Bills would fund homeless initiative
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Some of the homeless that are camped outside of the barriers erected around Thomas Square Park in Honolulu, as seen on Jan. 26. Key Hawaii lawmakers are hoping to secure $3.5 million annually over the next two years to continue a program that has been credited with helping hundreds of families in the past year escape or avoid homelessness.
Key Hawaii lawmakers are hoping to secure $3.5 million annually over the next two years to continue a program that has been credited with helping hundreds of families in the past year escape or avoid homelessness.
The funding would be used to continue a program called the Coordinated Statewide Homeless Initiative, initiated by Gov. David Ige under an emergency proclamation.
Aloha United Way was given a one-time grant of $5 million, the majority of which — $4.7 million — went toward quickly housing homeless people and helping households on the brink of eviction temporarily cover rent and bills.
Since the program began in April, it’s helped more than 1,400 households comprising 4,300 individuals, according to Aloha United Way. About three-quarters had been at risk of losing housing; the rest were already homeless. Some 64 percent of the households included children.
“We believe that the need for this type of service in our community is critical,” Norm Baker, chief operating officer of Aloha United Way, said Thursday during a news conference at the state Capitol. He was joined by House Vice Speaker John Mizuno and chairmen of the Senate and House committees that oversee housing and human services.
Baker said the need for supplemental housing assistance across the islands exceeded available funds.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
“For every homeless person that we placed, there were three folks, three families in the eviction process,” he said.
To continue the program, lawmakers have introduced companion measures, Senate Bill 1107 and House Bill 1240, which would allocate the $3.5 million annual appropriation to a “master contractor” — $525,000 of that would go toward administrative costs.
Aloha United Way is the current master contractor for the Coordinated Statewide Homeless Initiative, working with 20 providers statewide who identify and assist clients.
Mizuno said that if the legislation passes, the contract for services would have to be put out to bid to comply with procurement law, though he noted that Aloha United Way would be well positioned to win the bid because of its past experience.
Scott Morishige, the governor’s homelessness coordinator, said the administration would need to review the proposed legislation further before commenting.
“I think definitely the CSHI program has been effective, but it was meant to be a one-time thing,” he noted.
Morishige said the Ige administration has proposed a long-term expansion of those same services. Ige’s proposed budget includes $2.5 million to quickly move the homeless statewide into housing, and an additional $7 million for a rent supplement program overseen by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority which is designed to prevent households from becoming homeless.
13 responses to “Bills would fund homeless initiative”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Is there a job training clause in this Bill. how’s about family planning? You know, limiting the amount of children. Teaching them how their financial limits dictate how many kids they should have. You know, simple things!
There are a lot of very rich people in Hawaii. Ask them to sponsor this program instead of taxpayers.
They already did, unfortunately, there are more bums than rich thanks to Krook Caldwell and his open door policy to bums.
Judging from the picture in the article, this bum has no desire to work. These “D”onkey politicians Keep throwing money at useless waste! Would be cheaper to buy a house in Detroit for $1 and send this bum on his way to his new home with a deed in his hand!
Source with HTTP links in title…
1. $1 Detroit homes
dragoninater, still hawking $1 Detroit homes. Do you honestly think homeless people are responsible enough to be homeowners? And don’t forget the taxes on these homes are on assessed values, NOT $1.00. Ya think they’re gonna pay $250 monthly property taxes? And do these homeless have seed money to start new homeowner lives?
What’s the government going to do if they don’t pay the property tax? Reposes their $1 house? LOL
Far as I’m concerned living in a torn up home is better than living in a tent. Secondly, the government won’t do jack $h!t on enforcing the property owner to pay property tax on $1 homes. They’d rather have them occupied than become crack houses.
Geez RetiredWorking, get your head out of your a$$ and think rationally for a second andgo donate part of your massive $40k+ a month ERS pension to some of the local bums. It’s not like you need that $40,000 a month to survive anyway. Go spread some Aloha and buy some $1 deeds in Detroit and then buy some tickets for some local bums to go and move into these homes.
He’s probably from Detroit.
temp fix. most of these clowns are by choice.
When driving on the freeway through Honolulu, do you notice all the homeless living on the slopes? They have shopping carts that could possibly come down into the traffic. A serious safety issue. The State needs to keep our state lands clear of homeless campers!
Supporting the homeless is like giving alcohol to an alcoholic or drugs to a drug addict, it just keeps them coming back for more.
And draws more to Hawaii , now it is good climate AND drug money.
My cat is more useful than the homeless guy in the photo. At least she goes out and catches mice.
https://atomicmonkey.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/city-uses-federal-anti-immigrant-funds-for-major-wall-projects/