessness and housing services
  • Embrace vision plus action—combining heartfelt commitment with knowledge and organized effort
  • Recognize that real needs must drive agency responses, not the other way around

The conversation closes with Lisa’s openness to ongoing collaboration and sharing updates with the public, emphasizing that everyone can be a “dream maker” and part of the solution.

Key Insights and Conclusions

Topic Insight/Conclusion
Share Your Mana Approach Nimble, community-based, immediate response, modeling effective language for agencies
Systemic Challenges Government agencies are fragmented, slow, punitive, and exclude community voices
Housing Crisis Realities Long waitlists, unaffordable rent, lack of integrated services, rising food costs, and survival expenses
Community Dynamics Punitive disruption of natural support networks harms mental health and safety
Employment Barriers Transportation, hygiene, digital divide, and low wages limit access to meaningful work
Leadership and Governance Lack of skilled, accountable, transparent leadership; meetings lack action and continuity
Historical Context Colonialism and systemic racism underpin current challenges; risk of ongoing genocide by neglect
Public Engagement Need for open, frequent, transparent dialogue that welcomes dissent and diverse viewpoints
Call to Action Grassroots involvement, documentation, advocacy, and demanding leadership with expertise

Timeline Table of Key Themes and Events

Timestamp Event/Theme
00:00 Introduction to Lisa Darcy and Share Your Mana’s mission
07:03 Discussion of Maui’s rising houselessness and systemic failures
13:58 Employment challenges and psychological impacts for unhoused individuals
20:39 Frustration with homelessness committees and agency coordination
28:35 Critique of local leadership and exclusion of community voices
38:44 Historical systemic causes and urgent need for leadership and transparency
50:33 Community resilience, call for safe expression of frustration, and need for public engagement
55:11 Closing call to action emphasizing vision plus action and the importance of skill-based leadership

Summary of Quantitative Data and Comparisons

Data Point Value / Description
Senior subsidized housing waitlist Approximately 7 years
Food stamp allocation cited $300 – $400 per month, insufficient due to high food prices
Cost of canned soup $3 to $8+ per can depending on brand and type
Rental cost example $609 per room for a visitor, highest in the state
Unemployment rate cited 2.8% (low figure, but jobs available are low-paying only)
Shelter capacity for hospital dischargees 2 beds available (insufficient for needs)

Timestamped Transcript

00:00
[Music] thank you Aloha and welcome to the neutral zone Maui neutralzone.com walking into the set here I left this is the office functioning headquarters of there she is in her own place Lisa Darcy share your Mana which has been out in the houseless community and all over this community helping people that have need you know there are a lot of agencies um what makes you different I know what I think makes a difference what do you feel makes you different than some of the other agencies that stand and claim that they’re helping

 

00:51
people in this area is that a funny question no it’s not and thank you for having me again Jason you’re an important part of our community and you know this is a segment of Maui neutral zone called gloves off what’s that that means well we take the gloves off and we shoot straight we hit straight and not only that we hit straight we’re here not to beat around the bush but see what is really going on because the bottom line is things are not getting better the last interview I did was you since then I’ve had personal

 

01:24
experience in the homeless houseless community and I’ve had people that went from being in a place to not and I’ve seen so much of what’s going on personally once you have a dog in the race and meaning a person in the race it takes a very personal thing so share your Mana just buy your name alone but what makes you different than these agencies if you will they don’t seem integrated let me shut up because I have lots of ideas shut up Jason let her talk so just as an overall point of view

 

02:08
share your mana and well I appreciate takes gloves off we actually never put gloves on because one of the reasons share your Mana started is to really get into the real needs and not the ones that get funded and through the last 70 80 years a lot of funding has gone into certain types of programming and in my experience it doesn’t keep up with the Acuity of need and so what I mean by that is the problems that people are experiencing who are ending up unhoused and unsheltered have gotten stronger and

 

02:51
bigger more quickly than agencies and certainly that government-funded agencies can adjust to and because they have to go they have all these you know structural reasons they have to go to make a change whereas something like share your Mana we’re very Nimble I can keep my phone on and if somebody calls in the middle of this and something’s going on I can just pick up and go and then go assist them and when I do that I model what we need to do with agencies I model really good language for them to use so that they

 

03:24
can get what they need because a lot of times they don’t know the language and they don’t know how to express what’s going on and you know when you have a completely community supported volunteer based uh program uh agency nonprofit we get to really deal with things in their in their immediate truth not in a report that’s a year away or a study or a survey in that immediate moment and my experience is that this is what’s needed to really be the the foundation or what percolates the needs up and so what we

 

04:07
try to do is we try first of all the public is very uneducated because they’ve only gotten the narrative from these other entities which are not percolating it up they’re taking it from the government and their funding sources down instead of make letting it come up so that’s where we’re different and we’re you know we’re lovers not Fighters taking the gloves off to me feels like I’m gonna like in a box I’m not much of a boxer so don’t worry I bring it up because I’m in a neutral zone and and uh

 

04:35
well then I want neutral language that’s really important but the reason that I by using the word gloves off is really because I want to address things well that’s a sober clear way right so we would be in its authenticity but often if I want to get people to tune in and I put gloves off people are going to think oh Jerry Springer some kind of show that and people will tune in and if I don’t get eyeballs we watched a lot of people I know skirt around me fit no skirt around things and you’ve got to get the

