HONOLULU — The city and state have opened — and plan to open — more homeless housing across Oahu following the closure of some shelters and reduced bed space during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual homeless census called the Point in Time Count that was released last week showed that the area with the greatest homeless population on Oahu in January — the Waianae Coast, with 783 homeless people — had only two shelters.
Other areas of Oahu, such as Wahiawa/North and Upper Windward, had none.
“Every district should have some homeless resources, and we need to have people willing to host them,” said Connie Mitchell, executive director of the Institute for Human Services, which operates Hawaii’s largest emergency shelters. “The problem we have is a lot of NIMBY-ism (“not in my backyard”). People need to welcome services in the area. It’s really going to take all of us doing our part.”
Oahu saw a nearly 12% increase in homelessness in January compared with January 2023, and IHS has seen more need.
“We’re getting full again,” Mitchell said.
But other homeless people who could not be accommodated at IHS when it had to reduce beds to maintain social distancing during COVID-19 “got used to being out there,” Mitchell said.
At the same time, federal COVID-19-era funding to provide rental and utility assistance to keep people housed is running out, and Mitchell worries that more financially struggling families are at risk of becoming homeless.
At least three Oahu shelters and Kaneohe’s Joint Outreach Center, next to the Honolulu Police Department’s Kaneohe substation, have closed in the past several months as Oahu’s homeless population jumped.
“There have been so many changes related to shelters,” Mitchell said.
Most of the 4,494 homeless people counted in January — 2,766, or 62% — were unsheltered, defined as “staying on the streets or other places not meant for human habitation.”
Their numbers grew 17% compared with January 2023.
Another 1,728 Oahu homeless people — or 38% — were in emergency shelters or other transitional housing. Their numbers rose 4%.
Out of Oahu’s sheltered population, the Point in Time Count found that:
>> 47% reported one or more “disabling conditions.”
>> 35% reported a physical, developmental or other disability.
>> 29% reported a mental illness.
>> 22% were “chronically homeless.”
>> 22% reported a substance abuse disorder.
>> 20% were survivors of domestic violence.
>> 10% were military veterans.
The city this year has opened 396 more beds with plans for a total of 896 in the coming months, according to Anton Krucky, director of the city Department of Community Services.
They include three new shelters for homeless families comprising 18 units in Hauula, 27 in Wahiawa and 12 at Waikiki Vista.
In all, the new beds are designed to address a gamut of homeless needs — for families, homeless people going through detox, the medically fragile and affordable units for low-income people.
They are what Krucky calls “beds of many flavors.”
“It’s not just shelter beds,” he said. “They can be transitional housing to get them on their way to permanent housing.”
The state has built seven tiny-home “kauhale” communities intended as permanent homes for homeless people who also receive social services for their needs.
Fourteen more kauhale are in the pipeline. Most of them are planned for Oahu, including two in Waianae and other areas in need of homeless housing, including Kaneohe and Kailua.
State homeless coordinator John Mizuno expects to see another 500 units by the end of the year, followed by 750 more in 2025 and another 750 in 2026 — for a total of 2,000.
The overwhelming majority — approximately 70% — would go up on Oahu, Mizuno said.
Kauhale represent a key piece of Gov. Josh Green’s plans to reduce homelessness.
If successful, Mizuno said, Hawaii will make more progress in reducing homelessness than anywhere else in the country.
“We will have done something epic, by cutting chronic homelessness in half by 2026,” Mizuno told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a text.
“No administration has done this (and) no state (California, Texas, Florida) has done this,” Mizuno wrote.
