Charity Isn't Easy

Your humble blogger has helped with local food programs for 20 years. They are much cheaper to operate than government programs, which screen for need and regulate food safety. (These are tradeoffs that even the most ardent private-charity advocates will acknowledge.)

Two other factors: the charity people will say that volunteers are more motivated than government workers who are in it for a paycheck, while the regulatory-minded point to the costs to the surrounding areas from an influx of charity-seekers. Both elements are visible in the food distribution program run by St. Augustine-by-the-Sea in the heart of Waikiki. [bold added]

[Honolulu Mayor Rick] Blangiardi said the administration’s latest public safety effort in Waikiki goes back to the summer of 2021 when he brought his entire Cabinet to walk the district to hear the concerns of retailers and hotel owners. One of the hot spots identified during the walk and in later meetings with Waikiki stakeholders, he said, was St. Augustine, where groups of homeless people were camping outside of the church, which is across from the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa and near residential housing.

The mayor said he approached Akiona in June 2022 and was told that the church needed help because it had been overwhelmed by people who were urinating and defecating in the shrubbery, taunting parishioners and doing other bad things.

Blangiardi said the chief of police and several other officers accompanied him to the meeting to provide support for the church. He said the city took responsibility for the sidewalks around St. Augustine, but noted that a criminal element persisted.

Adding security and keeping out the criminal element raise the cost prohibitively if the charity has to absorb it.