 

05:10
eyeballs I mean the thing that I know is somebody have to Market a subject that people just don’t want in their face you know there is some truth to that and there’s also truth to I am um not a big proponent of the huge marketing machine I don’t I just believe in showing up every day and doing what one person can do every day and um the idea of starting share your mono is not to go Global or to you know have all these I I don’t I don’t actually care who sees this and who doesn’t see

 

05:44
this what I do care about is every single interaction I have every single day and I’m I’m so I know this sounds it may sound um lofty uh but I do believe that every interaction plays a huge role in so many other interactions and my interactions may not be perfect every day however if I just concentrate on being in this space with you now then I don’t really have to worry about making too many mistakes because I’m not thinking about what I want in the future or how many how many things I if I want

 

06:21
this I want this so I really drop it down which is one of the successes of share your Mana is that the individuals whether it’s you or somebody unhoused or uh you know any meeting them in that person knows I’m listening to them and that’s not something I think we’re really good at as a species and certainly not in this industry this industry is very defensive it’s very um there’s a lot of anger there’s a lot of unmanaged energy which comes into this dialogue so I humbly will always back

 

07:03
this down to just what are we trying to accomplish today you’re in a unique situation I think and show you mana and that like you said you’re not burdened by this if you want to get something done and you’re a government agency or a committee you don’t have authority to do things you don’t have a way with budget you can’t just move resources you can recommend and you have so many dollars and you have so many people and you gotta help so many people and so what I found is that it becomes cumbersome and

 

07:35
then when you’re in the street like you are mental health mixes with need for food mixes with need for shelter in a way that the government doesn’t integrate delivery of these services so I don’t know why I share them on a concert which is if you see a problem helping and integrate the solution if we don’t do that we’re really creating and and we’re only at you know and the doorstep of something that’s going to get bigger oh it’s gonna get bigger you know I’ve been talking about this for

 

08:10
probably about 10 years how how Maui is not prepared and it is it is not shown any interest in preparing for the last 10 years of any sort of larger uh supports for the the working class and below and we’re going to start singing now I get people saying that you know that you know we everyone a couple years ago was complaining about a gallon of milk how much it costs but the the food costs have gone up astronomically and that’s and then there’s still more people getting evicted because people are selling their

 

08:48
houses and moving to the mainland and we’re it’s still not being talked about and there’s still no platforms for this to be just to show you how out of touched yesterday a guy came I live at a senior place a subsidized senior housing what a blessing that is by itself is like seven years I think yeah can you imagine people retiring they’re looking for housing and they’ve got a seven year waitlist right right and they’ve worked their whole life and just sold our house I got about a half a

 

09:19
million then I realized I can’t buy a house I’m thinking I’ll just get into a place like this I said wait wait wait you’ll have to qualify with less than two thousand dollars without extra assets and suddenly he’s now in panic this guy’s got a half a million dollars cash in his pocket it’s real this is Maui people I have a 609 dollars per room for a visitor last month the highest in the state 57 percent how is that helping our place how are we taking care of local you know you bring up a really

 

09:52
interesting point because I know you say gloves off and get viewers and get um that the frenetic energy that is happening right now that people are starting to panic energy is will lead to obviously more crime yeah people are when they get stressed out they don’t make good decisions they’re not going to sleep well they’re gonna you know where everyone’s supposed to everyone and the the response to that is give me give me give me I gotta protect myself that’s a really awful place to be in a community and I I said

 

10:23
it’s anecdotal because I don’t I’m not writing down so and so said this so and so but I mean I get calls I get emails from people all every week that are in complete panic mode they can’t get through one of the things that would definitely correct which for the last 10 years maybe even longer I’ve been asserting is critical is there has to be somebody at the end of of a phone when you call for help you can’t be set into this spinning cycle and somebody has got to be able to offer you if you are

 

10:56
unhoused or you’re they need to say you need to go to this location there’s a tent there there’s a triage there’s a cot there for you and we can do your intake right there but instead Maui County for as long as I’ve ever known it has they don’t even have a wait list like you have to just call every day and you know people don’t have phones a lot of people don’t have phones so um I actually emailed because I ran into a woman who had her phone stolen and she’s been living on the streets now

 

11:25
because she when her relationship broke up and then he took everything and anyway so she’s on the streets and she calls and she’s now she can’t even call to have one chance you’re supposed to have to call right at the morning certain time and God knows when you’re living on house your life you lose track of all kinds of day and not entire time I like to interrupt nowhere I have to interrupt because for her together acknowledged and that just get that tape that is wait until it’s you or someone

 

11:55
you know and then get into the system that’s too late isn’t it I don’t even care anymore I don’t think that they realize it’s so bad until they don’t know it they I mean I have been pounding people have got to know it’s this bag like I say you’re too gentle no I think I keep thinking and I appreciate being gentle but when you take the gloves off it’s like okay Mr Mayor emergency means emergency emergency funds means now just because you can’t you get a bid to have a

 

12:26
parking lot here’s another observation we’ve had a new mayor since November not a peep we’ve asked for meetings we’ve asked email we said this is when he came through to meet with us before election time to listen that’s fine that you listen but where’s the action there’s been not one it’s what is it it’s gonna it’s the middle of may we haven’t heard one thing there’s not one thing and and you know that’s fine oh we need some time no no but when you have a place to

