When Jessica Terrell first stumbled across a homeless encampment on the west coast of Oahu, she instinctively knew that she had to come back and get to know the people living there.

Terrell, who is Civil Beat’s education reporter, had some personal reasons for wanting to tell the story of Hawaii’s largest and most unusual homeless community.

Growing up in a family of traveling musicians, Terrell was often homeless herself, and she wanted to help change people’s perceptions of the homeless. But what she quickly discovered at The Harbor was that she had some pretty big misconceptions of her own.

Hit the play button to hear the discussion or subscribe to the Civil Beat Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

Read more about this unusual community in our special report, “The Harbor.”

This podcast contains audio clips from the following songs, films and newscasts:
Ingrid Lucia “Midnight Rendezvous” / “Honey Child” / “I’m watching you”
Almost Famous
Random Lunacy
Robbero / CC BY 3.0
PitxCC BY 2.5
Doxent Zsigmond CC BY 3.0
“The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle”
Hawaii News Now, KITV, CNN

This podcast was written by Jessica Terrell and produced by Chrystele Bossu-Ragis.