The statistics on people in Hawaii who don’t have a home — a stable living situation, and a roof over their heads — took a disturbing turn this year: Not only did the numbers of homeless people rise, but there has been an alarming rise in the number of people ages 55 and up who are without shelter for the first time in their lives.

However, solutions are available, as the nation’s successful experience with campaigns to reduce homelessness among families and veterans has shown.

Therefore, with increasing numbers of elderly people falling into homelessness in Hawaii, the time for swift action in response is now. A report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness projects that the number of older adults experiencing homelessness will triple by 2030, in part because those currently homeless are aging along with the greater population. Whether continuously or newly homeless, however, the aging are especially vulnerable.

It’s been proven most effective and least expensive to help people solve issues that lead to homelessness before they reach the level of crisis. The next best approach is to intervene with a person experiencing homelessness as quickly as possible, providing appropriate services and shelter before health issues, mental health crises and accelerated substance abuse that are connected directly with homelessness multiply.

THE INSTITUTE for Human Services (IHS), which operates Hawaii’s largest homeless shelters in Iwilei, has seen aspects of this developing crisis first-hand: a growing number of senior citizens are seeking assistance at the IHS’s shelters, but also some elderly people have been brought to the shelter, says director Connie Mitchell — and left there by families who cannot care for them because they suffer with dementia or other disabling conditions.

IHS was ahead of the curve in sounding an alarm over increasing numbers of kupuna who need services. (See related “Island Voices” commentary on Page E3.)

And in June, the agency opened a first-of-its-kind facility to help homeless people in Hawaii with mental health and addiction issues — an eight-bed facility called ‘Imi Ola Piha, which has shown remarkable success in a short time, facilitating a transition to secure shelter for 101 homeless people.

IHS’ Homeless Triage Center provides a 24-hour, seven- to 10-day program that helps vulnerable people detox, whether from drugs or alcohol, while also treating associated mental health issues.

The experience of Evan Saia, a former waiter in a high-end Waikiki hotel who lost his job, then his home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and turned to alcohol to cope with living on the streets, illustrates the rapidity of downfall. But his experience at ‘Imi Ola Piha shows how quickly a turnaround can begin, given proper care: Four days into the program, Saia began making plans to reunite with his family in Rhode Island, telling the Star-Advertiser that daily programs at the center have allowed him to choose a better option.

THE IRONY in ‘Imi Ola Piha’s rapid success is that it opened only after Gov. Josh Green freed $50 million of communitywide grants-in-aid that were stalled in the previous administration, including $1.6 million for IHS. Regular, appropriate infusions of funding for homelessness services must be understood as a necessity by Hawaii’s Legislature and administration in years to come.

Green has said he wants the state to reduce its homelessness numbers, which topped 6,000 people in the 2023 Point In Time Count, by half over his four years in office. And though the deadly and destructive Lahaina fire in August has diverted funding from public initiatives of all kinds, the governor has committed to continue initiatives that benefit Hawaii’s aging population in 2024.

The governor’s supplemental budget specifically includes “housing for kupuna” (elders), as well as expanded support for health care in public hospitals, mental health services and education of health-care providers. The budget lists homelessness as one of the state administration’s “highest priorities.”

The supplemental budget request to the Legislature includes $6.7 million for the Behavioral Health Crisis Center and Supportive Housing services at the Iwilei Resource Center, a city-run facility that provides medical respite care, and $22 million in general obligation bond funds for completion of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s School Street Campus project to build 250 elderly affordable rental housing units. This is clearly money that serves a valuable purpose, and legislators should act quickly to get it allocated.

The supplemental budget recognizes that costs are increasing for service providers, as they are for state government — and includes language that commits to keeping them funded. It’s incumbent on the Legislature to recognize these community-based needs, and the benefits in filling them, in its upcoming session.