 

12:54
sleep in a bathroom and you have food you have all the time you need but everybody out here is going what happened why isn’t it did Lisa I thought we were going to follow up we’ve never we’ve not respond every single day is a big deal I mean unacceptable it is unbelievable just each single every day just getting a sleep a bath a shower food stamps when you’re out there try to get food when they give you 300 or 400 just well it got 400 in food stamps go out try to buy anything in about three

 

13:28
four five ten days no matter how you do it you’re out of money and now where do you cook these well the other thing is we’ll do anything so you have to buy like single serving horrible drink and when you do that first of all then you make Trash everyone and and and it goes up in in arms because you’re making trash but you don’t have trash removal so what are you going to do so you have to buy single serving pre-made food and that’s the most expensive way obviously to to purchase food that’s when it’s the

 

13:58
cost of lunch I think a can of soup now costs like three dollars for like a can of soup pop top can of soup it’s like three I’ve even seen higher for one can of no no you’re not surprising these people one one if you go and you want Campbell’s Chunky Soup you might pay five and a half dollars for a can of soup or eight dollars Progressive that wraps in a it’s the trash thing with everyone goes berserk over but it’s a natural I mean everybody’s got everyone gets dressed up so but here’s the other

 

14:27
thing is the natural thing which happened is part of our genetics it’s part of our genetics it’s happened since since you know prehistoric caveman time it happens with animals it happens with human beings you hooey up the natural thing is to huya with like situation to people and when that happens you can share things you can borrow things one person has a phone that’s working you can borrow it that works I’ve seen that I’ve actually facilitated that here’s where our county is

 

14:57
um violent towards that normal healthy action they will then start citing people they will then start um threatening you you will you’re then because you’ll make trash and you don’t really have a way you know you can’t take your trash on the bus they won’t let you take to the bus you don’t have a working vehicle um then you make trash and then they start you think we got to break you up this is the pattern that’s been going on for years and years and years which the CDC the Psychiatric association

 

15:27
everybody says when you break up communities you put them In Harm’s Way this is the thing and you think about it it starts with a can of soup because that person now has to buy one can of soup because they can’t Huey up they can’t share space they can’t share resources so what do you do about you know I mean it’s true but what do we do what do we do as individuals even before we get to that I mean that has to be changed I don’t know what to say though it’s it’s like

 

15:55
combat I have not found that anybody in the leadership positions what about helping each other I mean why isn’t that the first thing well there are churches I definitely see some Churches come around okay pre-made food so people don’t have to you know they don’t need propane they don’t then they have a meal that it doesn’t matter if you have a job I asked I was talking that I needed money and someone if someone gave me a hundred bucks someone gave me another hug and then someone offered me a job now I

 

16:26
thought that’s a way have any of these people ever said hey we’d like to change oh yeah so how is that happening so employment is the the thing that is most beloved to me as a human being the Kevin community and having work and it doesn’t necessarily have to be paid work you as a human being have a there’s a function in you that requires for to feel healthy to contribute yeah to contribute and when you become unhoused your your abilities to contribute into Community into work are like you you have to have

 

17:02
like super human efforts to get to to actually be able to nourish that part of you because you lack Transportation because you don’t have a place to keep clean um and because you don’t have a place to store items so getting into work whether it’s volunteer and or whether it’s paid and then of course chances are you’re obviously going have a really low paying job because you don’t have the digital divide is a very real and it’s a very um it’s a very realistic barrier so

 

17:34
you’re not going to be able if you can’t be online doing all kinds of you you don’t get a chance to even participate in higher paying jobs so if maybe you could get to one of the fast food chains or maybe you can get yourself to I don’t know um what are the minute marks or something you talk about a higher paying job it’s not really a great deal of available higher paying jobs or even sustainable jobs and they talk about low unemployed 2.8 unemployment to go but it goes but what are these jobs if if a

 

18:07
place to live cost you working three times three jobs to get a place to live well you’re working then you got to figure out how to keep clean and that’s going to cost you how much is a load of laundry six dollars or five dollars for a load of laundry I know if you wash and dry it’s probably like eight or nine dollars so it’s going to be eight or nine dollars to do your laundry then you gotta if you got to figure out how to get your detergent if you buy it there because you can’t lug it around with you

 

18:31
if you can’t bring it on the bus you got to get bus pass you got to get so it actually costs you by the time that you’re paying an entry-level job it actually doesn’t really even I don’t even know um if you can you can really make any any like really any substantial amount and in any way get ahead of where you are yeah and you have nowhere and it’s survival it’s not about having the difference between having you know a Toyota and a BMW it’s about actually survival sometimes in order to be safer

 

19:03
to survive you you can’t even it doesn’t even make sense to try and work and I I really have met the majority of people definitely want to work absolutely they miss working um they know that it’s it keeps your mental health well they know that that sense of contributing is like an endorphin and it combats the depression and the anxiety that you have when you’re in these conditions they know all of there’s there’s so far more knowledgeable than a lot of the people in the offices and I I don’t mean to

 

