On Thursday, the state released the "Homeless Point in Time Count," which shows that the number of homeless individuals statewide has increased by 23 percent between 2011 and 2015.

To help the homeless, a number of ideas have been proposed, including Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s plans to open a new shelter on Sand Island. While temporary shelters, such as the new facility, can be a tool to address homelessness on Oahu, they should not be looked at as a "solution," but rather another tool in our community’s tool box.

Clearly, there is not one simple solution to "fix" the serious social problem of homelessness. The good news is that our community now has good data regarding the needs of homeless people, and we are starting to utilize that data to accelerate housing placements for the most vulnerable, long-term homeless individuals.

It is important for us to recognize that the use of data to inform our approach has resulted in early successes. Over the past year, service providers have placed more than 120 chronically homeless individuals in permanent housing, including many who had been on the streets for five years or more. This demonstrates that permanent housing can be a reality for many of our homeless population.

We should continue to look at empirical data to identify long-term housing solutions for the growing homeless communities in Kakaako and along the Kapalama Canal. What the data tell us is that these communities largely consist of families, including many young children — with an average age of 7.

The data also tell us that the number of unsheltered homeless families on Oahu has increased by 65 percent between 2013 and 2015. These families remain on the street, despite the fact that we continue to see vacant bed spaces throughout our emergency shelter system.

Recently, PHOCUSED and other advocacy groups have identified a promising new approach to meeting the needs of homeless families. This approach would provide a small monthly rent subsidy to working homeless families with a stable, regular income. According to assessment data collected by PHOCUSED, 52 percent of homeless families reported that they do not require case management services, but simply need affordable housing. Many of these families include at least one parent who is working, but not earning enough to pay rent.

Targeted rental subsidies for the working homeless can be an important solution that addresses Hawaii’s high housing costs, while rapidly connecting homeless families to housing at the same time. Our hope is that by using data to identify new ideas, such as rental subsidies, we can better connect homeless families to permanent homes — just as we have effectively done for chronically homeless individuals.

As our community finalizes its plan to address homelessness on Oahu, we should remain aware that, while temporary shelters can be an important part of our community’s plan to reduce homelessness, we need a more comprehensive plan with more diverse approaches. Our community’s response to homelessness needs to use all of our available data to design appropriate interventions for the many different subsets of the homeless population, including those who are working, families with children, those with addiction and mental health problems, and the elderly.

By implementing an array of targeted interventions, including a carefully constructed rental-subsidy program for eligible working people, we hope that by next year we will be able to significantly reduce the number of homeless families, instead of continuing to see our homeless numbers grow.