Homelessness is no longer a conflict that can easily be pushed aside.

In the Hopes Services Hawaii site, it stated that there are at least 6,300 homeless people at any given day, it

A school’s main priority is the education and safety of the students. However, homeless people have been sleeping on/near campus and have been urinating on our school grounds.

“Sometimes they would urinate and the custodians would have to wash down the area,” science teacher Kristen Ono said.

Ono’s classroom is in M building, and homeless people have been known to sleep there. Homeless people take residence on the sidewalk next to the school on Pensacola Street at night and frequently sleep on campus in the school walkways.

“I’d be sure to leave before they came,” Ono said. “Student safety would be the bigger concern.”

“Homelessness is a serious problem MHS has had for the past several years,” senior Jessica Thepsenavong said.

“I found a man living in the teacher’s bathroom,” English teacher Christopher Martin said.

The encounter between Martin and the homeless man led to the first floor teacher’s bathroom in W Building getting a new lock.

Since it’s a school, “it should be safer,” he said.

With over 12-15,000 people becoming homeless at some point in the year according to Hope Services Hawaii, it is time for Hawaii to make some radical changes.

Whether it be more funds going towards building more homeless shelters or volunteering to help homeless people find jobs, the state definitely needs to take one step further in decreasing the rates of homelessness.