16 Water Resources Committee - Regular Meeting

Monday, 01/26/2026, please come to order. It is 09:02. I'm Shane Senensi, your committee chair. Hello members for joining us this morning. And just for as a reminder for members of the public to please silence your cell phones or any noise making devices.

Members, in accordance with the Sunshine Law, if you're not in the council chamber, please identify by name who if anyone is in the room, vehicle or workspace with you today and minors do not need to be identified. Please see the last page of the agenda for information on meeting connectivity. Joining us this morning, we have committee vice chair Gabe Johnson. Aloha Kakayaka.

Aloha and good morning chair, council members, committee members. There's no testifiers here at the Lanai District. I'm alone on my side of the office in this beautiful day where the birds are singing and the dogs are snoring. So I'm here and ready to work, chair.

Great. Mahalo for joining us this Monday morning. Also joining us in the chambers, have member Kawa Noi Batangan. Aloha and good morning.

Aloha and good morning, Chair.

Also joining us this morning in the chambers, we have member Tom Cook. Aloha ka yaka. Aloha ka yaka.

Of Board the

Directors of of Board

Directors.

We We Kiani Rollins Fernandez.

I'm at my private residence alone here. And there are currently known testifiers at the Monkai District Office. Mahalo, chair.

Mahalo for joining us. Member Yukile Sugimura is excused this for this morning's meeting, and we'll also await member, Uu Hachen. She'll join us in a little bit. From the Department of Human Concerns, we have Ms. Jessica Krauss, acting, Department Director. And she'll be joining us for the second item first item, both. Okay. From the Department of Housing, we have Ms. Cassie Yamashita, our County Housing Program Administrator. Joining us also this morning from the council floor, we have Ms. Murakami, our Deputy Corporation Counsel. Good morning.

Good morning, Chair.

Good morning. Our committee staff members helping to conduct this morning's meeting, have Ms. Crecelda Paranada, aloha Ms. Clarissa McDonald, good morning Ms. Ellen McKinley Ms. Megan Moniz Ms. Lei Danene and Ms. Janine Pokipala, welcome everyone. Members on today's item, we have two items, an update on the eviction mediation and related social services was up one parent 15. And our second item, child abuse and human trafficking prevention in Maui County Wassaup item one, parents 16.

Members without objection to Wassaup 115, I will be designated, the following as resources under rule 18A of the rules of the council because of their expertise on the eviction mediation process and state's upcoming pilot project. We have miss Bhavan Bowers, executive director of Maui Mediation Services, mister Ernesto Ernesto Lima, Deputy Chief Court Administrator for the Second Circuit, Ms. Malia Ferreira, our Assistant Court Administrator, Ms. Kealakauqui Santos, the Project manager, office of wellness and resilience, office of the governor, and mister Scott Watanabe, acting interim managing attorney legal aid society of Hawaii. For WSAP one sixteen, without objection, I will designate the following as resources under rule 18 a because of their expertise on child abuse and human trafficking prevention in Maui County.

We have Ms. Deb, Marwa, coordinator of Hawaii Kaika partnership and Kayla Kutaka, the program director for parents and children together. Any objections members? Thank you. We can begin. I do see Chair Lee. Chair. Thanks for joining us. Let's begin with public testimony. Do we have anyone to provide testimony?

Chair, no one has yet signed up for to testify at

the beginning of the meeting. Okay. Let me know and then I can go through the summary.

Would you like to close testimony for the beginning of the meeting, Chair?

Sure. Anyone, wishing to provide testimony? Want to do a countdown?

Chair, since no one has signed up to testify, if anyone would like to

Let's, proceed with our first agenda item. Sachs. Ahead. Please extension will be for another year. Thank Mahalo for that.

However, many of our Maui County residents do experience housing insecurity. And so last year, the committee discussed Act two zero two's implementation following the end of Maui Islands eviction moratorium. Act two zero two started on 02/05/2025 and established a free state funded mediation based process for resolving rent disputes between landlords and their tenants before going to court. This year a new program takes effect on 02/05/2026 Act two seventy eight will begin. It establishes a two year pilot program that also requires mediation between landlords and their tenants before eviction proceeds for non payment of rent.

Copies of Acts two zero two and two seventy eight are available on Granicus. Members prior to Act two zero two's implementation, the committee invited representatives from Maui Mediation Services, the Office of Wellness and Resilience and the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii to discuss the process. We've invited them back today along with judiciary representatives to share their experience with Act two zero two and also to inform the public on what is expected with the new pilot program. So with that, let's begin with Ms. Bowers from Maui Mediation Services. Thank you for joining us.

Aloha and good morning Chair Senensi. Aloha and good morning esteemed members of this committee. My name is Bhavan Bowers and I am the Executive Director of Maui Mediation Services. And I appreciate the opportunity to address you this morning. The ACTUAL II eviction prevention program became effective 02/05/2025 and established a mediation based prerequisite to eviction proceedings for nonpayment of rent on Maui Island following the twenty twenty three fires.

Under the act, landlords were required to provide written notice of intent evict to both their tenant and Maui Mediation Services on the same day. Tenants then had fifteen days from receipt of the notice to request mediation. If mediation was requested, eviction proceedings were paused, and if not, landlords could proceed with filing for eviction. From February 5 through 12/31/2025, six fifty three Act two zero two cases were opened. Of those, three thirty six cases proceeded to mediation.

And 80% of the mediated cases resulted in an agreement between the landlords and their tenants. This means in 80% of the cases, the tenants, their children, their kupuna no longer face the agonizing fear of losing their home and an uncertain future. These out of mediation in resolving rent disputes and preventing displacement for households facing imminent eviction. Cases that did not mediate included instances where tenants declined mediation or could not be located. They might have missed the deadline.

The landlords might not have shown up. Or in 01/2013 of the cases, the matter resolved prior to mediation. Perhaps the tenants were able to come up with the past due rent. Also during this period, two thirty two lead tenants requested mediation, Lead meaning it was their name on the lease. Of those, 129, more than half were impacted by the twenty twenty three Maui wildfires through loss of housing, employment, or related hardships.

Additional data shows that 166 lead tenants were four months or more behind in rent. 104 cases involved households of three to five people, yet only 13 tenants reported receiving rental assistance. Act two zero two sunsets on 02/05/2026, and will be immediately replaced by Act two seventy eight, a similar but statewide measure. A key difference under Act two seventy eight is a reduced tenant response period requiring tenants to request mediation within ten days of receiving notice or the landlord will be able to pursue the eviction process. A PowerPoint and flyers just last week were finalized for circulation.

Following this morning's session, I would like email it to the members of this committee to have as a resource. Again, mahalo for your time and your concern.

Mahalo, Ms. Bowers. Members, any clarifying questions for Ms. Bowers? Member Palton?

Do you have that data as well as part of the presentation? I

have a summary that's outlining those that were impacted and how various levels of household income, the monthly rent that was being paid, the number of persons in the household, and the months behind in rent. I So, can provide all of that for the committee.

Thank you. And I I did wanna clarify. When you said 80% of the those that went to the mediation, came to an agreement, what about the other 20% when they don't come to an agreement, then they think, think,

a judgment in their favor where they gain possession of the property, which is why but off let me step back. The 80%, I believe, is so important because oftentimes these landlords and tenants didn't even have an opportunity to sit down and talk to one another. And, also, there was a breakdown in the communication, which is why going forward with act two seventy eight, it is key that we get the word out to our community, especially with the time being shortened by five days. The short answer to your question is yes. Then they can indeed face immediate action.

And for the 336 that reached out for, mediation, you had, enough resources to, support everybody that reached out. Would you have the capacity if the entire 603 ish had We did indeed make plans, councilmember, to be able to accommodate bringing in extra resources. We realized the importance of dealing with this in a timely manner because had we not, that would give the landlords an even greater weapon because it would be a weaponization. So we stayed on top of it. And oftentimes, we have the support of our judges because if a tenant did find them selves in court and requested mediation, many times they would be re referred.

Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Hi, chair Lee.

Thank you. Good morning, judge Bowers. I was wondering when you mentioned households, did you also mean residential programs such as the shelter, aloha house, other places?

When we were mentioning households, if they were living in the shelter, we recorded their residence. We did not have anyone coming from residential programs, but yes, indeed, from the shelter because oftentimes there were rent payments that were required.

Okay. Thank you.

Mahalo members next. Thank you for that information. Online we have Mr. DeLima and Ms. Ferreira from the judiciary. If they had any opening comments at this time.

Hello, Mr. Senecchi. Thanks for the opportunity for us to provide you with some information about the court side in relation to Act two seventy eight. So currently statewide, the judiciary is working on updating its website and documents in relation to the unpaid rent complaint for act two seventy eight. We also have some other processes that we're working on.

Basically notice to the parties and then some other supplemental documents that are going to be available both online as well as person if they choose to come to the courthouse here to pick up those documents. We anticipate that those things are gonna be available February 4 through the judiciary's website and here in person as well at the service center for parties who may feel it's necessary to utilize Act two seventy eight. And as we've gone through Act two zero two, we have some familiarity with the process. So our courts are familiar with how to kind of roll this out in the most appropriate way. We are obviously working with Pavan and Maui Mediation Services.

And throughout the state, judiciary is working with the various mediation services on the different islands to implement Act two seventy eight as well. So I think that's primarily the information that we have at this time. If you're interested, we can definitely send you documents as we complete them so that you have that information as well. We'd be definitely willing to share that with you if you think that would be appropriate. Mahalo.

Yes. Mahalo, Mr. Dilima. Thank you for that. The chair would like to recognize, member Uhu Hajins. Aloha and welcome.

Aloha, chair. Thank you.

Okay.