19:35
offend and I have offended people in offices by saying if you’re in an office and you’ve been in an office for a while and you haven’t like been living in these conditions right now I don’t mean some people you know say oh I live like but it’s right now it’s actually highly violent to be living in these conditions I I just was a woman who recently died and one of the women whose friend with her is uh said you know these guys used to just walk by her and kick her in the head when she was on the ground

 

20:03
and and most a lot of people know who this this woman is and she was so psychiatrically disabled she would just lay on the ground and people would just walk by and kick her in the head and the house people not it’s not like it’s just like unhoused on like people have this image what town is this I was in Kahului right here Kahului yeah and um yeah um so that kind of stuff is uh is not obviously getting percolated up from agencies and when I and what I mean by that is you don’t hear about I never hear an agency saying

 

20:39
I need funding for a 24-hour live person on the phone see these things happen I mean we have you’re on different homelessness committee I don’t know it’s like where does something have enough power to move into action piece I thought you were going to be a candidate to be a chairman of this healing Solutions on Maui you’ve been I had a couple of years I remember going on a Wednesday and going to the group and so I didn’t feel like I needed to be part of it and then they’d still going

 

21:12
it’s changed its name and it keeps changing chairmans and so what it’s like when I was on the council on culture in the Arts we had no power to do anything we recommended to somebody like a mayor yeah so what’s happening I mean I’m bringing it up because I know how hard you’re working where does where do we get some of these ideas like if you were on that committee and or and on the chair or able to move and drive programs forward internally and have some teeth and you don’t like teeth

 

21:50
but to be able to orchestrate and organize a real loving Community to do that support that you really want and integrating with these agencies and being a bridge in the way that you you do it individually but it takes you know unbelievable commitment yeah I don’t I’m not I don’t know where I got what I got but what I got is like it’s it’s definitely not like everybody else and I say that in a sense that I think it’s really good because I somehow along the way gained the confidence to

 

22:25
start saying everything I was seeing because I used to be a painfully shy I mean pain I mean like I still get extraordinary amounts of anxiety even when I know people it’s just it’s an irrational I have very rational anxiety anyway um that said um when I started taking and I started taking chaplaincy classes Buddhist chaplaincy classes I um I took some vows about five years ago six years ago I took vows and one of those vows is to activate yourself when you see something like silence is a weapon at times and so

 

23:04
even though I had anxiety and I was very shy I knew things weren’t right when I was watching you know just watching certain meetings and being part of when I was working with people and I saw the way some people were treated and others weren’t I knew that but I didn’t speak up and so that like taking that vow I made a commitment to myself every single day to say I need to speak the truth I see not for anybody else not for you know natural I’m not imposing it but I need to speak the truth so that has been

 

23:34
a fantastic guide in following these issues through continuously again because I don’t have an expected outcome and you know like I don’t say I have to like I don’t get so tunnel Visions like I gotta push that through it it’s not about me it’s about well you bring it down down to it’s about the situation right now you really take a look at what’s in front of you the way that you that’s what I’m seeing right now and it’s real and what I’m seeing right now

 

24:01
is if extraordinary violence towards people living on a house and for all the meetings that we’ve been through and all the times I have been shared what I’m seeing I do hold our County I do hold the um uh the other agencies that are in charge of the care of the who get all this money get a lot of money and they got a lot of donations during covid and we never got a dime during all these agencies they have not integrated any of the information that share your Mana has brought to them and in fact a lot of

 

24:36
times they’ve actively kept our voice out and that’s where that’s where I say it’s not it’s it’s just absolutely unacceptable and the last mayor was allowed to go through his entire term without meeting with our community once except when he was evicting everybody from there where they were living on Amala place on kanaha that was the only time and and we have it all on a video all of is lies he promised made false promises he said he was not going to start removing any of the what was

 

25:10
considered trash not people’s belongings until everybody was housed and we have that on video and that did not even remotely happen so when you remember people where do you put them they’re now cleaning people away from the shoreline people are telling you people are dying people are dying fast now and I think that’s the plan well it’s not my plan I I’m just saying is it’s not your plan is it your plan the hospital I know people who work in hospitals who literally are crying they

 

25:43
said we have gotta you know I’ve seen somebody get discharged I’ve seen you know even people random people saying this person’s been just pushed out and when you have a hospital that doesn’t have the agencies aligned and do the I think the the shelter has two beds for people coming out of the hospital this is the major you know people who have um who live unhoused and unsheltered to have something like a 17-year reduced lifespan because of all everything they have to go through and so they’ve got

 

26:14
the higher Acuity needs so we know this these are this is an equation this is this is a fact and yet our shelter does not respond by that and if we need to evolve into having an entire Wing where people can convalesce in shelter and safety then we need to have an entire Wing not two beds not too bad I’m going to take a quick break we’re going to take a break we’re on Kaku 88.5 FM the voice of Maui I’m here with Lisa Darcy of share your mana and if you’re on TV you know that but we’re taking a

 

26:47
break for radios for our sponsors and donors and uh if you’re not you should join that happy list we are back this is the neutral zone mauynutralzone.com k-a-k-u 88.5 FM the voice of Maui and akaku Maui Community media I still want to call it television on internet and goodness gracious I have Lisa Darcy here of share yamana um when they say the housing agency they don’t say the mental health agency when they say the mental health agency they don’t save the food agency but these are

 

