Editorial: Housing, homeless help

In this election year, the top priorities for political candidates invariably include the lack of affordable housing and its distressing consequence, homeless people living on the street.

Big ideas abound, but big solutions remain elusive. The median single-family home price in Hawaii has climbed to more than $1 million. The encampments on sidewalks and public spaces are a constant reminder that the homeless problem won’t go away anytime soon.

Last week, in one of his numerous themed bill-signing ceremonies, Gov. David Ige enacted three bills into law that should help move the needle:

>> House Bill 2512 (Act 235) extends the Ohana Zone pilot program to June 30, 2026. It also provides other support, including $15 million in funding for this fiscal year, exemptions from certain regulations and a 90-day extension of services for those who qualify.

The Ohana Zones program provides housing, shelter space and other necessary services for those experiencing homelessness, leveraging state and county property. The program, launched in 2018, has served more than 5,500 people as of Nov. 30, 2021, according to the state. More than 1,300 have been placed in permanent housing.

>> Senate Bill 3048 (Act 236) allows the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. (HHFDC) to transfer up to $45 million in tax-exempt general obligation bond proceeds to the Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund for fiscal year 2022-2023. Ige said the transfer will free up the money to be used to improve public infrastructure to support the state’s housing inventory. It’s hoped that this will give HHFDC the necessary flexibility to improve existing and new affordable housing developments.

The act also deposits $300 million into the Rental Housing Revolving Fund to develop rental housing for those with moderate incomes, which Ige said could finance as many as 1,700 units. Up to $150 million may be used for housing for residents who earn below the median family income for Hawaii.

>> House Bill 2233 (Act 237) allows the state Department of Human Services to provide up to $500 per month in housing assistance to qualified participants, to keep them from falling into homelessness. The participants must join a jobs program, called first-to-work, “to fulfill their responsibilities to support their children by preparing for, accepting, and retaining employment.”

These acts won’t finish the job; there are an estimated 6,000-plus homeless people on the street on any given day. And tens of thousands of affordable housing units need to be created. Still, it’s important to keep up the solid work, person by person, family by family. They all matter.