Next, members, we have Ms. Iki Santos from the Office of Wellness and Resilience. Is there anything that you'd like to share with us this morning?

Hello, my Kapo. I believe Ms. Bowers and Ms. Delima shared all of the data and information regarding Act two seventy eight. Our office really became involved with Act two zero two, because, as the governor's, eviction moratorium was ending, we were asked to work with the judiciary and the governor's housing office to disseminate information, to the community about the changes.

So we'll go ahead and work with Maui Mediation again to share out the different PowerPoint presentations information that Ms. Bowers has created to share with the public. Have a biweekly meeting with folks that work directly with survivors in the community, and we'll get information out via those channels as well. And just want to thank again the judiciary and Maui mediation for their support of our community during this time. Mahalo.

Hi. Mahalo, Ms. Kapuiki Santos. Members, we also have Mr. Watanabe from the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii. And so he's available if you have any opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and committee members. I think that Ms. Bowers has spoken the majority of the issues that concern us. One of the major concerns that we do have at Legal Aid Society is making sure that our tenants understand that timeline of ten days.

Unfortunately, we see a lot of times where they'll get a forty five day notice and we won't hear from them until day forty two. So it's very concerning for us that we've gone from what normally would be fifteen days under Act two zero two, now we're down to ten calendar days. So it does concern us that our clients understand that that ten days is a hard line for them. If they don't make it within that timeline, they don't get this option working for them any longer. Additionally, I have a little bit of concern about getting things done within the thirty days after notification from mounting mediation simply because hopefully they'll be able to get everybody in the doors, but we know there are lot of people out there that have back rent due, so we do have some concerns that things are gonna pick up and we're gonna see a lot more of these cases over the coming But we do think that this is a good opportunity for our tenants as it does create a little bit of a buffer zone for them to be able to start looking for new housing instead of possibly looking at a writ of possession within a week if they can't make the rent trust fund payments.

We have a clarifying question from Member Bolton.

How do you count the attendees? Is it think,

residence or it's two days after the postmark date if it's put into the mail. So that timer is gonna start ticking off immediately. Additionally, we do have some concerns about tenants who might have a posting on their door and may miss a couple of days if they're not home necessarily. So that is a concern also. That timeline is very short.

And would it apply also to FEMA?

The FEMA housing contracts are completely different, so they're under completely different rules than you're going to see here with February. In fact, in a lot of the FEMA direct housing contracts, unfortunately the clients don't have the normal tenant, rights as they would if they were directly leasing from a landlord. Thank you. Okay, members. Thank

you for all that information. Before we begin our discussion, let's take testimony for WSOP one parent 15. Kevin?

Chair, no one has signed up to testify on this item. If anyone would like to testify, please come to the podium or raise your hand on Teams. The countdown is three, two, one. Chair is seeing no one indicating to testify on this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, any objections to closing public testimony for this item? Thank you. Okay, members. I'd like to open the floor for questions and comments. We'll have three minute rounds for our first round and then subsequent rounds. We can begin with Vice Chair Johnson, do you have any questions for our panelists this morning?

Sure. Thank you, chair. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for all the work that you do for for our community. It's really important. You know, one there's an interesting stat that I read that tenants hardly ever have a lawyer when it comes to evictions, and landlords tend to always have the lawyer when it comes to eviction. So on the in this scenario where you guys are out there helping with the mediation, is there any follow-up with helping folks, like maybe that 20% that doesn't get it mediated? Is there any help in helping them getting a lawyer? Or do you guys kind of fulfill that role in a sense? That's my question for you guys.

Member Johnson, what we do is immediately refer clients seeking representation to legal aid. There is a nonprofit, a local legal entity that we have become aware of Pono Legal. And they are now trying to add resources to our community. But they're relatively scarce. We do have the self help service where volunteer attorneys will answer singular questions and give information, but that's not representation.

Well, thanks for that clarification, judge Bowers. You know, I that comment that that clarified question that councilmember Paulin asked about FEMA, that was interesting to me because I know there's a landlord. I know there's a tenant. And where does FEMA fit in that? Are they they're neither. What what is it that their role is? Are they just creating contracts and saying if both sides agree to it, then that's just the way it is? It's interesting that you have less rights, I'm hearing that correctly. You have less rights if you go over to FEMA housing. Is that correct?

Yes, councilmember. That is how we read the contracts because essentially FEMA is the tenant. In certain circumstances, we've also had another managing company in between FEMA and then the tenant as well. And the way we read it, that no, they've essentially negated your tenant rights when you're signing those FEMA contracts.

That's interesting. Okay. Well, thank you for that round of questions. Thank you, Chair.

Well, Vice Chair Johnson, next we have Member Batangian for your three minutes.

Thank you, Chair. I don't have any questions.

Okay. Thank you. Next we have Member Cook. Any questions for our panel? Thank you, Chair.

Thank you both for your introduction and the presentation.

Thing.

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We have not been able to be collect that data because that means that they haven't been able to contact us, we have not been able to follow-up with the information, either email or address. So that is data that we have not been able to collect.

I guess, to some degree, that's a state issue. I'm not I think a lot of people aren't into extreme government oversight, but it would be really nice if our government could have statistics about impact from legislation and rules and laws that are affecting us like this. Do you have any information about the impact? Have you had any communication with department county of Maui, department of human concerns, how the evictions are affecting our homeless population? And there again, you probably don't have stats, but I mean, this is kinda a couple things that I see the collateral impact of the evictions and basically the evictions people not being able to pay their rent.

Committee member, that is not information that we would be collecting more so the housing who we or organizations that are in touch with those in our houseless community and have numbers that can back up the devastation that our community is undergoing right now, where they are, where they're moving to. They might even have more information about who's leaving the island.

Thanks. Am aware that some of these questions aren't necessarily things answers you'd have, but it's the opportunity while we're having do to

that. We're sure sure sure if

you

that may have some type of rental assistance, we all would like them at the table to share our information and not operate in silos.

Thanks. I know people who rent homes, and they're in a pinch, basically, being able to keep their house. I mean, people who are renting the houses to people who are facing eviction. Thank you, chair.

Member Cook, would you want us to forward your questions to the department on behalf of the committee? Yes, please. Thank you. Next we have Chair

question for you first. Is one of the purposes of today's meeting and this presentation is to gather information for budget purposes?

We'll able And company. Benefits some question. Question. And

that's particular non profit agency that you are aware of that provides reliable, consistent rental assistance? I'd say Emio or somebody like that.

Chair Lee, MEO is the first that comes to mind. In the past, with Act 57, we did have involvement with Catholic Charities. But early on with Act two zero two, that was not an option. We are looking at Hawaii Community Foundation. But again, at this point, no one has stepped up to provide that key part of this puzzle.

Hawaii Community Foundation could provide funding but not administration of the fund, right?

That's the problem, having an entity willing to take that part on, on top of, say, our case, we could not do that. But that's why we were relying on, say, Emile or Catholic Charities. Only had the infrastructure. Thank you.

Mahalo, Chair Lee. Next, we have, Member Poulton for your three minutes.

I

think I missed it. When does the transition from 02/2002 to February occur?

February starts February 6. 02/2002 sundowns February 5. So, it's an immediate, the next day. 02/06/2026?

It's February 6. And, it seemed what, I I might not have fully understood it, but it seemed like what you were telling member Cook is the people that don't seek mediation or the people the 20% of who it doesn't work for, you don't have the data on what hap what then happens to them. Is that what the exchange was?

We do not have a follow-up on what happens if they don't show up or if we've lost contact because there are cases where we've made initial contact with not just the tenants but also landlords. And sometimes they've reached their own agreements and they just don't get back to us. We have to close these cases. So, of that 20%, I'm still hopeful that not everyone is having a horrendous outcome. But I know we have opened doors and people are now talking more. We're seeing it not just at our mediations, but we're also seeing it at the courthouse.

Do you have any idea of the people that, you know, if the mediation is successful and they leave on somewhat good terms or whatever about their ability to find new housing opportunities?

That would be a wonderful area to explore. We just haven't had the bandwidth to do follow ups.

Is there any sentiment as you're talking to the people that,

you know, the need for more shelters or safe places to park. We get calls every day from people just at wit's end not knowing where to go, where they're gonna be with their families. And, again, because we don't have resources where we can say, Call this number. And that's an area, I think, that this body can start talking about. Where can we direct them when what we have in place is sufficient. What else can we do?

Does some of your data, go into the price points, like, what their income range is and what their affordability for monthly rent is? Like, do you know are you aware if these are Alice constituents constituents or if they work is? For the government? Like,

those kind of numbers? Of the numbers that I quoted earlier, I can give a quick rundown. So less than $10,000, 48 of the households, that was what they made. 57 of the households were 10,000 to 30,000. 60 households were between 30 50,000. 32 were between 50 and 80. Seven between 80,000 and 100,000. And we had six with household incomes of more than 100,000.

Thank you. I heard the buzzer.

Okay. Mahalo. Next, have member Rollins Fernandez. Miss member Rollins Fernandez, are you able to hear the bell online?

Yes. I can, share the timer.

How how about the mics? Are you able to, hear everybody speaking?

I can hear everyone clearly. I was in touch with staff and let her know that, the resources or the folks online, like member Johnson, I can hear a lot louder than the folks that are in the chamber. And since I've let staff know that, the mics have gotten louder. So mahalo staff for being so responsive to those that are participating remotely.

Okay. Great. We'll start your time now.

Okay. Great. Okay. And, mahalo to everyone for joining us today. I was quickly trying to look through both, the bills or acts and trying to understand the the concerns. Okay. So

what is this?

Act two seventy eight, which was SB eight twenty five. Will replace act two zero two, and it'll be Paiaina wide. Correct? Okay. I see nodding heads.

