Right now nobody knows where Roger Swanson is. He’s been missing for the last month. Recent attempts by his family to find him proved fruitless. There are stories of him riding his bike up and down South Kihei Road but no one’s quite sure where he lives now. Some say he’s living on one of the Kam beaches or even in a storage unit.
Like many homeless people, Roger suffers from mental disorders. In his case, it’s Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder and clinical depression. It’s possible he doesn’t know why he’s homeless. It’s also possible he doesn’t know that he’s got more than $200,000 in the bank.
Roger is totally alone now. His family, what’s left of it, lives on the mainland. His brother, who’s long been his guardian, is terminally ill.
He’s been homeless since Mar. 16, the day the State of Hawaii ordered him evicted from the one bedroom Kihei condo he’d owned free and clear since 1999. His crime? Refusing to pay $3,500 in Kihei Kai Nani Homeowners Association fines.
The fines were for Swanson’s habit of collecting junk. He might have intimidated and harassed some of the people where he lived, but really, he got kicked out because of all the junk he piled on his lanai.
Because Swanson ignored the fines, the Kihei Kai Nani (KKN) Homeowners Association sued him, got the court to seize the home he owned and then auction it off. The legal matters took about five months.
“It’s a sad story,” said Matthew S. Kohm, a Wailuku attorney appointed by the court to act as commissioner over the auction. “I have a lot of compassion for Roger. But his own worst enemy is himself. Roger is difficult to help because he won’t let anybody help him. He’s extremely smart and manipulative. If he doesn’t get his way, he starts acting like a young child.”
At the same time, Roger’s story also shows the extent to which one homeowners association went to enforce their covenants and restrictions—even if it meant throwing a mentally disturbed man onto the street.