The Maui Council Wants To Create A Safe Space For People Who Live In Their Cars 0 Several communities across the U.S. have designated parking areas for people to sleep in their vehicles. Maui’s current mayor isn’t so sure about the idea.
In the heart of the council chambers, Jessica Lau began to pray.
She’d already written down what she was going to tell the elected officials about their new plan to create Maui’s first safe space where people could sleep in their cars. She’d gone over the words so many times in her head. But as soon as the clerk called her name to testify and she stood in front of government leaders, she suddenly knew that she had to throw all that away.
“My journey started two years ago,” Lau began.
As she spoke, tears pooled in her eyes. For the last seven years, she’s worked as a tour bus and limousine driver, taking visitors to the airport, weddings and on excursions across the island. But at the beginning of the pandemic, when the tourists stopped coming, Lau lost her income — and then her apartment.
“This bill is important to me because today I live in my car,” Lau, 52, told the County Council. “And I still attend to my work.”