Mahalo for that. And I see that it's intended to be a pilot program, that is set to be repealed on 02/04/2028. I looked through testimony to better understand, the the the date the ten days. I did did see that the Hawaii judiciary in testimony did ask for it to be thirty days, so for at least trying. And I see the Hawaii realtor opposed it being even increased to ten days.

Shameful. So I think part of the overall problem is the commodification of our housing inventory. And I don't care what anyone thinks of me saying this, but I don't think people should own more than one house. I think that's part of the problem, that people are renting it for higher than what most people can afford because that's they're using our housing inventory to make money off of people, our own community. So I haven't been able to look through it enough to understand, some of the opposition, to to this act.

This is two seventy eight. So for now, I don't have additional questions. I guess I guess my question for right now is, how can we, as a county, you know, support you folks on the ground doing the work?

I would say any and all ways to get the word out is most important, especially when we have this slender timeline. Because what we did find out through the Act two zero two was sometimes the tenants just didn't know, and believe it or not, a lot of times the landlords didn't know. For instance, they didn't know Maui mediation had to get it the exact same day or the timing didn't count. They didn't know they had to include all of the information on the form or it would delay it. So you've got landlords that are upset that are trying to get the rents that they are owed, and you've got the tenants that are upset because they don't wanna be on the streets.

So getting the word out is key. And when there's no money for marketing, however we can do it, coconut wireless, ground neighbor to neighbor, it needs to happen.

Mahalo, miss Bowers.

So it sounds like the same thing from, when we're discussing act two zero two. Just getting the word out. Mahalo for that. Mahalo, chair.

Hello, member Ronnas Fernandez. And, judge Bowers did receive, just receive a handout. So we're going to be posting that on the website just for more information on the program. Next we have Member Hou Hodgkins for your opportunity.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much for being with us today. Sorry I missed the beginning part of your presentation, but would you please restate the income stats you gave member Palton so I can write it down?

Our household incomes. We had 48 households with incomes of less than $10,000 57 households with incomes of 10,000 to 30,000, 60 households with incomes of 30 to 50,032 households with incomes of 50,000 to 80,000, and seven households with incomes between 80,000 and 100,000, and finally six households with incomes of more than 100,000. I also have stats on the monthly rent amounts Yes. And the months behind in rent.

Would you mind sharing that, please?

The monthly rent amounts. 34 households had monthly rent less than $1,000 170 households had monthly rents between $1,000 and $3,000 21 households had a monthly rent between $3,000 and $5,000 and three households had a monthly rent of more than $5,000

I know you just said that. Can you please provide that in writing as well to the committee? I would appreciate it.

I will be providing the summary sheet that also includes the number of people and household and the months behind.

That'd be super great. And you also said that it's difficult for you folks if mediation doesn't prove successful where they can go to. What do you hear from your clients? Where would they like to go? Are they looking for more single family rentals? Are they looking for more apartment style, complex, low income rentals? Would you be able to share that with us, if you know? Primarily, they

wanna stay where they are. Okay. And when that is not realistic, they want someplace safe. Sure. But many are saying, if this doesn't work, we're moving.

Okay. And primarily where people are, are they in single family, rental unit like complexes? Or what is

We get the majority because for 02/2002, it was incumbent upon the landlords Okay. To make contact. So we would get fifty, sixty notifications sent by some of these larger complexes. Oh. But they weren't the only ones.

Okay. And when the single landlords found out that that was a step they had to take, then they would come in. I'm sure with my staff I could go through how many were complexes because we have a detailed listing month by month of who contacted us, both the landlord and the tenant, and the information that we were able to compute for the summaries that I have. But I would assume that the majority indeed complexes.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Model member, Uhu Hodgins. I just had some follow-up questions,

judge Bowers. So act two seventy eight takes over two zero two. It looks like the extensions is for two years instead of one. And I was just wondering if you guys had enough funding for mediation services on the first year and what the funding for two seventy eight is that sufficient?

Chair, the only funding that's being provided are for the contracted mediators across the state that will be assisting Because what the members will see in the PowerPoint that they'll be receiving is these mediations are set up to be an hour and a half. That's usually more than enough time that we have found in dealing with it. But there is no funding per se. And that is actually a hardship for the individual mediation centers across the state. And that's why I keep harping on getting the word out.

Because had this been an ideal situation where we could have presented a budget like we were able to do with Act 57, it would include the components that we know would have made it easier and hopefully more effective for our community state state of the the Maui mediation is one of five, that's us. But there is nothing added to ease the financial challenge that this is gonna be bringing on.

Okay. And so those applicants to 02/2002 would likely continue in February?

I'm not going to say continue. That may be a question for the judiciary and Mr. Delima about conversions. I'm thinking if it was filed under 02/2002, it is 02/2002. But at the stroke of midnight on February 6, there needs to be the posting by the landlord on the door of the tenant and to Maui mediation.

And what the members will find is this act is actually driven online. There is a dedicated site statewide that landlords are going to be asked to contact. And then that site is going to send out the cases to the five different centers across the state. Because not everybody's going to be able to do the mediations online. And for that, if you're in Maui County, then you will be coming to our office or we will have a Zoom set up if it's a hybrid, say, landlord on the continent somewhere. We will still have it accessible for those that maybe aren't digitally literate. So, we want no one to miss out on this opportunity.

Mr. DeLima, so if you were on 02/2002, you would have to reapply for February?

Correct. Yes. So 02/2002 expires, right, on February 4, right? So any new proceedings would have to be done under Act two seventy eight at that point. Our understanding is that it takes effect, Bhavan may be correct on this, but our understanding, it takes effect February 5, and that's what we're planning for our rollout in the judiciary is February 5 to implement Act two seventy eight.

And the current applicants have been already informed of its sunset date?

First of COVID-nineteen

expect

the we've

made past. We're Thank you for that. Members, And any questions for a second round? I do see Vice Chair Johnson and Chair Lee.

Okay. Thank you, Chair. Interesting discussion. I always try to find a role for us as council and council members where we fit in. One of the things I'm curious is how instrumental is the county rental assistance, the programs that we have to help settle this state

art the

three five million dollars in the budget that they issue of out to and MEO, Kahakea, Kahakea, Iowa, Aloha House. And I'm just curious, is that enough? And how has that worked with you guys? You guys work with those folks on you know? I'm curious on our end. Is the rental assistance big enough? Is it has it been flowing easy working with those groups? Because we do have the money, I think. If it's not enough, then let's talk about it during budget.

When we're talking about rental assistance, when we do our intakes, part of we're going that. That. To

we're

do to MEO or Hawaii Community Assets, and it's incumbent upon the tenant to make that contact. We don't do a handoff. We just try to give them a number, if possible, a person's name, but we don't have a back and forth sharing about who can qualify, what the requirements are, did they do it. Yeah.

Okay. And I would say that our experience is very similar. However, what we have heard from our clients is that currently there is no rental assistance available for many of the groups. So and unfortunately, without having direct contact with those groups, I can't really speak to that other than anecdotally from what my clients are telling me.

Well, that's good to tell us as a body because we can look into that. So thanks for that. The last thing I wanna ask is judge Bowers kept speaking about getting the word out. Well, this is the body. We got the bully pulpit. Right? So we've got the if you guys wanna send us some of that information, flyers is always good. Send it to the committee, and we'll we'll spread the word. Know, we're sometimes, on Akaku television with the, public services announcements. Maybe we can do something like that.

I'm willing to you know, you can reach out to me. Whatever you guys want us to do, we'll try to, you know, get the word out because it sounds like that was you mentioned it a few times, judge. So that sounds to me that if that's what you guys really want us to do, just reach out to me, and I'll try to do what I can. But I'm sure the body, we we all we all wanna help on this kind of thing. Thank you.

Thank you. That would be most effective and most appreciated.

Chair

Lee? Yeah. Judge Bowers, a couple of things. When you were giving us those statistics, were those numbers households versus income and households versus rent, were the bottom line totals supposed to match?

No, ma'am. And this is why sometimes people didn't give us all the information or they would stop mid intake. So that's why we had varying totals, and yet the majority did provide that information.

Okay. The other part of my question is I think most of the council members would be very happy to support any rental assistance programs because we already do. But my concern is that we not create a situation where we continually support them so they don't become supportive of themselves. So there's gotta be some kind of teaching and preparing and training people to become more self reliant. Because if we continue to support and subsidize the same people, then there are fewer people we can help in the long run.

The idea is to help people so that they can move forward and we can help the next group, you know. So do we have besides a nonprofit that just gives out rental assistance? Do we have a nonprofit that trains people to become more self sufficient?

Shirley, when I first started with Maui Mediation about ten years ago, there was consumer crediting in the Cameron Center. There were resources to help people get financially literate. At this time, unless there is something going on with MEO, I am not aware of a service, an agency offering that type of assistance. And it's greatly needed because we see clients coming in, and they're spending their household incomes on non necessities. And it's not our role to say, Well, why aren't you doing this instead of that? But they need that type of instruction, the guidance. That would be most helpful.

And my final question is, when you talked about statistics earlier, you mentioned I think you mentioned eighty percent success rate?

That's correct.

So, I'm assuming that the tenant and the landlord were able to make a agree upon a payment plan of some kind?

Not necessarily always a payment plan. Sometimes it was a move out plan where the tenant had enough time and didn't feel like I'm gonna be out on the streets in a week. Or an alternative, I'm gonna pay a little extra or when I get my taxes in. So, it's as creative as the parties are willing to let it be.

Okay. Thank you.

Next we have Member Batungen. Thank you, Chair.

