The pandemic has taken its toll on all populations, the homeless not the least among them: The need to provide shelter plainly remains a critical need.
So the budgetary surplus that endows the Legislature this year should enable a real investment in the transitional housing that is needed more each year.
The social-service needs of the homeless are wide-ranging, but providing stable shelter, a place where they can remain to receive these supports, is key.
House Bill 2512, which would extend and streamline the pilot “Ohana Zones” program for transitional housing, is the principle vehicle for this initiative and should move ahead. It would provide $15 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year and extend the program, due to lapse at the end of fiscal 2023, through June 30, 2026.
Ohana Zones were authorized in 2018 as a way to provide flexible funding to help the homeless access permanent housing. Projects may be built on state or county land. They have included the Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered (HONU) program on Oahu, and various permanent housing projects such as Kamaoku Kauhale in Kalaeloa and Huliau in Kahului.
The budgetary allotment and extension are musts. Following a hearing Thursday, the measure advanced with amendments. These included a long list of exemptions from governmental reviews that do tend to slow down the process.
But this list itself should be reviewed. Not all streamlining is in the interest of either the public or the constituency the measure seeks to serve. Partners in Care, one advocacy organization supporting the measure, acknowledged in its testimony that, “while these exemptions may speed up the process, we need to be cognizant of any exemptions that may jeopardize the safety of the project itself.”
Absolutely right. It would be better to ensure that safety by consolidating some of these steps that do evaluate physical and environmental conditions that should be known up front.
Other bills worth watching:
>> Senate Bill 3018 would create a formal “kauhale” program under the Hawaii Public Housing Authority (HPHA), making use of “tiny homes” assembled in village-type configurations to house chronically homeless people.
The original bill sought to make it a project of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., which opposed it and proposed instead that it fall under the HPHA. This is an idea with potential but needs support from a lead agency if it is to get off the ground. A similar bill, SB 3169, proposes that the Department of Human Services take that lead.
>> Measures seeking improved mental and behavioral supports for some of the most chronically homeless. One that has backing from social service agencies is SB 2034, which would require assessments of emergency-room patients to ensure their capacity to make decisions; if they lack that capacity, a guardian could be sought.
This would help prevent the repeated cycles through hospital emergency rooms by patients, many of them homeless, who get only short-term medical intervention.
>> Measures to improve the inventory of available, permanent units include SB 2399, to prohibit discrimination against the use of housing vouchers, and HB 1748, which would authorize a bond issue with revenue for the rental housing revolving fund.
These efforts to widen habitat availability and range deserve further discussion, and action. Providing emergency shelter is a critical intervention, but so is comprehensive attention to Hawaii’s affordable-housing stock. Solving the homelessness crisis simply won’t happen otherwise.
