Council panel cuts $5 million from mayor’s Housing First plan

The Honolulu City Council’s Budget Committee trimmed about $5 million from Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s planned Housing First program and threatened to cut even more unless he can provide more specifics about where the permanent units for the homeless will be located.

After the six-hour committee meeting Thursday, most of Caldwell’s $2.15 billion operating budget and $640 million capital improvements package remained intact. The measures will now go to the full Council for a public hearing April 16 before returning to the committee for further work.

The committee cut $1 million from the $3 million the mayor had set aside in the operating budget for Housing First and about $4.2 million from an $18.9 million capital improvements allocation. The committee agreed to Council Chairman Ernie Martin’s plan to move the $4.2 million to the Family Justice Center being pushed by Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro. Caldwell’s budget earmarked only $2 million for the housing project aimed at low-income domestic violence victims.

Martin said that the $2 million left behind in the operating budget for Housing First still is more than the $1.5 million that the Abercrombie administration set aside for its own Housing First program.

"Our county has more than carried its fair share with regard to this particular endeavor," he said.

Housing First is a concept based on the idea that providing permanent housing should be the mainstay of homeless programs, and that conditions often associated with homelessness such as substance abuse, mental illness and joblessness should be secondary.

Community Services Director Pam Witty-Oakland urged committee members to reconsider.

"Every $25,000 that you cut in this line item affects one homeless individual or family from participating in the Housing First program," she said. "Many of the folks who are in shelters are there longer than they have to be because there is a lack of capacity for permanent affordable housing units."

But when Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi pressed for the addresses of where the units would be located, Witty-Oakland said the city won’t issue a request for proposals until after a round of community outreach.

"We need some commitment from the Council so that we can go out into the communities."

Kobayashi fired back, "When you’re ready to do (requests for proposals), we’ll be happy to look at it. … We’re ready to fund things but we want to know what."

After the meeting, Kobayashi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that more money could be cut from Housing First unless the administration is able to provide more details. She said the money would simply go back into the city’s Affordable Housing Fund until the administration is ready.

She said the Family Justice Center was far along and had even received the support of the Makiki Neighborhood Board.

Caldwell said it’s important for the Council to fund the full amount sought.

"Until we have the money, going out and identifying properties … doesn’t make sense,"he said. "Nor will people engage in real discussion on these properties until they know we’re serious."