Urban housing for disabled homeless deserves support

The number of chronically homeless people has increased recently in Honolulu, prompting Mayor Peter Carlisle to launch an ambitious and needed project for the city to buy a building in urban Honolulu for their needs. The question is whether Honolulu’s mayor will have the fortitude to go forward with the necessary plan once its location becomes known.

A model "Housing First" proposal by former Mayor Mufi Hannemann was ultimately dropped because of neighbors’ opposition at its location along River Street in Chinatown. A similar reaction may occur once Carlisle’s "Pathways Project" site is decided —but we hope not, and not necessarily, as a transitional homeless shelter called Safe Haven already exists for the severely mentally ill on South Beretania Street on the outskirts of downtown.

Carlisle said he has ordered $3.5 million from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund toward the purchase of a building in "urban Honolulu." He said the city will seek a building with 20 to 30 apartment units, but the number of occupants to be served has yet to be decided. Nonprofits to run the program are to apply through the end of this month, and the city’s effort to identify a site will follow.

This is a welcome, important step in addressing the multifaceted needs of the most deeply troubled of Hawaii’s homeless.

The Pathways housing will be offered to the long-time chronically homeless, who are defined as those with a disability, including serious mental illness, chronic substance-abuse disorders or chronic medical issues, who have been homeless for at least a year. Honolulu’s homeless in recent years have been estimated at more than 4,000, and 275 of the homeless are believed to be chronic.

While the number of chronically homeless nationwide has dropped in recent years, they have increased in Hawaii by 17 percent from 2009 to 2011, according to a report this year by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The national decrease is attributed to the substantial increase in the number of permanent supportive housing beds, which has yet to occur adequately in Hawaii.

"Homeless persons with special needs are among the most visible of Honolulu’s homeless population, with a large population centered in urban Honolulu between Waikiki and Kalihi," Carlisle said.

The timing of such a project could be particularly beneficial, depending on whether the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the federal health care act. If so, virtually all chronically homeless adults will be qualified to enroll in Medicaid in 2014.

It will take strong community partnerships to tackle a homeless problem that has grown in scope here and become visibly entrenched. Helping the chronically disabled off the streets and into a full-service housing environment benefits both residents and businesses of urban neighborhoods where the needy currently sleep in doorways and on pavements amid squalor. The city and state need to work together to provide more shelter to the homeless, in tandem with nonprofit organizations. The most effective method of ending chronic homelessness is to provide supportive housing.