Planning averts spike in COVID-era homelessness in Hawaii

Fears of a large-scale surge in homelessness in Hawaii triggered by COVID-19 job losses failed to materialize thanks to state funding and the work of service providers, the state homeless coordinator said Monday.

Scott Morishige, appearing on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program, also said that Hawaii has seen a nearly 60% reduction in homeless families since 2015.

There had been widespread concern that families who suffered COVID-19 job losses would lose their homes beginning with the pandemic in March 2020.

Gov. David Ige in April 2020 imposed the first of a series of eviction bans to give families relief, but lifted the moratorium in August 2021 — encouraging landlords, renters and property owners to work together through mediation, and with mortgage lenders “to prevent mass evictions.”

A year later, “We haven’t seen that,” Morishige said.

The reasons were many, he said: one-time rent and utility relief funding provided by the Legislature, along with homeless providers “who were on the front lines” in all counties working with at-risk families “helping them from falling into a situation of homelessness.”

“A lot of people expected a surge,” said Jill Wright, spokesperson for the Institute for Human Services, which operates Hawaii’s largest homeless shelters.

“We’re not seeing a lot of new homelessness come about because of the pandemic,” she said while appearing with Mo­rishige on “Spotlight Hawaii.”

The Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice last week released the results of a study showing “a pre-litigation mediation program,” known as Act 57, in 2021 helped renters and landlords, and reduced both court costs and a strain on the Judicial system.

“The Act 57 program diverted from the court system as many as 1,201 eviction cases,” Hawaii Appleseed said.

Hawaii Appleseed’s study — in partnership with the Housing Crisis Research Collaborative — suggested that continuing short-term rental subsidies along with an emphasis on tenant-landlord mediation might be additional tools to increase “housing stability.”

“For the landlords, the agreements reached often meant they were able to recover back rent and avoid the costly processes of litigating an eviction action and finding new tenants,” Hawaii Appleseed wrote.

“For families who were able to remain in their homes as a result of Act 57 and the availability of rent relief, they avoided forced moves that often result in the loss of security deposits and belongings, a change in schools, a longer commute to work, a negative mark on their rental history, and for some, homelessness.”

The nearly 60% reduction in family homelessness since 2015 — despite the pandemic — is the result of what can happen when help is focused on specific populations, including homeless veterans, Wright said.

“When we take kind of a targeted approach … we do see success,” she said.

Asked about persistent urban lore that mainland governments are sending their homeless to Hawaii, Wright said, “We don’t have a lot of evidence that’s the case.”

She called it “a pervasive myth that different states are sending their homeless here.”

Instead, she said, IHS sees a “steady of trickle of people coming in from the mainland probably every week.”

They don’t intend to end up homeless in Hawaii, but underestimate how much it costs to live here or find themselves in living situations that don’t work out, she said.

Wright estimated that 10% to 20% of IHS’ clients are recent arrivals from the mainland, compared with the overwhelming number of local residents.

Like other programs in Hawaii, IHS works to reunite homeless people from the mainland with someone who will look out for them — and try to reduce the cost of their airfare to go back — “as long as we’re sending them to a safe place,” Wright said.

A woman was recently reunited with her daughter in Maryland that way, she said.

Concerns continue over homeless people with mental health and substance abuse issues who don’t want to seek offers of treatment or shelter.

IHS is also working with clients who are sheltered find jobs or get job training to raise their income levels.

Morishige called it “a critical need” to expand mental health and substance abuse treatment.