Three dogs and a cat became the first animals to be cleared for the new Sand Island transitional shelter Tuesday as the city tries to make it easier to get homeless pet owners off the street.

Homeless people with dogs and cats have repeatedly told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that they will not abandon their pets to move into shelter facilities, which typically do not allow animals.

But the new Hale Mauliola Housing Navigation Center that’s going up on Sand Island — constructed with refurbished shipping containers — will now accept animals like Mase, a 15-year-old Shih Tzu; his 3-year-old son, Stewie; Coco, a 6-year-old female Chihuahua; and Venus, a 15-month-old female Bombay cat.

They were all cleared at the Institute for Human Services on Tuesday by volunteers from the Hawaiian Humane Society, which is providing all vaccines and medications pro bono, paid for by donations, said spokeswoman Jacque Vaughn.

The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 5 percent to 10 percent of homeless people across the country own a cat or a dog, such as John Lau, 66, who moved into his Sand Island shipping container last week after 10 years of living around the Keehi Small Boat Harbor.

“It’s hard to explain the relationship between you and a pet,” Lau said after his Chihuahua, Coco, was cleared by Tina Kimmons, the Humane Society’s animal manager, and Aleisha Swartz, the organization’s lead vet.

Asked what it would mean to give up Coco for a stay in a traditional homeless shelter, Lau said, “It would be like me leaving my arm.”

Making Hale Mauliola available to pets will help ensure that the project will be “very, very successful,” Lau said.

Pets at the so-called Navigation Center must pose no safety risks and be on leashes but otherwise can be enjoyed by their owners with no other restrictions.

“This was truly an idea whose time has come,” Vaughn wrote in an email to the Star-Advertiser. “We have been advocating directly with shelters to adopt co-location programs for the last several years. We have been working with homeless on the streets and on the beach. And from our experience, often times these animals are the only family they have.”

Vaughn continued, “We are providing health care services as part of our ongoing commitment to this population and in support of the mayor’s policies that keep people and pets together.”

Shari Hammond, 58, will move into Hale Mauliola any day with Mase and Stewie once IHS caseworkers finalize her paperwork. They’re currently living in a rain-soaked tent on Iwilei Road, and Hammond can’t wait to get a roof over her dogs’ heads.

“For me, having the dogs is everything,” she said. “I cannot function without those dogs.”

Ray Zigrossi, 57, and his fiancee, Gloria Putney, 53, are also ready to move off the street and into Hale Mauliola with their cat, Venus.

Zigrossi has been living around the McCully area for the past seven or eight years and said it’s “wonderful” to finally find a place that will take in Venus.

“Otherwise we would have to give her up,” Zigrossi said. “I would rather stay outside than leave our pet.”