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The city is a little over halfway to its goal of establishing 300 households by the end of the year through the Oahu Housing Now
program.
Oahu Housing Now started in April, and in five months secured housing for 163 households and 410 individuals. Partners in Care, Oahu’s planning body that coordinates housing and services for homeless individuals, is part of Oahu Housing Now and has a dashboard recording the program’s progress.
On average it takes about 27 days to receive housing once enrolled, according to the dashboard. Honolulu
Office of Housing and Homelessness Director Anton Krucky said landlord engagement continues to be an issue.
“We have 114 that are on the waiting list that would go into housing, if we could find the landlords that would accept them,” he said.
“As we finish this program, which we’ll do, it’ll house over 500 people.”
Partners in Care Executive Director Laura Thielen said the program will first house those who are already in shelters, or who have already been in wraparound services for a period of time, and may no longer need that level of support. That way, shelter space can be freed up for those who need it.
“We’re being a little bit more creative with these kinds of things that are coming down the pipeline,” she said.
Before, housing vouchers were usually given on a first-come, first-served basis.
Thielen is also educating landlords by explaining that when they accept someone with subsidies, they are guaranteed to receive payments on time and will have support services if they need
extra help with a tenant.
“If they just take somebody off Craigslist, they won’t have that,” Thielen said.
“We want to incentivize landlords to actually take folks who may need more services.”
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