27:27
integrated things um your ideas which you bring to these agencies if they’re all separate and they don’t talk and they don’t implement where does that happen it seems to be in my mind that a mayor can request and integrate services on an emergency basis that should support your efforts toward houselessness a bridge for housing and safe place for people to be and Central Services we’ve heard it mentioned you know you and I were there when we heard that the two hundred thousand dollar bid

 

28:08
no one even bid on and so they don’t have a parking lot of safety oh you know I have an entire newsletter on that there’s a reason why nobody been on it but we don’t even got to get into that because it was it was it was it was completely and utterly hijacked every step of the way the intention was never to see it through so that’s a that’s another that’s another story but you can appreciate that’s why you’re back on the show this you know I could say this is the Lisa Darcy moment we could have you

 

28:35
on every show but I particularly it’s a no but yeah I understand but I mean we could have you regularly so I mean I’d like you to feel comfortable to break in on if I’m going to be in the studio with people I want you to be jumping in and doing segments of kind of an update that the public needs to hear I I don’t know if you do that regularly but you can do it with me that would be great yeah and it’d be a great way to uh again to just share what I’m seeing and see progress

 

29:04
and be able to yeah let people see what’s in a much more real time you know I’ve been going to a meeting about homelessness and seeing the the people that show up are all mostly assigned to that task from their agencies yes and they talk and the result is or we’re moving this can down the road moving the conversation I’m going to show you even on this on the smallest level let me interrupt you is that please please so they made it a rule that it was okay that say you know an agency is

 

29:39
part of the alliance anybody for the agency can show up so there doesn’t have to be any continuity so if I’m the lead person from an agency and I’m not going to make it I could just say hey Jason you go but you weren’t there last week we were never even there you don’t even know if there’s any continuity is this aside for that old thing that was happening years ago on Wednesday same group same group so it’s just morphed a bunch of just nothing well the other thing is that is morphed into only

 

30:06
announcements there is no Community interaction there is no conversation within agencies it is literally people are on mute and it’s just like one person giving all of these this is what’s happening with contracts and stuff like that and or there’s no you can look at the the minutes month after month after month advocacy housing not one of the committees has any update I can’t even breathe there’s so much to do and they don’t even have one update ever with all of these agencies so

 

30:39
you’ve got to question why is this even meaning well you don’t have to question it because the answer is the reason that you meet is because they have to meet because it’s through HUD so through the federally mandated system of getting um financial assistance one of the requirements is that you meet once a month well it doesn’t mean you have to it doesn’t say actually I think it I don’t know we could actually look at the HUD contract and say are you actually supposed to accomplish anything or do

 

31:07
you just have to show up for an hour have your name on the zoom and that that’s that meets the requirements you know again I have to stop you only because when I first got invited to this it was probably by you oh my God and we met at him and it was like 10 years ago and I went to these things and I saw oh there’s Lauren Pang oh there are people here that have juice and but they weren’t running the meeting and even so it was being run by mod and this other gal that was running from the Christian

 

31:36
church but you know what it’s still happening the same way there’s still nothing happening still nothing happening nothing happening no I mean are you the public and let me explain I I was really so excited for a long time at the my homeless Alliance I pretty much helped start every committee and I have all the notes I was shared them all and really tried to get everybody excited to be part of those and every time it made a suggestion from a committee it got voted down and um even to the point where I was trying

 

32:14
to connect with the Honolulu Alliance they they’re oh my gosh they they do an amazing their whole Alliance meetings are so different than ours and I even had I had connections over there so I brought forward a um the My homeless science has a bunch of money they even spent one dollar even through the entire pandemic they’ve got like twelve thousand dollars they oh they spent it only to have that consultant guy come in and talk about things that we’re not doing so they spend all this money on this consultant

 

32:43
but they’ve never spent a dime on any of the people throughout the pandemic so they’ve got this Coffer of money that they don’t spend so I was like I made a proposal through the advocacy committee to go when I was sharing it to go over to Honolulu and that that Alliance said oh yeah we’ll pick you up we’ll get you lunch you just fly here and we’ll take care of everything which is lovely right you have a nice we’re building a relationship and we can really learn from them and they can

 

33:11
learn from us and they were very excited we were coming I had no idea that when I proposed this that um the chair at the time was mod and um not only did she preface before we voted that this just doesn’t make sense and this isn’t gonna this isn’t you know we don’t need to do anything like this my even my committee members voted against it like we were all gonna like like I was like me and like one other person too how old is mod and how long has she been doing this I mean maybe I well I

 

33:41
don’t want to be about one person no but I would like to really call these things out somehow I want the community that’s why I want progress reports so that you guys can help us move forward even my own committee afterwards I go what what put all this energy if you were gonna like like just just dump it like in the middle I’ve always like started laughing I was like you’re kidding me like this is anyway so how do we be productive what do we do we break this cycle yeah it’s so sad that it’s

 

34:13
ridiculous people don’t feel like they can even put a really really great proposal together and put it forward and I’m just like it’s so crazy well what you just yours is an example that has history right now we’re even more crisis things are worse it was like 10 years but I mean years ago but no but I mean look here we are the same place do we have more beds no well and the other thing is they’re not going to make more beds how many how many years have we been saying why aren’t we expanding and

 