First one's for you, actually. Can I ask for a 7B on rental assistance programs in the county? Maybe we could hear from our Department of housing, judge Bowers mentions, MEO, and Catholic charities, maybe even Maui United Way. I think there are gaps in our ecosystem here that are worth discussing, and I think I would appreciate learning more about what each organization is thinking on how to address this. Maybe we could convene something where we could bring people together to have that conversation.

Then a question for judge Bowers. Piggybacking off of I guess, to get clarity on what chair Lee had initially asked about what we can do to support, you know, recognizing that budget is coming up. Can I clarify? The request was for money for others. So, Maui Mediation Services, does it have any county funding or any grants that it, applies for through from the county?

Yes, councilmember. We have been fortunate enough to be included with the housing and human concerns budget in their food, shelter, and safety pot. But that is for our mediation

we're to we're

do And type of program to tie in with our local attorneys where they could be compensated to have a sit down, to educate, because we still hear stories where they're being frightened, where they're being given misinformation, and not just from landlords, but from people in the community. So education is key. And if there was some way to subsidize, I think it would go a long way.

Thank you.

So I think I

heard Member Rollins Fernandez ask, you know, what are ways that we could support you in your mission? If there but I also hear now that there might be additional financial assistance that could be of benefit to mob mediation services specifically for this program since the grant that the county gives is for a different program. If you could give some thought as to what the council might be able to do to better support you on this effort, I'd appreciate that. And it doesn't have to be now. We can follow-up. We can put a question to you and ask that you think about it and then respond in writing. But if you can if there are ways that we can support you, I'd be interested in hearing that.

I thank you for giving me that opportunity.

Just to add, member Batangian, you know, we had some discussions when, proposing to give more rental assistance. A lot of the programs right now are just strict for certain, demographics. So if we wanted to to forward, rental assistance to another group, it it might need that we had we may have to go ahead and change some of the wording in their programs. And so that's why MEO and Catholic Charities were more open to providing rental assistance to more people.

Thank you, Chair.

And my apologies, I did see Mr. DeLima's hand up earlier.

No problem. Thank you. I just wanted to note, going back to the question about Act two zero two, if you filed up until February 4, you will proceed as act two zero two even if you go beyond that. Right? You know? So anything that comes in from February 5, that'd be filed as an act two seventy eight matter. So I just wanted to clarify that.

Hello, mister Delima. Members, any other questions for our, mister Cook?

Thank you. I don't know if you have it. From your data, do you have any insight into the type of housing, condominiums, townhouses?

Now, with the summary sheet that I provided today, and I'm thinking back on our excels, I don't believe that we tracked the type of structure. We did the number in the household. We did the rent. We did how far they were behind in rent, but not was it a stand alone home. Was it a condo? So I don't believe we collected that. No.

Thank you. That type of information may help us when we're reviewing housing proposals and to kind of identify what potential group of people are need this also. Thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you, chair.

Hello, mister Cook. We have, member Rollins Fernandez.

Mahalo, chair. I don't have a question. I just wanted to say this, this statement for the record. I I don't wanna put all the blame on the tenants. I, I don't want us and the record to reflect that all the blame is on the tenants.

There are some good landlords, and there are some greedy landlords. Some folks who bought houses regardless of how high the interest rates on the mortgage was gonna be with the intention of renting renting it to our working class folks to extract wealth from the tenants. There the, area median income for a a household is 95,000. So 30% of the 95,000 is $28,500 a year. That's 30% of the area median income divided by 12 for the month, and that's $2,375 per month.

I have a friend who rented in a two bedroom for $3,700 a month, And that's not a unique situation. The the. It's becoming like too much. Like people can't afford like the rents are as high as people can afford. And when they can't afford it anymore, then they get evicted because they know someone else would be willing to pay the inflated rent amounts.

And it this this is part of the problem of the system. And I don't want us to just think, oh, it's the tenants are, like, somehow failing to be able to make enough money to to pay the rent. In some situations, perhaps that is the case, But the the the system that we have now is failing our people. That's what it is. Mahalo, chair.

Mahalo, member Rollins Fernandez. Kiala, did you wanna add to the discussion from the, governor's office site?

I don't wanna speak on behalf of the governor's office, but I can I can speak on behalf of the calls that we have regularly with those working directly with community? My knowledge as far as the rental assistance programs go are that they are quite limited and typically run for about four to six months maximum. And so I'm not sure right now that that is well, I don't personally feel like that is necessarily a long term solution for folks. And I don't think in addressing Councilmember Lee's question, I don't think right now that that's creating reliance on these rental assistance programs. Although I do agree that

some type

of counseling or education, you know, financial education program paired with rental assistance would be really excellent. But there is a need for more rental assistance, for sure.

Mahalo for that. I'm sorry, one more. Go ahead.

I'm so sorry. Councilmember Sineci. One more thing that I wanted to throw out there. So I know there was mention about wanting to know, you know, data tracking folks that have been a part of mediation and, you know, where they go afterwards. And so, I think this has been a need, you know, since the fire is being able to track.

I realize that this program doesn't just assist survivors, but there has been a need to be able to track folks, you know, and to be able to know where they're going, what their ongoing needs are. And so if there was ever some additional funding that could go out to perhaps an opt in program where community members could choose to opt in to some type of two way communication program where they could share, you know, kind of their demographics and what their needs are and where they also would be able to find out what some of the assistance available is to them. There are there are there is technology, to do that, but it is quite expensive. And I'm understanding, you know, the concerns about government oversight. But if it was an opt in program, then folks would then be able to choose whether they wanted to participate in something like that or not.

Mahalo.

Great. Mahalo for that. Members, any other questions for today's guests? Okay. Seeing none with that, we did wanted to all of you for your questions and your comments. Mahalo to Judge Bowers, Mr. Dilima, Ms. Ferreira, Ms. Kiyopuki Santos and Ms. Watanabe for attending our meeting and providing the public with more information and some upcoming deadlines, important deadlines with the public today. Members, if there are no objections, I will defer this item. Oh,

I just had one last question. Go ahead. In, the educating of people on the bills, like, act on February, like, you know, similar to member Rollins Fernandez, I looked at the act for a bill or whatever. And, it's barely understandable to me. So, like, just regular people in getting the word out, is there gonna be a simplified, like, mem or something you can just share on your social media?

Would like an Act two zero two councilmember. We have a breakout simple form for both the landlord and the tenant. And I'm going to send this committee all that we just had prepared so everyone will see because it's legalese. It's mumbo jumbo, and that makes it even more intimidating for those that are already position of the committee. As well. Yes. We already have, and I will be forwarding that.

Thank you. Just making sure because, you know, the language that people like me speak.

Okay. Any closing remarks? Seeing none, members any objections to deferring this item? No. Thank you for that. And thank you for being here. Thank you. Okay, members. We have a second item, but we'll definitely take our mid morning break so that we can swap out our panel for the next item. With that, we'll come back at 10:20.

The Wassa Committee meeting of Monday, 01/26/2026 is now in recess. Hello, and welcome back to the Wassup committee meeting of Monday, 01/26/2026. For that quick break, members. For our second item, what's up one parent 16, child abuse and human trafficking prevention in Maui County. Members, January is nationally recognized as Human Trafficking Prevention Month to raise awareness on how to identify and prevent this crime from occurring.

There are estimated to be more than 27,600,000 adults and children around the world subjected to human trafficking. Traffickers often take advantage of instability caused by natural disasters, conflict, or a pandemic to exploit others. Today, we've invited resources from Ho'i Kaika partnership and parents and children together to share how Maui County is impacted and what can be done to protect children and to support our families. Before we hear from our resources, I wanna note that this meeting may include some discussion issues that trigger or can cause some distress, and I want to encourage the use of crises and mental health support resources. I know it can be a bit overwhelming for for some people.

And so please reach out if you're struggling or need, additional support. We do have, the Hawaii Cares at 988 or call 247 shelter hotline at (808) 526-2200 or, the trafficking victim assistance program at (808) 721-9614. With that, we have, Ms. Marwa from Ho'okaika Partnership. Thank you for joining us this morning.

And, you can go ahead and begin your presentation.

Mahalo, chair. Good morning. Aloha. My name is Deb, and I'm with the Ho'Okeika Partnership. Thank you for having us here today to talk with you a little bit about child abuse prevention in Maui County and, what we're doing through the partnership to support that. Next slide, please. I'm

going

to start out with just a little bit of good news, actually, and some data that shows that over the last several years, the rate of child abuse reporting of founded reports have been going down and has been, almost cut in half between 2020 and 2023. At the same time, however, we also know that nearly one out of every five adults in Maui County has suffered at least four or more adverse childhood experiences before the age of 18. And we'll get into a little bit of why that is so important to pay attention to. Also, one thing to note is that although the rates are going down, that's not a time to stop prevention work. There are many reasons why the reports could be decreasing.

We'd like to think that our prevention efforts are helping. However, note that during this time period was also, when COVID was happening and a lot of Keiki were out of school and less eyes on them. Next slide, please. Adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs. Some of you may be familiar with this term.

Basically, adverse childhood experiences are conditions that are experienced before the age of 18 that usually fall into one of three categories: abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction. And what they lead to is a potentially toxic stress that can inhibit brain development in young children, and then also lead to long term health consequences over the lifespan.

Yes?

Move this closer. Okay. I'm so sorry. Thank you for letting me know. Okay.

ACEs are linked to the more you have, the more risk you have for long term health impacts across your lifespan. The good news, though, is that ACEs can be preventable by protective factors. Next slide, please. And that's what Ho'okaika Partnership operates as. So we are a coalition of organizations, both community based nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, philanthropy, working together to prevent child abuse and neglect and strengthen families across Maui County.

