HONOLULU When Jesse Biluk moved his family to Hawaii, he didnt think theyd end up in a homeless shelter.

For several months, the 56-year-old and his wife, along with their younger daughter, slept in a giant cinderblock room with other struggling families. They stored their belongings in trunks and plastic boxes stacked near their beds. From the roof of the shelter, they could glimpse the ocean between clusters of gleaming high-rise hotels that line the nearby surfing beach

Biluk came to Honolulu last year from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), a remote country of tiny islands in the western Pacific around 3,500 miles away. He wanted his wife to have better access to treatment for her diabetes, and he hoped his 8-year-old could get a quality education.

A former policeman, Biluk found work as a security guard at a Honolulu Walmart and used his modest salary to lease a cheap apartment. But a series of medical emergencies and a rent hike meant he ended up with a choice: go hungry or move into a homeless shelter. Biluk chose the latter, and eight months down the line, with nothing more permanent on the horizon, he is moving his family again. This time to Alaska.

Im trying to survive, Biluk told HuffPost. He didnt expect life in America to be like this.