34:44
even the pallets why would you take the Lori suhaco who is our director of Housing and human concerns came on and essentially said it was a success and then they closed it but why would you not refund it and why would you not continue something like that if it was a success and we were housing and they were moving people through what was the answer there was no answer yeah there’s no way and I I’ve sent a whole bunch of questions what does she do that’s um she works with the Department of Housing and human

 

35:12
concerns is that in any way somehow I mean he also organize the healing solutions for homelessness which is another issue that if people want to understand and I was clear about this when uh when they were forming the commission is it got tucked underneath the purview of Housing and human concerns but personally my experience with the director of Housing and human concerns is we are completely on different pages on how to approach all these things so for them to be running the meeting that people are supposed to

 

35:42
feel free to speak about and she’s very active in the homeless Alliance so here you have somebody who um people never bring things up because they already know what the answer is like they’re not going to support it they’re not going to support it because there’s a very narrow view of how to to manage these issues and there’s a very punitive View and um so people don’t even try to bring up Solutions and I just it I do not believe that this commission this commission should be

 

36:07
free of any anything has to do with the council anything that has to do with federal agencies it should be a completely unique um and community-based uh voice and as of until last month it was predominantly made up of people from agencies with the same stuff like my homeless Alliance and with and then under you know and then they actually put the Department of Housing and human concern on is a standing agenda item which is exactly the way the homeless alliances run like they put people on for these standing

 

36:38
updates and then there’s no room for anything else or dialogue or discussion so it’s kind of that same pattern which is unfortunately leads to a lot of frustration inside and outside the meetings which I like I tried to like I said I was I was really hoping that I might get some support to become the chair because you really addressed these issues in a very different way and to me that’s good because then you get a very different point of view and then we get a lot of you know we get a lot of dialogue and

 

37:07
you’re a doer I mean I really have great concern about this the fact that it’s a decade and nothing’s happened and the fact that I’m sitting here with you and housing numbers and homeless numbers and food numbers and everything’s going out of control why is there no leadership I mean it’s nice to say we have a new mayor and it’s nice to make promises but I think that’s really something to really ask in a loving way but I’ve called tukey Drake in charge of uh of uh

 

37:44
housing and homelessness and mayor enough times have them tell me thank you for your commitment and I keep volunteering myself and nobody calls me for anything and there’s so much that can be done so much can be done money can be raised through the efforts that are happening doesn’t have to do anything other than their blessing and help coordinating but they don’t do it and I I don’t know I need a work in Partnership I you know I think that’s a critical piece of this you you nailed

 

38:12
something that um we really have to work together and um that means acknowledging the work we’re doing and the fact that we don’t get our work acknowledged and in fact we don’t get invited to the meetings we don’t get invited as community members who are really pulling a lot of weight and doing uh and helping people into recovery Cycles we’re really we understand what it takes to help people into recovery Cycles um the fact that we’re not included that we’re intentionally excluded is one of

 

38:44
those things that you it’s it’s um there’s a there’s a term for that um but it you know the silence and the it being ignored is also silence it can be violence and and that’s part of what the way that I I’m experiencing the the um any attempt at interaction yeah is just this wall of Silence well and we don’t that’s not helpful for anybody no but I mean I keep looking you know we I don’t want to keep picking on anybody I I’m down to the point in my mind what is my job my job is how can we

 

39:25
affect the change that means you and I but also means our viewers and listeners what is it that we can do who can we influence whether it’s ourselves and helping someone in helping direct an agency or creating a way for things to I don’t know I’m trying to break how do we break this cycle it’s nice to know that coming so you know the cycle is a long-standing colonialistic Jim Crow uh we’re not just it’s just not like a little thing Maui what Maui’s experiencing is the mainland the horrors

 

40:01
of what happened in the mainland with incarcerating brown skin and black skin people and the way that people are treated as um just you know sucking off the Dole of being lazy all of that got transferred to Maui and we are actually operating in the same system when you when you really support the or when we we maintain the way that HUD and all of these other agencies are funneling it all down with Mainland values it doesn’t work here anymore yeah because well it does work if if you want genocide to be the end result and

 

40:41
essentially we’re you and I are actually trying to hold back genocide that sounds like such a crazy statement but when you actually learn about all of this and you start to understand the systemic abuse that you and I and there’s a handful of other uh there’s definitely people that are that recognize this like so many people in these don’t even recognize they’re in it because until you are so far out of it or your community like you can’t even understand I was in it for a

 

41:11
while I actually did some of this stuff and then I was like this is harmful I can’t I can’t actually work at this agency I can’t I can’t be a participant in any of this and um so that’s why I left and I said I have to be able to speak as I see and not through the the mouth of a whatever is happening with uh you know I was told like some agencies you can’t say that and I go what it needs to be said but you can’t say it uh okay but it needs to be said in order for this to move

 

41:41
forward and nobody would say it said to whom that who holds the response but I mean who’s it’s not in our concerts I’m almost going back to the action piece because yeah we now we’ve really thought about our mind is it’s the mayor it’s the mayor I have I have been through the Rodeo so many times and I get the when I first approached um mayor elect and then then when he became mayor oh it’s going to take some time to get up to speed you don’t have time to get up this this is the house is

 