We were founded in 2008, so I think that's eighteen years ago now, by five organizations and have grown substantially since then. We are not a single program. I think that's one of the most important things to recognize about Haukeika. It's where all the various providers come together in one network to work together on behalf of this goal. And our major goal is really to create a seamless safety net to keep families and Keiki from falling through the cracks.

Slide, please. We are guided by a 10 organization leadership who we, and they provide strategic vision and coordinate our funding. And our fiscal sponsor is Maui Family Support Services. One of the ways that they work together is by helping us all learn a similar approach and language. And I mentioned protective factors.

You can kind of think of those as a shield that really helps prevent families from feeling the most extreme effects of stress, financial hardship, mental health issues, poverty, and other factors that create the risk for child abuse. Next slide, please. So we work together for five interconnected goals, and we really take what is known as a systems approach to prevention. None of this work stands alone. It's all interconnected.

And what we are really trying to do is make sure that we are not duplicating services, that we're working in alignment, and not working in silos. Next slide, please. So I'm going to stick on this slide for just a moment so that you can see how we kind of visualize this integrated system. We really focus on three populations: families and caregivers and providers and then systems and the community. And where each of these populations, we undertake different activities to support prevention, and where they all intersect is where we have the outcome of child abuse prevention.

This is supported by that foundation of a leadership buoy, and some of the functions that they're really critical for is coordination, relationship building, data collection, and sustainability. Next slide, please. So I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the specific activities that we've been doing focused on just 2025. We have one of the foundational services, one of the few direct services that Ho'Okeica partnership provides is navigation services, and it's been, in this last year, primarily one part time person. And during that time, you can see she has served 161 families across Maui County.

And really what this person does is be a guide by the side so that when families reach out for help, that they get support before they're in crisis and hopefully avert some of the more challenging situations such as houselessness. You can also see from this slide that the cost of living, which we've heard a lot about in the previous session, is really reflected in the kinds of support that people are requesting. Next slide, please. Community engagement is really the first kind of opens the door to the navigation services. It's often the place where people first come in contact with many of the organizations that work within and with our navigator.

And so they're more than a feel good activity. They're really a place that is a learning hub, both for learning about community resources and also for putting a face to the name of our local providers and a way to build trust. It's also a distribution hub for necessary items that really help families get through the month. Next slide, please. Our public education campaign is really the foundation of kind of helping everyone across my county really understand what it takes to prevent child abuse, both at a community level and in the home.

And, this is where we lift up protective factors, and we normalize help seeking. So there can be a lot of stigma attached. It can be very difficult to reach out and ask for help. And we really want people to understand there's no shame. Everyone needs help sometimes. And we base this work on national models that are adopted for our island and Maui context. And an example of that, again, is the protective factors you can see down the left hand side. Some of the concepts here can be really academic. Social and emotional competence in children, for example. What does that mean?

So we've tried to create family friendly language that communicates those concepts in a way that resonates with people. So Show Keiki Aloha is a way to talk about how do we teach our keiki to have solid

the national, Talk Reads Sing, Talking is Teaching campaign is, we've been the first county in the state of Hawaii to bring this, to our families here, and it really is a way to encourage families to remember that they are their

how Keiki's first teachers and that by talking, singing, and reading to your children every day, that is a protective factor, and it can help, again, be a buffer to some of stressful situations we know our families are facing. Next slide, please. And then, finally, strengthening the workforce. These are the people that do the work, and we really need to lift them up. It has been a really difficult the last couple of years, especially post wildfire have been really challenging.

And this quote, we can't pour from an empty cup, comes from one of our providers who has participated in our Healing the Healers monthly peer support groups that were initiated after the '20 twenty three wildfires. So we offer monthly meetings, which aren't just a place to, come and receive information, but it's really an active environment where people, coordinate their work and learn about, community resources. We also have an annual conference and trainings. Next slide, please. And then finally, I'll just leave you with a little comparison chart.

Why is prevention a strategic investment? How Okeika partnership started in 2008 during a, economic recession? Prevention is almost always the first thing to be cut. It's seen as, extraneous, but really what it does is help save lives, it helps save hardship within families, and it helps save money in the long run as well. When you think about it, we have a lot of gaps, as was mentioned earlier, in our systems, ecosystem.

And what we try to do is fill those gaps. And by having a connected system instead of a fragmented system, that in and of itself helps serve as a protective factor. Happy to answer more questions and, talk with you about this further. Really thank you all for your support, over the last few years, especially, as we come to you during Child Abuse Prevention Month, and you've acknowledged, the importance of that work. Mahalo.

Mahalo, Deb, for that information. Next, members, we have Ms. Kutaka from Parents and Children Together for her presentation.

Aloha, maikako. Sour. Aloha. I'm Kayla Kutaka, and I represent an organization called Parents and Children Together. Our organization is dedicated to improving the lives of Hawaii's children, individuals, families for more than five decades here in Hawaii.

Today, I was asked to provide an overview overview of sex trafficking and data on its prevalence here in Maui County. As was said by council member Sanenzi, I also want to acknowledge that this month is human trafficking awareness month. Today's presentation is grounded in the understanding that trafficking is real, an ongoing issue affecting individuals and communities everywhere, and awareness is one of the first steps to our prevention and support. Could I get some support with the, presentation? Mahalo. I can continue to riff. Oh, no. Okay. Wonderful. So I'll start off this presentation.

I'll I'll give you a heads up. There's quite a bit of data and information, but I'm happy to unpack and support in any way possible. But I'll start off by, providing some alignment just to ensure that we're all speaking consistently about trafficking, about what this topic is. So the Trafficking Victim Protections act of 2000 defines trafficking as a commercial sex act. So if we think commercial, we're thinking there's an exchange of goods.

Right? The act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion. So for a victim over 18, so an adult, to be considered a victim or a survivor of trafficking, this would need to involve, number one, force. So we're thinking physical violence, assault, use of drugs, or other substances are involved, or two, fraud. In these situations, we think of what we call grooming.

So these are the victims who are told on social media that they're gonna be a model, who they think that they're in a relationship with this person and may feel love and affection toward their trafficker. Or three, which is coercion, meaning blackmail, debt bondage, threats to family members, etcetera. Another point to make here with this act is that for a victim under the age of 18, in order for prosecution to occur, force, fraud, or coercion does not need to be present, only that there is a commercial exchange of a minor. Next slide, please. So now that we're in alignment with what we're actually measuring and what we're looking at here, we're gonna build a better understanding of the size of this concern because this is real and this is occurring in our community.

So data shows in just one year, 80,080 online ads were posted. A 150 in person establishments were discovered, which can amount to anywhere between fifteen hundred twenty five hundred victims exploited in Hawaii alone. So, another point to make is of these victims, about 23, almost 24% were on Maui. So, I looked up. According to the Hawaii census, Maui accounts for about 11% of the state's population.

And yet, considering victims of trafficking, we're at nearly 24 are here on Maui. Next slide, please. Great question. The data that was collected was technically this is for Maui Island. There was also some data that I'm happy to share to council member Rollins around Molokai.

The data was collected by an organization called Child and Family Service, and they do not provide service on Lanai. So that is data still to be, discovered. Thank you for asking. Our local population here, in the county is vulnerable to sex trafficking for several reasons. First off, in confirmation with some of the data and experiences that Deb shared, the average age of a survivor's first experience of trafficking is 11 years old.

One out of every five sex trafficking victims interviewed identified that their first trafficking situation or event was as a child. About twenty five percent reported to have been trafficked not by a stranger, not by a boyfriend, but by a family member, including parents, guardians, older siblings, uncles, aunties, grandparents. These are family members and of our ohana in our community. Nearly seventy percent of individuals reported having been trafficked while they were houseless. And a national advocacy group site that one out of every three runaway children are approached by a trafficker within forty eight hours of leaving their home.

Also to note, individuals who identify as LGBTQ plus or individuals with special needs are at an increased vulnerability, due to their increased need possibly to feel a sense of belonging, a lack of awareness, or a lack of other resources and education. Deb also spoke about ACEs, a bit more extensively, but all of the trafficking victims identified, and interviewed for the, Arizona State University data reported high rates of adolescent or adverse childhood experiences or ACEs. This includes exposure to family violence, neglect, childhood sexual abuse, domestic or dating violence, a mental health diagnosis, substance use, or houselessness, amongst others on the list. This further drives forward our intention and our need for prevention programs here on Maui. Next slide, please.

It may be easy to think like this isn't us. We know our community so well. We have, you know, large families and a big connection. But the other point that I made, I did get ahead of myself, but sixty four percent of the trafficking victims that were interviewed identified as at least part Hawaiian. So these are our people.

This is our community. Many of the contributing factors here that increase Hawaii's vulnerability, it is number one being that there's such an online presence and such an online demand for commercial sex. So some of the data shows one in seven adult men in Hawaii by sex in some form online. So I I know we think, know, there's a lot of people that travel here. There's a lot going on, but it it breaks down to one in eleven if we're looking at residents only.

So that's a one out of 11 male residents of Hawaii are purchasing sex online in some form. It can include photos. It can include other themes, social media, dating apps, classified sites, gaming platforms, chat rooms, and the like. A second contributing factor is a significant number of visitors coming and going within Hawaii can can increase the pool of of one time offenders or new buyers, which can make it more difficult. It can kinda minimize detection of these types of things.

And also military presence, if we're talking about our outer islands or other islands, can complement and complicate the enforcement process. On top of that, as we've been spoken about ACEs and other contributing factors to vulnerability, the high cost of living, housing insecurity, Hawaii can be more susceptible to what we call survival trafficking. That involves an individual exchanging sex for things like basic needs. We're talking food, shelter, clothing, money, and transportation. Next slide, please.

