The simple truth is that the state of Hawaii, the City and County of Honolulu and the Oahu Homeless Continuum of Care have done an abysmal job in addressing homelessness in Hawaii.
The numbers provide the evidence: Both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness are at record levels, even after a surge of funding beginning in 2006 by the state and increased funding from federal sources.
The Governor’s Office continues to regurgitate the failed solutions of previous decades.
State and county staff are too busy discussing how bureaucratic barriers prevent the changes they claim to want than taking any bold action.
Agencies are too focused on chasing money to save their programs, regardless of their effectiveness, rather than advocating for change.
The recent announcement to open additional emergency shelter space will repeat the failed Lingle administration experiment that opened more than 1,000 new shelter beds without any corresponding decrease in unsheltered street homeless.
If Hawaii wants to make progress in reducing homelessness — both sheltered and unsheltered – fundamental change needs to happen.
This is how it would look:
>> Defund all current drop-in outreach services.
Current drop-in services focus on keeping homeless people on the streets by acting primarily as a post office and toothbrush pickup center.
Outreach services have failed, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of people located during the annual homeless counts cannot even be found in the state’s homeless database.
Outreach funds must be linked to permanent housing placements.
>> Convert all homeless shelters into permanent housing.
It is time to dismantle the entire homeless shelter system. Conversion of all shelters will eliminate any incentives to use the homeless system for access to housing subsidies.
The shelter system is also built on a faulty notion that people will move from homelessness to self-sufficiency in a matter of months.
The truth is that more than 90 percent of the "successful outcomes" are families who transfer from the shelter to another subsidized living situation.
All the shelters — emergency and transitional — should be converted into permanent housing.
If Father Du Teil were alive today, I am certain he would be laying the bricks himself for a new Institute for Human Services Men’s House with small permanent rooms, knowing that is the only real solution.
IHS’ 100 women-in-a-room shelter needs the same treatment. These and other Oahu shelters are expensive failed solutions.
>> Prioritize funds for the federal goal of ending veteran homelessness.
The Hawaii Veterans Affairs Homeless Office has performed very poorly in reducing veteran homelessness. Hawaii is one of the few places where veteran homelessness is actually increasing. It’s a disgrace. Three governors have shown no leadership on this national initiative. There is talent in Hawaii to do better — but there is little focus.
>> Build a COFA refugee facility.
With regard to the Compact of Free Association population, the fact is that the Micronesians and Marshallese are not homeless. They are economic refugees.
COFA persons do not suffer from behavioral issues related to serious mental illness and active substance abuse like the vast majority of people we refer to as homeless. They are merely escaping the poor conditions of their native island nations.
While I oppose a "homeless encampment area," I am absolutely in support of setting up a COFA refugee housing facility operated by local COFA leaders that can serve as a way station until they get housing in Hawaii or relocate in other mainland areas where COFA communities have emerged (California, Oregon, Texas and Florida).
For the last 15 years, the homeless service system in Hawaii has done an excellent job at increasing the number of people who are homeless. Let’s try something different.