42:13
on fire you don’t go start your training manual have you actually heard from him or no no no because I I’m I’ve been held at Bay if you will yeah and I don’t really think that that’s unusual some of the people have no experience experience I know in this and so I have to say from someone like you and me who have been doing this for decades we have to retrain all these people and then as somebody new if they get an extra gonna be we’re gonna have to retrain by the time they get up to speed

 

42:43
um new mayor you’re gonna you have to do it all over again so people in the community if you’re feeling frustrated that’s one of the problems is there seems to be this attitude that you can just get up to speed now if you take this job you need to be up to speed and you need to like you don’t just step up and say hey I’m gonna be I’m gonna lead all this and then oh it’ll take me a year or two to figure out no you need to have done the work before you ran for mayor and I think people who vote you

 

43:08
need to start voting for people that you know have this skill set before they get into office they don’t it’s you don’t have the luxury anymore of getting up to speed I mean when I told you I was like yeah I got a week or two to get up to speed if not I was freaking fired I’m gonna to to bring that up in a funny way let’s now just say that Victorino won and someone who was up to speed yeah how do we change how do we get any kind of way to make the mayor or make this committee or make that one change the

 

43:41
way can we petition at a federal level can we is there any agency actually uh if you want I we need to really look at HUD we need to look at the funding sources and see what they’re responsible to do this is a long haul because then you got to see is you know and then you got to get in you get layers of these and it’s there to protect itself the system protects itself so in order to actually see whether people are the agencies are delinquent you have to go into to figure out what they’re being

 

44:07
what their responsibility is and then you have to document why they’re not how they’re not doing it and that’s you know that’s a labor-sum process here we are talking about all itself essentially who’s going to do that now can you imagine we’re living in a time where these kind of things which are very very important we’re also facing a whole world that was told in a whole climate Gathering globally that we weren’t part of that if we don’t stop and keep it below one and

 

44:36
a half degrees change of temperature it’s going to change the weather in patterns forever and we have to change it and turn around by 2030. now they say by 2025 we’re going to hit that one which means these weather conditions everything’s changing so this is like the beginning of something that will overwhelm our system and we’re on an island if we don’t get it here and somehow motivate our public to be involved somehow and not as an angry mob but as a helping mob I I mean that I

 

45:09
don’t want to create anger that won’t do anything because that’s not what this is about is that how can we work together I always find that like you say you’re available it’s those little things I really get annoyed when someone keeps calling me but they keep calling me because I seem to be one of the rare people that help them there’s so much pushing it down the road that’s not our department we don’t have room it isn’t here there’s these problems I hope that at this show

 

45:42
again I I’m giving you a carte blanche to come and do this with me every week if you want anytime you want to put something on because the public needs to know well so one of the things that you’re bringing up that I want um I want people to definitely hear is anytime anybody is appointed or it gets accepted for a position and whether we voted for mayor or whatever um you have to do your you can’t it can’t just be like you like the way they sound you really have to do this this requires there’s this concept that

 

46:18
anybody can just step into this work this is a highly highly skilled how you need a high level of training to understand systems to understand mental health addiction uh you need to understand funding how that affects you need to be able to people are trained you need to be able to know that meetings have to be open and accessible and you have to be striving hard for that at all time if you don’t have all of these components or you don’t know then you can’t just you can’t just blindly put people in positions because

 

46:46
they’re nice and they they have like you like they’re soft or whatever you know they actually have to have a skill set and they need to be able to prove that they have a track record of making change a track record of making change is not a term you often hear ever in Maui and I know that one of the reasons why these meetings and we don’t get invited is because everybody wants to agree in meetings but that’s not the point at the start of the meeting the part of the you know the whole point of

 

47:18
the start of the meeting is to disagree and agree at the end but everybody in Maui wants to agree going in or else not have it you see what I’m saying like there’s this kind of it’s this Unwritten rule that you don’t want to invite anybody if it’s controversial or he doesn’t agree with you because we want everyone to get along but we actually have to learn that as we go and it’s really important to have very varying points of view at the beginning and that’s where you bring it all and you

 

47:45
find all the common stuff and that’s where a really skilled leader will do that and they need to be doing it every single day and when you take a position of extreme responsibility you have to have that in place you you don’t yeah it’s that it’s it’s the fire department you don’t just put some nice guy in there or some nice woman they need to be highly skilled and highly trained because their second day on the job could be the biggest disaster that ever happened and and they don’t

 

48:13
get time to get up to speed so why do we give it to our politicians and why do we give it to these other departments I don’t understand you don’t put whoever’s in charge of the ER or in charge of you know your drivers or what as like oh they’re the they’re really nice and you know well we think that you know you understand public this is to you she’s not talking to the next voting cycle we’re talking about that too yeah that too but that’s what we’re talking about right now the

 

48:41
difference is going to be have meetings where there is a lot of different points of view and cold meetings that have different points of view and allow people to be angry allow people to be frustrated they have very good rights to be and and you know what when they don’t when people don’t get heard they raise their volume they just they start they’ll get louder and louder because it’s like you’re not listening to me so the more that you have and we don’t have any of these

 

49:11
things I’m trying the best I can to try to hold meetings with people hold space and and get there you know and sometimes oftentimes the meeting I start our advice is just people letting their steam off because they don’t have a safe place to do that because it’s so violent that everything is so violent towards them not getting calls back being ignored um not not being able to have fresh water not you know having to schedule a shower at one one place and then you have to go through paperwork to be able

