Tent Communities in Waianae...

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/24/news/adna-oahu24

I found this article fascinating. For the first time, yesterday on a hike to Keana Pt, I saw these communities for myself. Living in San Francisco, I had plenty of experience with homeless people and even worked with them for periods of time. However, I had never seen anything like this. The sheer number of people living on the beaches, or in huts, astounded me, as though I were living in the slums of Johannesberg rather than a U.S state. The tents were sometimes held together with cords, other times there were small huts made of wood and advertisements of 'free soda.'
What would make someone join a tent community? Is it really as terrible as it sounds? What would it mean to be a part of this community? Would someone who had a native ancestry perhaps feel closer to Hawaii, to their people, if they were far away from the cities and towns?
Or is it all about money, all due to the huge crisis of a 10 year high in joblessness that makes families unable to support themseleves and leave no other option?
I really, really want to know what it means to live this kind of life. I am not coming at this from some preachy desire to 'live like common people' or even a voyuerisitc tendency to festishize this other life. Rather I want to know what this culture is, their struggles and necessities, their ability to live and work and the stigma that must come with it. However, I want to do this without acting like some tourist haole who just wants to condemn all homeles for messing up her vacation (I swear, these people exist, read the Advertiser.)
I think I am going to find a way to talk to some people in this situation at Wainae, just so I can learn what it is like.