Mayor Rick Blangiardi offers 5-point homeless plan for Oahu

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration has offered its plan to deal with the needs of the nearly 4,000 homeless people living on Oahu.

The 32-page “action plan” outlines five key strategies to curb homelessness: strengthen the city’s homeless crisis response system; integrate health care; offer career paths to exit homelessness; have more affordable housing options; and operate programs meant to prevent homelessness.

The mayor’s plan — developed in concert with the city’s Department of Community Services, Department of Emergency Services, Office of Economic Revitalization and the Honolulu Police Department — includes city programs and services created before or during Blangiardi’s mayoral term, which began in 2021.

“The report recognizes that there are no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions and seeks innovative ways to collaborate with other levels of government, nonprofits, and other community partners to ultimately create a system that meets an individual’s specific needs,” Honolulu Managing Director Michael Formby wrote in an attached message to the plan, as submitted to the Honolulu City Council and its Chair Tommy Waters on Feb. 16.

Waters in January, along with others on the Council, blasted the mayor’s office via a formal Council resolution requesting the administration to produce concrete plans to help fix the island’s affordable housing and homeless crisis. Homelessness on Oahu “is one of the most critical issues of our time,” Waters said.

“My hope is that this plan will guide the city to a speedy implementation,” Waters told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. “Our residents can’t wait any longer, and I look forward to working with the administration to ensure that our local families have safe places to live.”

Among its strategies, the mayor would continue the use of the Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement, or CORE, program. Launched in 2021, CORE responds seven days a week to nonviolent, homeless-related 911 calls in downtown Honolulu, Chinatown and Waikiki. The program uses emergency medical technicians and social workers among others to assist homeless people with immediate health care needs, shelter and other support services.

As of December, CORE had 234 initial contacts and 988 recurring visits with participants, with wellness checks among its offered services.

“As staffing capacity increases and funding allows, the CORE program will extend further to other communities on Oahu to continue to be one of the various avenues for individuals experiencing homelessness to receive assistance and get connected to resources,” the plan states.

Building career paths to exit homelessness is also touted under the mayor’s plan. That includes using Teach, Encourage, Advocate, Motivate — or TEAM WorkHawaii — to first help the unemployed, underemployed, homeless or those at risk of becoming homeless with short-term rental subsidy assistance, as well as help those willing to gain employment.

According to the report, TEAM WorkHawaii annually provides about 100 indivi­duals and families with housing assistance and, if desired, employment and training programs. As of Oct. 1, 80 individuals or heads of households entered these programs.

In addition, the mayor’s plan would continue to use city departments to expand affordable-housing efforts here. Among them, two city divisions — the Community Assistance Division and Community Based Development Division — would “preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing and keep low- and moderate- income households housed,” the plan states.

In particular, the Community Assistance Division manages rental assistance programs to lower-income families and assists these families with homeownership as well. The division also administers the federal voucher programs’ — including the Housing Choice Voucher or Section 8 program — rent subsidies.

The action plan — noting the importance of state funding to support housing and homeless efforts — mentions the use of the state-passed 2018 law Act 209, which appropriated $30 million to create the ‘Ohana Zones pilot program to address homelessness statewide. In 2019 and 2022 an additional $2 million and $15 million, respectively, were appropriated to support the ‘Ohana Zones program.

The city uses its portion of the funds to support housing efforts. That includes Housing First, which helps fund permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people. Also, 60 households are supported by state ‘Ohana Zone-funded case management with city general fund rental vouchers, while an additional 38 households are supported with rent only for permanent supportive housing, the report states.

Ways to prevent homelessness are also featured in the action plan and include using the city’s Rental and Utility Relief Program.

Administered by Catholic Charities Hawaii and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, that program — which uses federal COVID- 19-related money — has distributed more than $200 million in aid and has helped more than 15,000 local families as of January. Households qualified for the program based on financial hardship experienced since the start of the pandemic — March 2020 — and met income eligibility limits of up to 80% of the area median income.

Of those families served, 86% earned less than $64,000 annually. Eligible households under the program could receive up to 18 months of payment for rent, electricity and other utilities through this program. The average amount of support was around $8,000 per household.

The release of the mayor’s action plan on homelessness follows Waters’ vocal criticism of the mayor’s administration over the lack of any housing plan and or homeless strategies here. During a Jan. 10 Council Budget Committee meeting, Waters asked, “What is the city doing? What is the plan to the building of homes for 30% to 50% (median income)?”

In response, the mayor told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser that his administration achieved success based on “execution.”

“I can tell you, fundamentally understanding the problems and coming up with the right solutions is a bunch of work in progress,” Blangiardi said in a phone interview in January. The mayor further asserted that any housing plan — written or not — should not be a measure of success toward fixing affordability, and added that Honolulu Hale has bookshelves “lined with plans that never were.”

In reference to the mayor’s submitted plan, Waters said, “I agree that this is a complex issue and appreciate the need to take a multipronged approach.”

He said for its part the Council has allocated over $300 million toward affordable housing and homelessness services over the past two years.

“As we look to address this serious and complex issue, my hope is that the administration will concentrate on spending the funds allocated for affordable housing,” said Waters. “This includes approximately $250 million appropriated in 2021, which will lapse (in) June of this year.”

Waters noted Oahu has a “huge gap” for families at 60% area median income and below — or, $78,000 for a family of four. “Until we house those below 60%, we will continue to have a housing and homelessness crisis,” he added.