Groups are working together to establish something on this island that exists in every other county but Kaua‘i — an emergency homeless shelter.
Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste has offered four portable buildings for the cause. The buildings used to house the county Prosecuting Attorney and Housing Agency, and are currently behind the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu‘e.
The county Prosecuting Attorney staff moved into the Lihu‘e Civic Center Mo‘ikeha Building (round building), and the county Housing Agency workers are in the process of moving into the civic center’s Pi‘ikoi Building (the former Gem store).
Kauai Economic Opportunity, Inc. officials are negotiating with representatives of state agencies to gain access to land adjacent to the KEO building off Haleko Road in Lihu‘e for the purposes of establishment of an emergency homeless shelter, using those county-owned buildings.
The idea is to create both additional transitional housing and the island’s first emergency homeless shelter, both to be managed by KEO officials, said Stephanie Fernandes, KEO housing and homeless coordinator.
Establishment of the emergency homeless shelter would effectively plug the only gap in the island’s efforts to address the problem of homelessness, she said.
Officials in the public sector, with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, state agencies and County of Kaua‘i, along with those working in the private sector to alleviate homelessness, have agreed upon a continuum of care which has four components:
- Outreach. The KEO Care-A-Van provides food and information to nearly 600 homeless people on the island, mainly living on or near beaches;
- Emergency shelter. This would provide stabilization, and a networking system where homeless people could get information on jobs and government benefits available to them, Fernandes said;
- Transitional housing. This is provided for up to 24 months, with intensive services offered toward participant self-sufficiency, she said;
- Assistance to get into and stay in permanent housing.
KEO officials are providing or overseeing three of the four components now, with only the emergency shelter lacking for now, Fernandes said.
Government and private officials concur that it is best if community-based entities provide services to homeless populations, she continued.
The goal of island leaders, obviously, is to provide the entire continuum of care, said Fernandes, adding that KEO leaders are currently seeking funding for renovation and rehabilitation of the county portable facilities for use as both an emergency shelter and transitional housing.
A continuum of care committee is working towards those ends.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, who met recently with Fernandes, KEO Chief Executive Officer MaBel Fujiuchi and other KEO staff, said such community-based initiatives are necessary if for no other reason than federal programs plain haven’t worked.
“Communities are going to have to get it done themselves,” said Case, who called the lack of affordable housing which has led to some homelessness on this island “a rapidly accelerating concern” all across his district.
Case, Fujiuchi and Fernandes all agreed that beyond the 600 known homeless who take advantage of KEO’s Care-A-Van services, there exists an unknown number of people Case calls “the unspoken homeless,” those who are homeless but don’t take advantage of programs like KEO’s Care-A-Van; others living with other family members or friends in crowded conditions; and those who for several reasons are “on the edge” of homelessness.
Case has been looking for housing solutions beyond what the federal government does, because the federal programs aren’t working, he reiterated.
Part of the solution rests in modification of state and county land-use policies, said Case, advocating for more affordable-housing provisions to be attached to conditions of development for various projects.
Private developers in Hawai‘i are not “incentified” to develop low-income, affordable rental housing, said Case, calling the shortage “a big problem” in his district.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
