Put city’s housing assistance where it can do the most good

Recent polls by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now clearly show that most of our residents believe the city’s homeless problem has gotten worse.

Most feel the homeless problem affects their quality of life by crowding our beaches, parks and sidewalks.

To make matters worse, there is mounting evidence that the problem discourages visitors from returning to Hawaii.

The latest 2013 Statewide Homeless Point-in-Time Count reports there are more than 4,500 homeless individuals in Honolulu, about one-third on the streets and the rest in shelters. More than half of these individuals were counted as a family with one adult and at least one child under age 18. The University of Hawaii’s Center on the Family reported that of the clients tracked in homeless service programs, more than 3,000 were under age 18 and more than 1,700 were under age 5.

These statistics are surprising because most of the homeless on the streets are chronically homeless adults suffering from mental illness, substance abuse or both. Hidden is the fact that nearly a quarter of our homeless population are children.

In 2012, the state implemented the "Housing First" initiative, a program that has been implemented in cities across the nation. People are taken off the streets and placed in housing without any preconditions. They are provided a full range of support services until they are able to move into permanent housing. With an initial funding of $1 million, the program supported 71 individuals, which included 57 adults and three families, at roughly $14,000 per person per month. How long can we sustain this rate of spending on the chronically homeless? Meanwhile, unemployed poor and low-income fami- lies continue to struggle with much less assistance or no help at all.

Honolulu would be better served by putting "Families First" and devoting more of our resources toward stable housing for the large number of homeless children and youth. We need to reassess our housing strategy and shift our policies to first helping our needy families and the working poor.

Yes, we must still commit to providing a decent level of services to the chronically homeless, but we must face the reality that many of them will never be self-sufficient.

We will soon begin deliberations on the city’s 2015 fiscal year budget. It is time to shift our priorities and first provide housing for the most vulnerable of our society: the working poor. With decent housing, their children may have the means to escape the cycle of poverty.

Affordable housing for low-income families is the most significant assistance government can provide, both short and long term. I am certain of this, as I grew up in public housing and it made a tremendous difference in my life.

I would like the city to put the bulk of our housing assistance where it can do the most good for the most people. Putting families first can save the lives of children now in temporary shelters or on the street, and give them a reason to hope for better days ahead.