City Council panel strips about $6M from Housing First

Funding for Housing First, one of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s hallmark projects, remains shaky after the City Council Budget Committee voted Tuesday to slash its budget to roughly $12 million from the original $18.9 million and inserted language restricting the use of the remaining money to housing for projects that must benefit "homeless families with children."

Caldwell officials are warning that the changes will hinder their ability to put in a program meant to provide permanent housing options for chronically homeless individuals.

Community Services Director Pam Witty-Oakland said Oahu’s 2014 Point in Time Homeless Count, released Tuesday, shows clearly that there are seven times as many homeless individuals without shelter than homeless families without shelter.

"Our intent was to use affordable-housing funds to create additional apartments, housing units, best suited for the greatest need — which is smaller units for individuals," Witty-Oakland told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the meeting.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin and Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi have insisted for several months that Caldwell wants too much funding for homeless individuals when there are homeless families and others in need of affordable housing. Besides $18.9 million in the capital improvements budget, the administration proposed $3 million from the operating budget for housing subsidies, administrative and other services related to Housing First.

The committee, at its April meeting, already moved $4.2 million from Caldwell’s Housing First budget to a Family Justice Center in Makiki that is designed to help low-income domestic violence victims.

On Tuesday, Kobayashi moved an additional $1 million into an affordable-housing project incorporating the Iwilei transit station that Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga is discussing with state officials about developing jointly. She also diverted $1.1 million for an affordable-housing project in Kakaako for "live-work affordable housing for artists"project being developed by the nonprofit Pa’i Foundation.

Meanwhile, Kobayashi said, Councilman Stanley Chang is working with the developer of a rental housing project in Waikiki who is willing to set aside between 12 and 24 units for homeless individuals at a cost of $2 million to $4 million. "We’re trying to partner with the private sector and the state to leverage our money," Kobayashi said.

Witty-Oakland said the 2013 homeless action plan approved by the Council stated that community outreach was needed before finalizing where Housing First units would be located. "That’s why we didn’t prepare a budget that came to the table with a project," she said. The administration also wants flexibility to buy into a new affordable-housing project, acquire units that could be subleased or acquire land for a nonprofit to develop.

A final vote on the budget is expected at the Council’s June 4 meeting.