 

49:38
to schedule that I mean like what you what you don’t understand is how nice unhoused people are under their circumstances most of us would be ballistic and I can’t believe how loving so many people are and but if they’re not you got to understand and this is even going to definitely lower income and people who are also looking their full their food bills lots of people are going to be coming way more agitated and um I think we have to understand that that’s a cycle and that’s a pattern that

 

50:08
we can get ahead of but we have and that the county has not gotten ahead of it and they’re not providing these spaces they’re not you can’t have a community meeting once every month or every two months and think that’s enough it’s not it’s not this needs to be enriching and the my homeless Alliance needs to be open dialogue every time I don’t even I don’t even I don’t even put anything on I don’t even try to talk in fact I ask questions and they’re always ignored why

 

50:33
don’t can those meetings be publicized and yeah shown live so that I keep wondering we see all these meetings can the public see well it’s their responsibility sending this out and inviting people and they don’t and you know because when I do it it looks like it’s a hostile act right like I’m blaming and I’m not when I was at with the homeless Alliance um I was so active and I did all this great stuff and and I got shut down you know so now I’m just like it doesn’t

 

51:04
make any sense to go and it doesn’t even make sense to give twenty dollars to it because every time during the pandemic I begged them to give money for people to have phone cars to have buy some tents to do tarps ponchos anything and they refuse to um they said like they couldn’t figure it yeah meanwhile I was out every single day for 10 to 12 hours they couldn’t figure out how to help but buy a poncho so it’s ridiculous I’m like you know what if you can’t if that’s the

 

51:28
level of um urgency that um is being shared they’re obviously like I would think it would have been be the responsibility under the HUD contract to say yes not only does this need to be open to the public but it should be like it should be put in the newspaper or it should be put on some kind of social media like you you re you work to reach out to people but that it’s never they’ve never shown any interest in in doing that well we don’t have unlimited time or we’d be talking

 

51:58
more but I the next show we’re gonna do and I hope you’ll say yes please let’s put a list of the things that we’d like to see changed and integrated or start and make a a top 10 top five and let’s work toward making it public and attracting support and uh people in the post what I’d like to do because I like to do this every meeting and not enough to the next meeting is right now whoever’s watching this this is because we need everybody’s not we need everybody’s experience to turn this and

 

52:34
I don’t put things off until the next time I don’t put things off until the next right now and always come to a meeting or listen every time I go online I have paper and pencil and I listen to people and I take copious notes lots of notes right lots of notes and ideas and then when I start getting more of themes I Circle them and I go okay this is something I’m hearing this is something I pull them out so whoever is watching this I hope you’ve taken notes and if not if it’s you watch it again and take

 

52:59
notes on the things that you think are the most important please contact Jason and say please let’s talk about this let’s do this the other thing is I want everybody to consider the skill set you think is really important for these leadership roles and what you want to see and and Leadership and how to integrate Community Voices into this and I want you to write down and I want you to either send it you can send it to Lisa at share your mana.org.org Lisa at share your Mana .org because that’s what it takes it

 

53:34
takes your Mana you know and that I say that with such reverence and uh as much as you know that’s that’s when you know the the community I worked with that’s what they gave me that’s what they said it takes and that’s so that’s how share your Mana started um anyway but I think that you’ve got to put paper to pencil and then you’ve got to put it in an email or you’ve got to send it in or call it in do something it’s got to get captured otherwise these conversations evaporate everything’s got

 

54:04
to get written down somehow and we got to connect each one of them and if you’re not in the habit of doing that you’ve got to do that now it’s got to start today well Lisa thank you for joining me here on radio and local media and we hope the Whole World Hears this and I have appreciated you and still appreciate you and I want to try to get myself and others to be supportive and be the Helping Hands that you need so that it isn’t um it feels like a that you’re holding space for so many people that would

 

54:41
really like to find a way to join you and help yeah I know I know people out there listening really care and I know people in agencies really care I just want to make sure I I hear and I see that uh the most important thing is to recognize is what I’m saying is the needs are changing way faster than people are learning how to meet their needs and when you’re when you’re in walls all day you don’t you don’t get that in your face like I need this right now and like that should be the priority

 

55:11
so that’s where you know we really want the integration of real life experience to be be the one that’s driving the needs not the other way around not the agencies agencies don’t drive it needs to be the people that are suffering through this well Lisa thank you again you’re good yeah thank you guys for joining us out there we hope to be here regularly and we want you to be conscious that you are a part of everything that we do that means not only as a listener but as a doer you know Dream Makers means Vision

 

55:48
Plus action that’s this whoa was that a hurricane no okay Vision Plus action you know it takes the action and uh the action from your heart and your giving has just been beautiful these things well I hope it’s more from even my mind because I think the the structural part of how to get from A to B to C is even the most important like your heart can be in the right place and you can have no knowledge no but you’ve been doing it so I just think that yeah it’s really important to understand that

 

56:18
in the the equation part the science part of this that really that that’s that’s the piece that I see is not getting met and I want to be able to use your ideas through these agencies and integrate their delivery and I’m going to be talking to the mayor maybe all you should be talking to the mayor too yeah go ahead and call me or call your council member for sure email them email well thank you again we will see you soon aloha [Music]
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