Man resorts to desperate measures without unemployment
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KALIHI, Hawaii (KITV) — Without money for more than three months, a 33-year-old Kalihi resident is battling to keep a roof over his head and food on the table.
His unemployment checks stopped coming — and he doesn’t know why.
The former Oahu maintenance worker, who asked not to be identified, took drastic measures to survive.
“I was really desperate. I don’t even want to say this but I stole a bag of rice for the first time in my life,” he said. “Nobody should have to go through that, especially when they’ve already qualified for benefits.”
Without a check, he hasn’t paid his rent for four months and he’s been forced to beg family and friends for money.
“It’s so degrading and so demeaning,” he said. “Seriously, I’ve had to eat nothing else but Spam and rice for five days.”
He lost his job shortly after the coronavirus changed lives last year, and he’s lost hope in the Department of Labor & Industrial Relations when he couldn’t get anybody to talk to him.
DLIR spokesman Bill Kunstman says benefits for thousands of claimants have been stopped for many reasons – such as overpayments, failure to report wages, no confirmation of current living situation or employers not filing weekly reports on time.
“Its made me feel like a piece of crap. Its made me feel like insignificant because I’ve been completely ignored,” the man said. “It’s been extremely bad for like my mental health — the desperation and the panic that I’ve been going through, the anxiety that’s just been mounting and building.”
After talking for hours on the phone with the man who was “at the end of his rope,” state representative John Mizuno sent a letter to both the DLIR and Gov. David Ige demanding help.
“They’re facing eviction, unable to pay their bills. They’re on the brink of becoming homeless. They don’t have the ability to buy food,” Mizuno said. “With the billions of dollars coming in from the federal aid, I’m shocked that at this time we still have thousands of our Hawaii residents not being addressed with their claims of unemployment benefits. There are grave consequences if the governor and director of labor do not act now.”
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