Despite the severity of sex trafficking as a class a felony, prosecution rates remain low. So between 2014 and 2020, Hawaii's criminal justice data center reported only 19 arrests statewide for trafficking. State and local cases have historically faced challenges as well. Hawaii has had one federal conviction specific to sex trafficking in the last ten years, and it was just last November he was sentenced. These numbers are significantly low for a variety of reasons, including the psychological, financial, and physical coercion from the trafficker often, you know, encourages or causes our victims to not come forward.

A lot of our victims fear retaliation for themselves and their ohana. Many victims also they may not identify as being trafficked. Others distrust law enforcement or advocacy agencies due to past experiences or for the variety of needs that they may experience, as well as many find themselves unable to maintain this sustained cooperation and investigation, due to the many financial house financial or housing instability or lack of other social supports. There's a high legal burden of proof for to be able to, prosecute these types of cases. Psychological coercion is more difficult to prove than those with physical force involved, And many traffickers align with the narrative that there was an exchange, if there was something received, then it must have been consensual.

In addition to that, late reporting of these instances can interfere with evidence collection, and investigation resources can be limited. Next slide, please. At Parents and Children Together, I couldn't help but mentioning similarly to Hoi Kueika partnership, Parents and Children Together, also known as PACT, is dedicated to providing services to the community, not only in intervention, but also in prevention. This is a representation here, this visual, of the programs that we provide statewide, all having a hand in mitigating ACEs for our Ohana in the community. Our Maui County programs include domestic violence prevention and intervention at our family peace centers on Maui and Lanai, family strengthening services for our ohana that may be at risk for child abuse and neglect, as well as our therapeutic behavioral health support for youth ages 10 to 17, which tends to be with some of our our greatest at risk youth groups.

I'm happy to speak more, on some of these other topics as well, whether at future meetings or whatnot, just regarding some of these greater community concerns. Next slide. Specific to trafficking intervention, the resources statewide are a bit more limited. Trafficking victims require an increased range of direct services, including medical support, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, housing, and trauma informed care in all systems. The trafficking victims interviewed by ASU report being in contact with many of Hawaii's institutions of care, sometimes while being trafficked.

So that includes schools, hospitals, mental health providers, criminal justice system, child welfare services, which really reminds us that we have a duty to report all suspicions to our statewide hotline and also reminds us that there is an education and an outreach component needed for our community. So for our children, in in one of Deb's slides, it shared that two to three of the, child welfare services reported cases involved trafficking in 2023. And, all of those cases were forwarded to what we call our trafficking victim assistance program. So that is funded by the state through Susanna Wesley Community Center, and parents and children together is Maui County's provider for that service. That includes, you know, case management, crisis response, educational support, and advocacy for our youth who have experienced trafficking.

We work closely with the Children's Justice Center who facilitates what we have multidisciplinary team meetings of providers. We call our team the home team helping our Maui exploited. That's pretty good of us to put that together. We coordinate care. We support law enforcement and investigation, and all around are able to share that information to support our victims and survivors of trafficking.

PACT is also near the end of a grant cycle for providing general community outreach and training around trafficking. We do training around identification, reporting, prevention, as well as intervention. And we've done that across a number of providers, including our community providers, airport security, hotel security, our first responders. Many of our Maui youth are also supported by programs on Oahu, including that is where Hawaii's youth shelters around trafficking are located, where they're able to provide more comprehensive care, including our our Pearl Haven shelter by and a soon to be, a second shelter by Haleakipa. IMUA Alliance also provides both direct service and legislative advocacy for exploited individuals.

And then PAC does have sub Oahu programs around our individuals and youth who have been sexually assaulted, which includes trafficking. Next and last slide, please. This is an incredible amount of information. I definitely don't, that is that is very true. Endless stats and figures, but what I really wanna do is close with a reminder that these are all real people. Friends. These are cousins. These are neighbors. I appreciate the time that you've allowed me to speak on the prevalence of this significant concern for our kiki and our ohana and our Kaiaulu. Sex trafficking is present in our community, but it's also preventable and addressable.

County council plays a critical role in this leadership and an example for our community. So I very much and we very much appreciate the communication and collaboration started here today. We stand firmly in serving our Ohana and, look forward to our future collaboration. Mahalo for your time.

Mahalo, Kayla, and maalo for the presentations. Members, before we get into discussion, we'll go to testimony. Staff, do we have anyone wishing to testify?

Yes, chair. We have two individuals signed up to testify.

Okay. Let me quickly read the, testimony log. That. Able to we're sign up in the chamber, join the online to meeting via the Teams link, or call in the phone number noted on today's agenda. For individuals wishing to testify via Teams, please raise your hand by clicking on the raise your hand button.

For those calling in, please follow the prompts via phone. If you're online, please, raise your hands. For those on Teams, staff will lower your hand once your name is added, and then enable your microphone. Written testimony is encouraging. Can be submitted via the e comment link at mauicounty.us/agendas. Oral testimony is limited to three minutes per item. Once you're done testifying and if you do not wish to testify, you can view the meeting on Akaco, channel 53, Facebook live, or mauicounty.us/agendas. Steph, could you call on our two testifiers, please?

Sure. The first testifier is Kristen Mills in the chamber and the to be followed by James Langford on teams.

Good morning. Good

morning. Oh, that does work. Hi. My name is Kristen Mills, and I am a member of Hoei Kaika Partnership. And I just I'm here as a member of the partnership, which is very vast and covers many facets around adverse childhood experiences or ACEs.

And I'm here from the facet of the long term effects of ACEs because it's not just about prevention is so important, but unfortunately there's so many people living with ACEs. It's important to be very aware of the long term and lifelong impacts of ACEs and the continued work that we need throughout the lifespan, not just in children. So I've worked in health and wellness my entire life. In 2018, I transitioned back to chronic disease I are at the core of everything think, we're trying to prevent, all the chronic diseases, and preventing all the positive healthy behaviors we're trying to promote. It's at the core.

It's so important. So it's in this in this area of not just prevention, but building resiliency skills that is so vital throughout the lifetime lifespan. And that's how I got connected with Hawaii Kaika partnership. And that's the role that I play with them. Not in the I don't work with children.

I don't prevent in the zero to five year old ages, but I help try to help build resiliency skills, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of it so that folks, you know, even all of us with high, ACE scores can still combat combat those ACEs with positive experiences, with resiliency skills, with tools in our our tool bag to keep going and live healthy and vibrantly. Sorry. Deb already mentioned about ACEs and that they include abuse, neglect. A general term also to include is to think about is aspects of a child's environment that undermines their sense of safety, stability, and bonding. So when we think about the ACE score, a lot of times we look at, okay, what's your ACE score and that's a score between zero to 10 and that's typically from the child's home environment it doesn't even include community trauma such as wildfire such as homelessness I guess homeless ness could be part of their their home score.

It's a it's there's a lot of aspects of trauma to to consider here. So throughout the lifespan as that mentioned, as the ACE score goes up, your risk for various conditions go up. But if you weren't well, that three months went by fast.

Thirty yeah, thirty seconds

to Oh,

thirty seconds. Okay. So it can cause increase one's risk for obesity, heart disease, stroke, all those things that we don't think of to do with childhood trauma. It could increase their risk for suicidal ideations. It could also affect ability to live healthy, eat healthy, be surrounded by healthy people and positive supportive friends and family. It could increase their risk of being

think good world.

That's ACEs can continue intergenerationally and continue on. Whereas the opposite is if we help build resiliency skills and support people, they can nip it in the bud and choose to pair parent very differently than how they were parented and help create healthier generations. Thank you so much.

Thank you, miss Mills. Members, any questions for miss Mills at this time? Seeing none. Thank you for your testimony. Ms. Staff?

Chair, the next and currently last person signed up to testify is James Langford on Teams.

Aloha, counsel, chairperson. Hope you're well. This today's the second part today is very dear to my heart. I've I've experienced I I that kinda penetrated my life since I was a young boy, four years old, to understanding the dynamics of human trafficking on all levels. And so testifying on how to support when people who are tasked to stop this type of behavior like myself you get, and they speak up like I have.

And then you get blamed for all the behavior that the folks are trying to cover up. You saw it on the news, like the shootings over the weekend. When you don't tell the truth, people die literally. That's what you're seeing. So I've experienced through second quarter in this process being blackmailed, having children's lives threatened in order to cover up people who are accountable that apparently would have gone to jail had I not signed some sort of document, you know, under duress presented by an ad libel in the second court.

My most, I was evicted, you know, for as far as earlier in the meeting by another person from representative from the second court acting in a corrupt way when I spoke out about, the human trafficking at 175 East Lopoa under the management of Paramount Hotels LLC, and the the drug the smell of the drugs on a weekend when the church was there and people saying, they're giving us drugs. I want it. So this is an example of where I witnessed human trafficking happen. I reported it. And then all the people of the majority started sending people out to talk to me all on video, documented.

So I'm in a position where I have to file a court case in order to get a house file about it and stop potentially human trafficking in my own family. I don't get to speak to my children probably because there's some secrets they don't want me to know that my kids want. That's a terrible. So any of you folks there who are testifying today who are please reach out to me. My email is jimlankert@me.com, and I would love your help in bringing the truth to life because, you know, there's people on the council who may be threatened if they tell the truth.

I'll protect you people. All of you. Like, I'm here to keep y'all safe. Hollow, James. Not the people pressuring you. Oh, sorry, sir.

I love you. Yep. Hollow, James. Any questions Okay. For Mr.

That's what I do.

Seeing none. Thank you for your testimony. Staff?

