The state hopes to get more homeless people off the street by replicating its approach in Kakaako that relies on a combination of social service outreach and sweeps backed by law enforcement.
In response to Gov. David Ige’s request for $9 million to address the largest per capita homeless rate in the nation, the state Legislature instead provided a one-time allocation of $12 million that Ige and his administration broke down into detail Thursday.
Homelessness, Ige said at a Capitol news conference, “has reached each and every community. … There is no quick fix to homelessness. There is no shortcut.”
The $12 million will roughly be divided equally between Oahu and the neighbor islands.
The bulk — totaling
$9.4 million — will go to increased social service outreach ($2 million), so-called “Housing First” rental units ($3 million), “rapid rehousing” ($3 million) to help homeless families get back into homes through rental or utility deposit assistance, and $1.4 million to renovate and operate a new “Family Assessment Center” out of a maintenance shed in Kakaako in the center of the lingering encampment.
An additional $1.475 million will allow the state departments of Transportation and Land and Natural Resources and the Hawaii Community Development Authority — which oversees Kakaako’s state-owned parks — to hire private contractors to conduct regular sweeps. The state Sheriff Division also will receive $450,000 for enforcement.
Also, $325,000 will be used to develop a better management system to track the homeless, and $350,000 to repair and maintain state-owned shelters.
On Wednesday social service outreach workers counted about 30 tents in Kakaako, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator. By comparison, 293 people were counted living in the encampment in August as it grew into a health and safety crisis following an attack on state Rep. Tom Brower.
But at one point, Morishige said, more than 300 people were living illegally in Kakaako’s parks and shoreline in what was “one of the largest homeless encampments in the nation.”
By combining the efforts of Honolulu police, a special cleanup crew from the city and ongoing sweeps by state sheriff’s deputies and two private companies, 280 people from Kakaako have since moved into shelters or permanent housing, Morishige said.
“It really reflects the overall approach that the state wants to take to address this issue,” he said. “We know this approach works, and we know it’s what’s needed to get people into permanent housing.”
Those who remain tend to be single, chronically homeless adults, mostly men.
Hawaii’s latest so-called Point in Time Count homeless census showed a 4 percent statewide increase. Oahu’s homeless population rose by 37 people, a jump of less than 1 percent.
The number of chronically homeless, in particular, “has continued to increase,” Morishige said. “That’s the direction we need to focus our resources — and have been focusing our resources.”
Overall, Hawaii’s statewide numbers went from 7,620 homeless people to 7,921, representing the fifth annual increase since 2011. The nationwide survey was conducted the week of Jan. 25, and Hawaii’s count was released in June.
Ultimately, Ige’s administration wants a “Housing First-oriented system” in place within the next four years, Morishige said.
The Housing First philosophy — pushed by federal housing officials — maintains that it’s cheaper and more effective to find rental units for homeless people that allow them to drink and even use drugs while getting social service help for their problems, which could include mental illness and addiction.
But it relies on private landlords and property managers in one of the country’s tightest and most expensive housing markets to take a chance on renting to the homeless, whose rent is guaranteed. Landlords also can call social service workers to deal with any problems.
The $12 million provided by the Legislature won’t fund Ige’s plan for all four years, though.
So, with $325,000 tagged to develop a better data management system to keep track of Hawaii’s homeless and follow them as they move off the street, Morishige said, Ige’s administration hopes to use updated data to help persuade legislators to provide additional money over the next four years.
In the meantime Morishige said that people worried about homeless encampments across the state can call his office at 586-0193.
If the homeless are on county or private property, the state will contact the appropriate landowner, and outreach workers will be dispatched to try to get the homeless occupants into a shelter or long-term housing, Morishige said.
