Oahu’s residents have known that homeless encampments — scattered around the island but concentrated in the Honolulu’s urban core — have comprised a crisis for years.

Last week a federal official touring the most extensive street population, in Kakaako Makai, used the “C” word to describe it. In a sense, that’s good news, because it confirms what many people have been saying at the local level — and underscores that the federal government has a role to play in finding a solution.

What struck that official, Matthew Doherty, was an especially critical element that he doesn’t see in the encampment’s mainland counterparts: Families.

Nationally, single individuals tend to dominate homeless populations, but here, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness was seeing parents and their kids — children on whom homelessness could leave an indelible mark and hinder their development as self-reliant adults.

Crisis, indeed.

More than 40 percent of the people living on the streets in Kakaako are families, according to a survey released last Monday by Gov. David Ige. The space that’s available in Honolulu’s emergency shelters is geared for individuals, he said.

The Next Step shelter is nearby, but there’s a wait of a month or two before space opens up for families there.

Jason Espero of Waikiki Health, one of the organizations that conducted the study, said about a third of the families are from Pacific island nations that are part of the Compact of Free Association. That includes citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, all of whom are able to come to the U.S. without a visa.

Right there is the nexus for increasing the federal investment in Honolulu’s problem. The influx of Micronesian migrants, who arrive in a Western society for which they’re unprepared, is the result of a federal policy, a compact put in place in the interest of national defense, and that should be paired with significant federal response.

In addition, there are federal housing allowances given to military personnel, and this has simply added strain to an already devastating shortage of housing units.

To be sure, this issue has languished as a problem here for years, and mostly it’s been the lack of local leadership to blame for the inaction. There is a growing kamaaina population living on the streets — families as well as singles — and it’s going to take a concerted effort by local forces to reverse this trend.

Most of the energy has been focused on enforcement of laws banning storage of personal property on public sidewalks, as well as the “sit-lie” vagrancy bans established in limited areas. Last week the city also enabled a fence along Kapalama Canal to deter camping there.

While the Kapalama encampment has littered the surroundings and fouled the water, the fencing seems an unwise investment of $240,000, money that would be better spent on refurbishing new sites for emergency family shelters. It won’t solve the core problem, and it meanwhile deprives the Honolulu Community College students and staff of parking.

The city’s plan to encourage households to build accessory dwelling units should add somewhat to the critical rental shortage.

But ultimately, government will have to find ways to scale up its own provisions for the homeless. The Sand Island converted shipping containers, and the under-discussion Hawaii Community Development Authority’s shed in Kakaako will accommodate some people.

But it’s not nearly enough. And unless government picks up the pace and builds the real solution — more low-cost transitional and permanent housing — this misery will become a disaster for another generation.