Chair, no one else signed up to testify, so we can proceed with last call. If anyone in the audience or on Teams would like to testify, please come up to the mic and begin your testimony or use the raise your hand function on Teams. I'll

can. Day. I'm

not

Okay, members. We'll open the floor up for questions and comments. We'll have a three minutes for first round and subsequent rounds. We'll go ahead and start with Vice Chair Johnson. Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. Good morning, everyone. And first off, I want to thank you all for doing the work that you do. It's really important. So thank you so much. You know, this kind of presentations bring on emotions to me, you know, and it it's tough to hear what you guys are doing. So I wanted us on the council side, on the county side, to make sure that we're helping. So maybe, Deb, if you would, maybe you could elaborate on the navigation services and are they staffed and the capacity and the funding. Maybe we'll start with that.

Sure. Thank you, council member. We really appreciate your support. The navigation services, it's honestly, it's been kind of a tough year. We came before the council last April to let you know that we were facing a funding gap, and you all unanimously, voted to support us in, funding, and we so appreciate that.

At that time, just before that, our our the person who had been serving as a navigator had, resigned her position because of the, approaching, lack of funding. And so we were able to hire a new person part time. It took a couple months to onboard that person and get them up to speed and trained, and they started providing services in June. So we had a couple of months of gap in services, but despite that, we were able to still do an amazing amount of support to families and within the community, as you saw on the slide. At this time, the funding that was allocated by the council, we just received the contract to go ahead just about ten days ago, I think.

Yeah, it was a little delay. And so we backfilled with funding from other to we're do that.

Starting in February, but I'm curious about that delay. You said you just got it recently, like a week ago. Can you elaborate on the delay? What happened?

Well, we submitted our paperwork back in June, I believe. And, from my understanding, there was a countywide restructuring of how, contracts and grants were being administered. And, I don't really I honestly can't tell you much more

than So what was the result? You had to lay someone off and rehire them? Or how what happened with that?

Okay. So to be clear, the we did not lay off anyone. The person saw that an approach was happening where we were not going to have funding for the position. This was back in March. And so needing to take care of her family sought a new job and resigned.

Alright. Well, I, you know, I heard my time, but that's a concern. I know you guys are doing work out in the community. It doesn't need to be, delayed on the county side. I wanna support you guys. So maybe we can look into that later, but thanks for your response. Thank you, chair. Further call.

Vice chair Johnson. Next, we have member Batungen for your three minutes.

Thank you, chair. I actually don't have any questions, but I'd be happy to yield my time to the Lanayan.

Okay. We'll come back around to Vice Chair Johnson. Next we have member Cook.

Thank you, chair. So is miss Morales? Thanks. Is, school bullying one of the factors in this? I've recently been contacted by one of my constituents whose child's in ninth grade, getting beat up, school's single handle it, not handling it. What would you suggest?

Yeah. Thank you for that question. I'm aware of I've read some accounts over the weekend to, pretty disturbing incidents, and it seems to be part of a bigger pattern. And I know that there are many people who believe it starts in the home and people thinking you need to be taught within the home. These go back to our protective factors, the social and emotional competence. How do we handle relationships? How do we handle hard feelings? And how do we do that in a healthy way and not through violence? There also is our community institutions, schools in particular, are also holding part of the kuleana for teaching our keiki these skills. So it goes hand in hand.

And then honestly, my opinion is that we see leadership on a political level in our nation. We're not role modeling healthy behaviors at a national level even. Right? So our children are exposed to this, and they pick it up. They pick up everything.

They're like little sponges. So we do have, I know one of our partners, Mental Health of America of Hawaii, does a lot of educational programs within schools, and part of that is anti bullying. That is a huge part of our public education campaign and really working with families, parents, how do you talk with your children about these hard issues. And schools are hard pressed. They have a lot of things they have to juggle. But the more that we can offer these kinds of educational programs within schools, the more systematic that education is across the board.

Thank you. Since I have a little more time, how often do you hear in what you're doing about, schools not being safe for some children? And, I mean, I can see the collateral. Some people's having problems home. They're taking it out at school. How big a problem is that?

I I, don't necessarily have data at my fingertips on that, but

Your your gut feeling from your My

gut feeling. You know, I think that bullying is part of the landscape of being a child and growing up in this culture, unfortunately. And it's something that I mean, I I was a victim of bullying as a child, so it added to my ACES score. Right? And it makes our children vulnerable.

Thank you for that. Thank you, Chair. Hello, Member Cook. Next, we have

Chair Lee, followed by Member Paul Ting.

I really don't have any questions. I am very supportive of this Ohana, this consortium, as well as the individual agencies that make up the consortium. And I agree that we in public service, as well as people who participate in the public arena, need to be better role models relative to civil and courteous behavior. It's on us. Thank you.

Hello, Chair Lee. Member of Pulton.

Thank you. I'm referring to slide eight on the sex trafficking in Maui County, page, and, it looks like that only Oahu has trafficked youth shelters. Is that contribute to an ACE to be, like, separated on a different island, or is that more better to get away? Or that's just what we have and deal with it?

Mhmm. I appreciate your question. I I think, first and foremost, that is just what we have available. I think it can go multiple ways. There are some opportunities for youth to be separated maybe from a situation that was negatively impacting their day to day. So there is some that divide that's helpful. For others, it is hard to lose some of your support systems in place. Unfortunately, in Hawaii, our only two youth shelters that are serving our trafficked youth are on Oahu. Because they have a bigger volume? Likely just because of funding and because of the agencies and organizations that have been able to open them.

We've had individual, foundations and things come to us asking if that was a need. I think on Maui to serve our youth, we may need, maybe more outreach and awareness and kind of a greater systems wide approach to be able to identify our youth that are in need of that service in order to lift it up and to be able to continue its use here.

Mhmm. And then on the ACE numbers, is it sometimes people have adverse effects growing up if they didn't have a number of ACEs? Like, that's not the only determining factor?

Are you asking about sex trafficking? Or

No. Okay. Because this is the partnership talking about ACEs. Right? Mhmm. Yes. And then it talks to risks linked to ACEs. Not necessarily do always have an ACE to have the risks linked to ACE. I see

what you're saying. So some of the health conditions that people might have, they're not are they always linked to ACEs? No. So for example, you could have cardiovascular issues or obesity but not necessarily have a high ACE score. But what we do know is that the more ACEs that a person experiences, the greater the risk for those health conditions. And it's really kind of very interesting to see that some of those health conditions you would not necessarily think are connected to early childhood trauma like obesity. When I learned about that, that was kind of a surprise to me.

So then

What's going on in the chambers?

There was a high high pitched, like

Like whistle.

Much worse than a mosquito. I just was gonna ask. So then the testifier that was talking about the resilience part, why would we not, do that to all of our children? And, I mean, even if, individual child doesn't have the ACE, maybe they could help another friend perhaps that has the ACE by learning. Like, maybe they're more receptive to the resiliency coping stuff because they're not dealing with the ACE, and it might be easier for their friend to hear it from a friend or a peer than, like, a clinical person.

Absolutely. So one of the things we talk about, ACEs are not I don't think anybody gets through childhood unscathed. If you think about your own childhood, there are challenges and really a lot of hardships. That and in general, humans are very resilient. And the number one thing that helps children be resilient is to have a trusted adult that they can turn to, that they know they can trust.

That is so important, and a lot of children don't have that. So that's a good place to start. And then with peers, yes, they can be a support, especially if they're educated in that. And one of the things that we have that have been coming online in Maui County is youth line, which is trained young people who are providing mental health support to their peers to help get them through hard times. So that's definitely a great strategy.

And I just wanna leave you with this image. If you think about protective factors as sort of the mitigating buffer effect to ACEs, it's kinda like having an umbrella. If you think about a Keiki and their family, with everything pouring down, the financial stress, the houselessness, the substance use, mental health issues, whatever it may be, those protective factors act like an umbrella to really shield them from the worst effects of that. And so that's where we really put our focus is building those as a buffer.

Thank you. Next, we'll have Member Rollins Fernandez followed by Member Uwu Hutchins.

Mahalo, Jerry, and maalo to our to resource folks. Mahalo for your presentation.

Very informative and heartbreaking. I I don't really have questions, but I and maybe I missed it. Could you speak a little more to some of, like, the, since 64%, were Kanaka, Oiwi, Like, what what are some of the more, like, cultural strategies in reaching some of the Ohana that you folks your organizations have employed and have those been effective?

Great question. Yes. So the data indicated 64%. So out of about it was three sixty plus individuals were interviewed. About a 100 of them identified as previously been trafficked, and so 64 of that 100 identified as part or Hawaiian.

And so, yes, I I think there's a component. A lot of what we try to do across our organization and a lot of the organizations we work with is to meet the family where they're at and provide that individualized care. So better understanding the values of the ohana, better understanding, the needs and maybe specifics for each individual that we serve. So we have curricula that we pull from to provide these services, but we absolutely intend to plan and develop goals and supports that are individual to the individual that we are serving. And I I think that, reflecting that the culture of the household and our culture of the Ohana is is most important in in raising some of these youth that we are serving. I'm happy to speak more to individuals. If you'd like,

I can also pass it to my partner, Deb here. Thank you, Kayla. I'll just add, some of the things that we do in Ho'okaika partnership. Every year, we hold an annual Ohana Fest in April for National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and about 50% of the people who attend are identify as Hawaiian or part Hawaiian. And we try to ground all of our messaging in Hawaiian culture and island culture so that it's relatable to people and it's not just academic language.

And then some of our partners provide parenting classes and parenting education, and they really lean into an approach that is called the Kama Lama parenting curriculum, and, that was developed specifically to appeal to parents who are of Hawaiian ancestry.

For that information. I heard the timer.

Member Rollins Fernandez, member Ou Hajins for your opportunity.

