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these are business enterprises. I don’t care what they say, it’s going to be for depressed
<br />politicians or recovering alcoholics. I mean, they’re going to look at it as cash cows now. You
<br />know, we can rent now two units and they get $2,000. They can do it for the Board of Health
<br />and pick up all these misfits, or whatever you call ‘em, you know, that need help, and you’re
<br />looking at maybe $5- to $10,000 per month coming in. It’s disastrous coming up.
<br />And, also, I think Mr. Igawa wrote a letter to the Editor regarding values. I think you definitely
<br />see declining values. I think if you are from Oahu, which I spent a lot of time in, the areas of
<br />Kahala, Waialae Iki, Hawai`i Loa, Hawai`i Kai, Mililani, they don’t have a lot of, you know,
<br />runaway facilities, drug therapy, alcoholic reform or rehab. I mean, these areas hold their values.
<br />And being retired, I mean, we want our values to be held because we’re not speculators, we
<br />didn’t buy low and sell high. That’s not our motivation. We’re looking at our homes to be kind
<br />of a safety-net. As we get older, if we meet up with medical catastrophe, then we have
<br />something to go back to. And I thank you.
<br />ALAMEDA:Thank you, Mr. Kozohara. Any questions? You may be seated,
<br />Mr. Kozohara. Billy Kenoi?
<br />KENOI:Aloha, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Planning
<br />Commission. I’m here to speak wholeheartedly in support of this amendment. This amendment
<br />was proposed as a way by Department of Health and the State of Hawai`i; however, the counties
<br />got together and tried to figure out a way to update our Code.There’s a basis that five people,
<br />unrelated persons, is not feasible. As was mentioned by the previous speakers, eight unrelated
<br />persons exist in the Code in both Maui County and Hawai`i County; and this amendment was
<br />proposed by the Planning Director without regard to specific service providers or geographic
<br />location years ago. I mean, if I may briefly, I know I’ve got a couple of minutes but the reason
<br />we proposed this amendment and we’ve been looking at it for years is because Hawai`i Island, as
<br />we all know, has experienced a dramatic increase in some of the problems facing our
<br />community. And what we were doing was sending away adult men and women, as well as our
<br />adolescents, our children, to other islands to get help, to get treatment.
<br />These types of programs we need to encourage in our communities, in our island home, so that
<br />we can serve our island residents and our island youth here on our island. I think it’s
<br />unconscionable to talk about helping those in our community most in need of help and at the
<br />same time saying we’d like to help them but somewhere else, let’s ship them to Oahu and Maui
<br />where programs already exist for them. We live on a 4,028 square mile island, we have
<br />geographical as well as transportation challenges. I don’t think any community can say not here
<br />but there. We need programs and group homes in every community on our island. You know,
<br />we talk about the syndrome of “Not in my back yard.” Yes we’re for helping our kids, yes we’re
<br />for rehabilitation, treatment and therapeutic living, just not here. I think the problems exist in
<br />our front yard so we cannot excuse it by saying, “not in my back yard.”
<br />We are for the amendment because every program that comes forward will always be challenged
<br />by local neighborhoods. A therapeutic living program in Kohala four years ago, vigorous and
<br />vociferous opposition from the community; and these are treating people in our own community
<br />from Kohala and Waimea. They’ve been in operation for years. Everything was fine. A group
<br />living home for women suffering from substance abuse and domestic violence, opposition in
<br />Kailua, vandalism, you know, dramatic opposition; it’s working fine. We see it everywhere we
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