Evictions of beach villagers at Sand Island,
Honolulu, 1980.

Post-statehood commercial and tourist developments resulted in a sharp increase in Honolulu's homeless population. Many of the poor took up residence in beach villages on the outskirts of the city where they could continue a subsistence existence. When the state moved to evict residents from the fishing villages of Sand Island and Mokauea Island, resistance included the re-assertion of Hawaiian values, such as aloha ‘aina—love and care of the land. As a young woman just home from college, I joined the struggle, working with experienced organizers of many years. Despite the arrests, and the smashing of the villages, the homeless problem has continued to grow in urban and rural areas on all islands. Current estimates put the Hawai‘i homeless population in the thousands.