Thank you, chair. Thank you so much, for your presentations and and the hard work that you guys do. I don't know how you, say all these things and then go out in public and have to just, like, smile at strangers. I think I would be super apprehensive about everyone, which I already am with. We don't do sleepovers at my house.

Anyways, if I could expand on member Rollins Fernandez's question. So and this is a good thing and a bad thing, but so much of our local culture surrounds is Ohana based. But 25%, as you just said, is trafficked by their own family. So how do you how do you mitigate that when somebody some kid is telling you that their auntie or their mom or their grandma or their uncle or their or whatever? We how do we have, like, cultural based trauma informed information but also reminding them, like, that's absolutely not okay?

I appreciate you, citing data from the presentation. I thought that was wonderful. Thank you. I also I mean, I I feel I feel very similarly to what you're feeling right now. As a Kanaka myself, I feel like this is something that, reaching our people and understanding what me what, like, resiliency means to them

Yeah.

And and thinking back to our culture and and what that looks like in practice. And especially, you know, like, we've been speaking about all these protective factors. Are are Keiki's first teachers are our parents, and you're absolutely right. A lot of them are placed in situations where that is where they are most at risk. Mhmm.

And so I I think that's a need. We do have some there. Like, like Deb was speaking, the Kama Lama parenting program is built off of, you know, Hawaiian Ohana values. And so a lot of that parenting piece for from our prevention side does bring that culture aspect in, which I I I very much commend, Maui Family support services and the other providers using that. And I when it comes to our KKR youth that are receiving our services, we really just try to ground in what is important to them as an individual, and drive that forward. But I absolutely recognize that additional OUV resources would be helpful in that aspect.

Yeah. And, I mean, I know that we were talking about our Hawaiian ohana, but, you know, it's it's the case for so many other, cultures as well. I have another question too. So my daughter is 13. I think member Pauline's daughter is roughly the same age. Member Rollins Fernandez's daughter is roughly the same age. And we were talking about some of the community aspects. And even on our federal level, know, women are having difficulties getting access to health care, lifesaving health care. How do we talk to our daughters about that? I don't know what to say sometimes.

Especially when we're priced out of our home and the more, affordable places to go are the red states that don't value women's health. What do what do I tell my daughter? Like, and I know this is kind of a personal question, but I'm sure mothers everywhere are struggling with this conversation right now. Permission

to go beyond time. Is that okay to answer? I have a daughter myself. I absolutely recognize that this is a community need in both parent education as well as our education of our youth. Yeah. I I our recommendation always is being honest and and trying to make it at their level where they're able to understand. All, you know, all youth understand a bit more or less than and you know them best. But it's just understanding that safety, identifying that safe adult, knowing what it looks like and what it doesn't look like. And for some of those things, it is just the you know, my my daughter is four, and it's even at that age, it's the body safety. It's the knowing who can and can't.

It's the knowing what is safe. And so just continuing to have those conversations and continuing to open the door for our youth to be able to come and ask those questions safely. No shame. Let's talk about it so that we can identify what is safe and what is not safe in in all aspects of the things that they do.

Thank you. Chair, can I please ask one more question? You so So I've seen in the continent where they have a program, like it's like bikers that help protect children when they have to go testify against their abuser in court. And so they're not alone. Do we have anything like that? Can we can I sign up for anything like that? Do we have that?

I love that idea, and I'll have to look into it a bit more. We we do we partner with a lot of other organizations, Victim Witness, the Children's Justice Center, Friends of the Children's Justice Center. There's a number of organizations that we kind of collaborate with to provide that support. And and including our crisis advocates are there to walk alongside them in this process. Okay. It can be difficult. There's a lot of different aspects to it, but we we try our best. But I also recognize, like, these are all providers that you know, we're used to this, and this is old hat for us. But for those who are testifying and are survivors out there, just having someone to make them feel safe, I'm I'm open and interested in all the opportunities to explore that.

Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Member Hodgins. I have a couple of questions for Deb. Oftentimes, we'll get one of those letters in the mail to take one, maybe a family member's child. Do you guys work with the the county, and who who sends out those or or the court system if the court is separating, the child from the parents? You work with the court system, and who sends out those?

I wish I could answer that question for you. Do you know, Kim?

Could could I ask a clarifying question? Do you mean, like, a letter, to remove a child from their home?

Yeah. Like, sometimes we'll get, family members will receive a letter

Or if the parent passed away to

Got it.

Like, to to take the custody of a child.

Or sometimes we even ask, like, if you wanna call them or be that safe person or, like, provide, material goods too. Mhmm.

I I would love to defer this question. The best expert for this would be a member member from child welfare services. Am I able to encourage the, committee to vote on a resource? We do have someone in the gallery that would be able to answer.

Sure.

I know that's I don't have that power. Any

objections to designating what's her name? As a resource

Uh-huh.

Under rule 18a of the council.

No objections.

Thank you. If you wanna come up to the podium. What's your name again?

Danielle. Danielle.

I'm Danielle Egeberg. So I actually currently work for Friends of the Children's Justice Center, but previously, I was with child welfare services. And I think that the letter that you're talking about is from Epic Ohana. And so it's a family findings letter. It indicates, an opportunity for family that they were able to connect with that potentially are linked to that child. Yep.

Okay. And then my other question was who sends out, we did see on the news that there was, on Oahu, that they found some missing children. But who's who puts out all the Amber alerts if if there are missing children in our communities?

Amber Alerts are done by the police.

Oh, police does that. And then, oftentimes, we don't get if a follow-up if they were found or not. But

So AMBER alerts have pretty strict criteria, and there's very few of them that have ever been done in the state of Hawaii. But, juvenile runaways, anybody can report if they are the guardians of the child. And then there's a sign off for it to be posted with MPD. And then there's a different agency attorney generals that can also help with posting different ones. And then through NCMEC for child endangerment and trafficking, there's another program that you can do the paperwork with them.

Through MPD?

That one's through NCMEC. It's a national program.

Okay. And then, where do you get the information if there are potential predators in your neighborhood?

Oh, I don't know. I think, yeah, Google. I'm not an expert on that one.

Do you know?

Yes. There is a site, online. I'm I'm blanking on the name. I could forward it to this committee afterward. But there is a way to type in a name and or type in a you know, identify the type of offender that you're looking for, and you can look at the map in your community to identify how many may be located.

But it's it's readily available

for Yes. It is readily available. It is Google able if if anybody on, you know, on Akaku or online is looking. It is something that anyone can access.

Yes. And there's some apps now, too, that you can do your whole neighborhood.

Great. Thank you for those answers. Members, any other questions Danielle while we have her at the podium? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Members, any need for a second round of questions? Go ahead and raise your hands. Committee Vice Chair Johnson, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. Just a real quick follow-up for Deb. Hopefully, the county can help you with the six month extension on your grant making up for that delay that you guys had. How much do you need specifically if you know to fulfill your mission in 2027?

Thank you, councilmember. So, understanding we went through the RFP process with the Department of Human Concerns and submitted our application for fiscal year 'twenty seven and 'twenty eight and are waiting to hear at the March whether or not that is included in the mayor's budget. I believe we requested the same amount for both those years as we did for fiscal year twenty six, which was $175,000 What we were told was if we are not included in the fiscal year twenty seven and twenty eight budget, there's a possibility that we could be given a no cost extension, because of the time delay. However, if we're seeing able in future.

We'll

questions. Seeing

Any other questions, members? But Deb, you will apply with the department for

Yes. We did apply, and, we submitted everything on time and and are in that in in that process.

Okay. Great. Mahalo. Okay. I don't see any more questions. Did, Kayla or Deb, did you guys have any closing remarks or want we're on TV if you wanna share anything with the the public.

Mahalo, chair. I guess I I would like to, in response to some of the questions about funding, I think that it's important to really recognize that continuity is really important. It is so difficult to plan and build trust with community members when you don't know from year to year, is this program gonna be here? Are we gonna have to, you know, fold it up? You know, it's just we're a very relational, field of work.

This is about humans. And when you build trust with people, it can be easily broken. So that's part of why we really want to emphasize that continuity, and it's difficult. It's a really difficult funding environment. We recognize that there's a lot of a lot of competing priorities. And so, we appreciate the support. And, for those who are listening out there, ho'okaikapartnership.com. You can visit our website. There's lots of information. My contact information is there.

I'm happy to talk with anybody, further about any concerns they may have, how to make reports, how to be a support within community, and I think that's the most important thing. People are very reluctant to report child abuse for a lot of good reasons. Once a child and a family is involved with the system, as much as we want the system to help them, it also can bring a lot more hardship. And, being remove removing a child from their family and putting them in foster care is that's a traumatic event. So we want to avoid that as much as we possibly can. And it takes all of us. It's not just one entity that is ever going to solve this. So again, we really appreciate your support, and thank you for your time today. Today.

And I'll continue to add, at Parents and Children Together, we are available. We have funding currently and through the end of the fiscal year, for outreach and training around this. We're able to provide training specific to the providers, specific to the individuals that are serving Ohana or youth in our community on identifying these risk factors, identifying suspicions, and reporting. We also a strong component. We are very much believe in collaboration and really appreciate all the work that our partners are doing out in the community. We stand ready to serve and we look forward to continuing to do so.

Again, members, mahalo to Ms. Deb Marwa and Kayla Kotaka for joining us this morning and providing the public with more information on this very important topic. Members, are there any objections? Without objections, I'll defer this item. Okay. Staff, is there anything we need to do prior to adjourning this meeting?

Chair, there is nothing that is outstanding.

Okay, members. Thank you all for your great questions and comments today. This concludes today's water authority social services and parts committee meeting. The time now is 11:32. You got some extra lunchtime, and this meeting is now adjourned.

Good meeting, chair.