$4 million project to house homeless

The Hawaii Community Foundation is kicking off a $4 million initiative called Hous­ing­ASAP designed to help homeless families secure permanent housing quickly and keep it, giving their children crucial stability.

"This is the first significant investment that HCF has made in addressing homelessness as a community-wide issue and bringing multiple providers and policymakers together in a network," said Tammi Chun, vice president for programs at the foundation.

The three-year statewide effort kicks off Wednesday, when eight homeless shelter providers selected by the foundation will come together for their first meeting. They represent half of the emergency and transitional shelter beds in the state, and range from the Institute for Human Services to the Family Life Center on Maui.

The initiative is supposed to help the nonprofits shift to the "Housing First" approach, which emphasizes getting homeless people housed as quickly as possible and then providing other services to support them. Evidence shows that rapid rehousing leads to better outcomes. Traditionally, providers gave services first, and clients could spend months or even years in shelters and transitional housing.

"We’re trying to help the providers build their capacity so that more homeless families can get into stable housing faster and keep them there," Chun said. "It’s one thing to set a goal. It’s another thing to be able to equip people to reach the goal."

The $4 million will go to coaching, training and collaboration as well as grant opportunities to improve agency performance and use of data. Some providers may need to alter their business plans and how they deploy staff, serving more people in housing units dispersed through the community rather than in shelters. Network members will also learn from one another.

"When individuals and organizations are brought together as a network, their learning leapfrogs, getting them to a better level, faster," said Kelvin Taketa, president and CEO of Hawaii Community Foundation.

The foundation decided to focus on families because of the significant and lasting impact being homeless has on children, from their stress levels to education and health, Chun said. Also, the federal government is now concentrating on the chronically homeless, who tend to be single or adults, she said.

The providers in the new network say they look forward to the support and collaboration the initiative offers.

"Coordination is key to best utilizing our limited resources," said Rona Fuku­moto, division administrator of the housing assistance and referral program at Catho­lic Charities Hawaii. "We all know that resources are limited. With the growing number of homeless, it’s only going to get worse."

Her program locates and works with landlords to smooth the way for homeless people to get a permanent roof over their heads and handle any problems that crop up.

"In the past year we worked with nearly 300 families with children on Oahu that we moved off the street,” Fuku­moto said. "Can you imagine if they were still there?"

Networking could be useful, too, for instance when a hotel is renovating and wants to donate 100 beds, for example, which would be tough for one agency to absorb at once but could be divided among them.

Along with IHS, Catho­­lic Charities and Maui’s Family Life Center, other providers in the program are Alternative Structures International, Family Promise of Hawaii, HOPE Services Hawaii, U.S. Veterans Initiative and Wai­kiki Health.

The $4 million for the initiative comes from 13 donors: Aloha United Way, American Savings Bank, Atherton Family Foundation, Bank of Hawaii Foundation, Central Pacific Bank Foundation, Community Housing Fund, Cooke Foundation, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, Kosasa Family Fund, Kresge Foundation, McInerny Foundation, Omid­yar ‘Ohana Fund and Stup­ski Family Fund.

"We were just thrilled to be able to magnify the power of our dollars and accomplish things that are much bigger-picture through this partnership," said Ann Bouslog, a fund manager for Community Housing Fund, which focuses on very low-income housing. "We are really happy with the leadership the foundation has shown and particularly their willingness to look at homelessness, because it’s a really daunting issue."