By Jayvee Vallejera
It’s bad enough when you don’t have a home to go to at the end of the day. But having your situation become a battleground among government officials divided over what to do with you only seems to worsen your fate.
At least that’s what appears to be happening to many of Guam’s homeless, whose plight is at the center of increasing animosity between Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Guam’s chief legal officer, Attorney General Douglas Moylan.
Moylan accused the Leon Guerrero administration of promoting a "culture of homelessness" that condones and even encourages homeless residents and immigrants to set up tents in random places.
Krystal Paco-San Agustin, director of communications at the Office of the Governor of Guam, retorted that Moylan appears to be deflecting. “Instead of trying to distract the public by inventing faults in others, we urge him to focus on building real solutions for Guam’s most vulnerable,” she said.
Moylan cites many reasons why homelessness seems to be getting worse, but he lays most of the blame squarely on Leon Guerrero, who “intentionally failed our people and continues to do so.”
He said those on the economic edge and already in poverty are becoming "homeless because of factors that have combined to lower our quality of life…[but] Guam's governors—especially this one, presiding over a time of great infusion of capital into our economy by Congress— remain our people's greatest impediment to a better financial life.”
Moylan is particularly concerned about homeless encampments, which, he said, are illegally occupying private and public properties in Guam. These encampments, he claims, are home to many panhandlers and drug addicts who violate Guam laws, including the anti-panhandling law.
“The encampments are dangerous, unsanitary, unsightly, repel repeat tourists and are illegal. They reflect a failure of you to do your job and help our people,” he said.
On Jan. 24, a government team led by the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention—an agency under the governor’s office— swooped down on a homeless encampment in Harmon and demolished the makeshift homes and tents. As of this writing, it wasn’t known where the homeless individuals have been relocated after the raid.
While the Department of Public Works was bulldozing the shanties, a “ticketing team” from the AG’s office launched a crackdown on panhandlers, who have been issued tickets for violating the anti-panhandling law.
The AG’s team first broke up the homeless encampment across from Micronesia Mall in Dededo in February 2023. They had intended to carry out the same work in all other 18 villages in Guam, but Moylan said it is his understanding that Leon Guerrero stopped all further meetings of the relocation team.
Paco-San Agustin denied Moylan’s claim, explaining that the relocation team, which included the AG, was formed to address a specific homeless encampment that posed unique challenges. “That encampment was addressed and we are open to coming together again,” she added.
Yet if Moylan truly believed the relocation team was meant to be ongoing, why did it take him two years to raise the issue, asked Paco-San Agustin. She said Moylan’s talk about reviving the relocation team only came about after the backlash to his “callous views” on homelessness.
“His sudden interest feels less like concern and more like a deflection. This seems to be a pattern: when the AG’s own ship starts taking on water, he throws buckets at others, hoping no one notices the leaks,” she added.
Moylan’s anti-panhandling billboard campaign across Guam has come under fire from the Guam Homeless Coalition, which it says leverages fear, anger, and humiliation to address a complex issue. While anti-panhandling laws must be enforced, humiliating vulnerable people is not the solution, the coalition said.
“Even more concerning is the invitation for the public to watch ‘live-streaming’ panhandler actions—a cringeworthy spectacle of humiliation of our most vulnerable residents. The result? Struggling individuals become subject to social media memes and public shaming. What is the intended goal here?” it asked.
Moylan said, “I detest lazy and disadvantaged people receiving handouts for long periods. It's [the] working-class people who foot the bill for their ‘handouts.’”
By tolerating panhandling, Leon Guerrero has made homelessness and panhandling “acceptable,” Moylan said.
Moylan said Guam's homeless camps are unique reflections of the failure of Guam’s elected and other community non-profit leaders to effectively fix the underlying problems “for people that either don't want to better themselves or lack the opportunity to do so.”
He said it is the governor's job to identify the types of persons in the homeless encampments, relocate them to a place where they can be helped and clear that encampment.
“These encampments are violations of law, trespassing upon public and private properties that the government has a fiduciary duty to the people of Guam to address and remove,” he added.
Besides those who live on the streets, homeless people also include those who are in shelters, in places that provide a temporary bed for the night, and safe havens for domestic violence victims and children.
In Guam, the annual single-day count of homeless people in sheltered and unsheltered locations—called Point-In-Time Count—registered 1,075 homeless individuals in 2023. That number went up to 1,249 in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That is below the national average, but it is still an increase, said Robert San Agustin, director of the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention, the lead agency for homelessness response.
To put the numbers in perspective, San Agustin said the PIT count can fluctuate significantly throughout the year based on multiple factors, particularly since it is just a one-night snapshot of those encountered during the count.
In Guam, the PIT count also includes those living in uninhabitable homes based on the HUD definition of homelessness, San Agustin said. This means people on their own family property who are living in ranch-style tin homes are also counted as homeless.
San Agustin, who also serves as the vice chairperson of the Guam Homeless Coalition, attributes the increase in homelessness to customary challenges such as unemployment, a low housing inventory, and the high cost of housing and living.
“I would say some of the rise can also be attributed to the expiration of Covid-19 programs like the Emergency Rental Assistance, which helped people stay sheltered over the last few years. Many people reached their maximum benefit of 18 months, so they were again facing being displaced around that time of 2024,” he added.
Guam’s challenges, according to San Agustin, include a shortage of homes and shelters, insufficient funds for case management and outreach to ensure the homeless can receive the treatment and services they need, a lack of family support, and difficulty keeping clients engaged in positive opportunities and self-improvement.
San Agustin said the flow of Marines from Okinawa to Guam this year will drive home renters to raise their rental prices even further, putting them beyond the affordability of low-income households.
To help address this issue, San Agustin said several projects have either been developed or are in the pipeline. For one, the Interagency Council for Coordinating Homelessness Programs was reinstated, bringing together government agencies and the Mayor’s Council of Guam to help people navigate through their homeless plight and create a plan to become self-sustaining, he said.
OHAPP also administers The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which distributes food to over 12,000 households every month, San Agustin said.
Later this year, he expects a housing program for domestic violence survivors to be created, thanks to a two-year federal grant awarded to OHAPP.
OHAPP has also acquired an 18-unit apartment building that will serve as the first “bed at night” shelter in Guam. During the day, it will provide services for homelessness and poverty.
He said the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority’s purchase of the Hagatna Kamalen Karidat soup kitchen and a couple other apartment complexes “will also add to the inventory for possible housing programs and continue serving and feeding the homeless.”
Subscribe to
our digital
monthly edition
Comments