Small shelters can help needy

Hawaii island has a lot of space, by comparison with crowded Oahu, but is contending with many of the same problems in confronting its homelessness crisis.

Encampments are forming and running into conflicts with residents who often need access to the same public space. And when the homeless are moved out, that doesn’t solve the problem.

Urban Oahu faces its own particular challenges, as experienced this week in the clearing of homeless squatting on land fringing the Pearl City Bike Path and Neal Blaisdell Park. Those ordered to move while cleanup occurs through month’s end, by and large, will pitch tents anew, somewhere else in Honolulu.

But the two circumstances are somewhat comparable. As on Oahu, permanent affordable housing is what’s needed by Hawaii County and, regardless of all the acreage, is in short supply. As long as that’s the case, homelessness will persist, statewide.

However, last week’s conflict surrounding a homeless encampment at the old Kona airport site, which is now used as a park, is being addressed in a way that could serve as a model for similar situations on Oahu and elsewhere.

Small-scale sites are what’s needed in every community because, as the operators of the housing and homeless services complex in Kailua-Kona have discovered, maintaining security of small-scale supervised camps makes them more manageable.

Hawaii County had an established shelter and supportive housing complex on land that it owned, a distinct advantage of a large island. But what really counted is that officials moved quickly to maximize the available space. Mayor Harry Kim issued an emergency proclamation, allowing county zoning, building and fire codes to be waived.

That enabled the emergency safe zone to be set up quickly on part of The Friendly Place Campus, which is what the county-owned Hale Kikaha property at 74-5593 Pawai Place is being called.

In addition to the makeshift campsite, the campus includes 23 microunits in repurposed shipping containers, as well as an emergency shelter housing 16 men and 15 women, a drop-in day center with showers and a laundry room and a facility for meal service.

The nonprofit Hope Services Hawaii is the managing agency for the site. Brandee Menino, the organization’s chief executive officer, said that when 68 people were ordered to move from Old Airport Park, 17 of those judged most vulnerable were placed in permanent housing or transitional shelters. Because the program follows “Housing First” criteria, they were qualified for placement first, Menino said.

More space was found toward the back of the campus. By Tuesday there were 29 people sleeping on cots beneath three 20-by-40-foot canopies. Around-the-clock security was hired — a needed addition for such a program, which, Menino said, was manageable because of its small size.

Community partners on the project include faith-based groups that help with meal service and West Hawaii Community Health Center.

A meeting was called Tuesday among the partners to iron out various logistical matters — such as finding a meeting place where Legal Aid Society could work with clients on clearing up documentation problems.

The feedback has been basically positive, Menino said.

“We know that residents welcome this kind of alternative campsite,” she added. “There’s someplace they can stay and not be told to move every few nights.”

Perhaps it’s time — past time, in fact — for more emergency shelter sites and scaled “safe zone” camps for the homeless to be found in each Oahu district, as the Honolulu City Council once pledged to do.

Kona service providers acknowledged they have wrinkles to iron out in programs raised so quickly. But given the urgency of contending with the homelessness on a statewide basis, that can be a small price to pay for the benefits of rapid response.