Move quickly on home initiatives

Though it’s not obvious looking at the many tented encampments around Oahu, action on the complex problem of homelessness is finally galvanizing, holding out the promise of real progress. It is imperative, though, that creative thinking toward solutions focus on the near-term possibilities, and not be deferred to some distant future. A range of affordable housing options is needed now to combat the varied forms of homelessness.

Retrofitted shipping containers are but one promising way to provide housing; a prototype was on Honolulu Hale’s lawn last week.

The advantages: Each 160-square-foot shelter could house a family of five, with crucial storage and study space for kids; be quickly erected and wired, using prefabbed materials, for about $11,000; and surely improving privacy and livability over tent life.

The downsides: no bathroom or running water, a big drawback, though proponents say that’s in the works; finding sites for such dwellings; and changing city land-use rules to permit them.

The container homes should be pursued for a certain segment here, such as poverty-stricken families now living on the streets or in temporary warehouse shelters. These dwellings would offer a decent option where virtually none exists now.

To that end, policy must change to allow this to advance. City Resolution 15-17 calls on the city administration to implement a pilot project in which land would be designated for shipping-container homes. This measure, introduced by City Councilman Ron Menor, will be heard at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

"We need to break the old model of doing things," said Mayor Kirk Caldwell at the container home on Wednesday — and he’s right.

Another encouraging aspect of the city’s housing strategy is to update zoning codes to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on single-family lots, one aspect of so-called ohana zoning; a container home would qualify as an ADU.

The increase of luxury condos coming up in urban Honolulu is in stark contrast to the dearth of affordable homes for struggling residents. At least 24,000 homes will be needed on Oahu in the next 15 years, the city estimates, with three-quarters of them categorized as affordable housing.

As for homelessness: Hawaii is among states with the highest rate, per capita. The January 2014 "point in time" count found 4,712 people without homes; of that total, 3,079 were sheltered, 1,633 unsheltered.

The high number of people living on the streets has wrought public health concerns. So it was good to see the city, working with a nonprofit provider, opening a first-of-its-kind "hygiene center" last week at the Pauahi Hale low-income rental building in Chinatown. Managed and monitored by Mental Health Kokua, a bathroom and shower is open for use 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a 10-minute limit to discourage improper activity. This is overdue, and welcome in a district of beleaguered businesses and residents.

Further, Pauahi Hale will be a crucial hub for the long-awaited Housing First program, aimed at getting the chronically homeless off the streets and under shelter with crucial wrap-around health and social services.

Reclaiming public sidewalks and spaces for all to use also necessitated the city’s ban on sitting or lying on Waikiki sidewalks, which went into effect September, followed in December by a similar, Oahu-wide business district ban.

State legislators now are looking into low-income housing options such as mobile home parks, support for Housing First and bolstering the rental housing assistance fund. These are welcome efforts to address the homelessness problem — but not distractions such as Senate Bill 1014, the so-called "houseless bill of rights." Time and energy spent on this bill, though well-intentioned, will take focus from what must be done on the practical and policy fronts to truly improve people’s lives.

The best way to help those living outdoors and to give their lives dignity is to help them get off the streets. Creating a special class of rights for the homeless is wrongheaded — and unnecessary, as they already have rights under the state and U.S. constitutions. Surely, the conversation needs to turn from protecting people’s right to live on the streets to providing them with proper homes.

That’s why the current momentum must not stall. Creative thinking for affordable living quarters that run the gamut of needs is vital, as is adoption of policies to bring them to fruition.

We can no longer let people languish on the streets without prospects, without hope.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story reported the measure will be heard at 10 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The measure will be heard at 9 a.m.