The State of Homelessness

Aloha!

As your candidate for the Hawaii State House of Representatives, nothing motivates me to serve our community on a daily basis more than witnessing the growing number of homeless individuals on our streets.

When I was growing up in Waikiki, I recall a handful of regular and familiar homeless individuals. This is in stark contrast to today, where homelessness abounds and is more and more often paired with mental health and substance abuse issues.

Massive amounts of funding, time, and attention have been put towards tackling homelessness -- though it is only getting worse. In this email you'll read where we currently stand on the issue, what is being done to address it, recent efforts of our State Legislature, how a recent Supreme Court decision can impact our response, and what your State House candidates think about the subject.

Mahalo,

Jillian Anderson

The State of Homelessness: By the Numbers

Each year per a federal mandate, a Point in Time count is conducted to identify the number of people experiencing homelessness in a one-night snapshot in January.

This year, 4,494 people were counted on Oahu, up 12% from 2023. Statewide, 6,389 people were experiencing homelessness.

A decade ago, most homeless individuals spent the night in shelters. But now almost 2/3 are unsheltered, with the streets and parks of our neighborhood being one of many called home day and night.

As can be seen on the heat map below, the highest population of

homeless individuals on the island reside in and around our community.

(Source: 2024 Point in Time Count Report)

What Solutions Are Being Offered In Our District?

In October 2022, the City & County of Honolulu made the largest acquisition in its history at $37.75 million to purchase the building formerly used by Tokai University and Hawaii Pacific University to house homeless individuals.

Renamed the Waikiki Vista, this building at 2241 Kapiolani Boulevard is now home to an emergency shelter, transitional housing, and affordable housing units, with full occupancy having been expected to be reached by the end of this summer.

Emergency shelter is offered for up to 33 families or 105 individuals per year. Once stabilized, families can transition to bridge housing units, which can assist up to 50 families or 165 individuals annually.

In addition to the Waikiki Vista in our district, the state's Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Iwilei has begun accepting homeless clients for mental health services. The City has also acquired the Iwilei Center for homeless services and low-barrier emergency shelter. Medical triage services and a kauhale village of tiny homes will also soon be available in a new facility on North King Street.

One of the most familiar sights for on-the-ground homelessness outreach is the City's Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement Program, better known as C.O.R.E.

C.O.R.E.'s goal is to develop relationships with homeless individuals and provide them with a wide array of resources. Outreach is broken down into six categories: Wellness, Medical, Shelter, Documents, Financial, and Other.

For non-violent, non-emergency homeless-related concerns, C.O.R.E. can be contacted at HonoluluCORE@honolulu.gov or you can call the C.O.R.E. hotline at (808) 768-2673.

What did our Legislature do this year
to help our homeless population?

One of the best bills to come out of the last Legislative Session is SB3139, now Act 86. Previously, it was common practice for homeless individuals experiencing a mental health crisis to be taken to the nearest emergency room. Instead, this legislation created a Crisis Intervention and Diversion Services Program under the Department of Health to divert those with mental health and substance abuse disorders from the criminal justice system and instead into healthcare services.

The way this works is that law enforcement officers when responding to a homeless individual in crisis can now identify when they are an imminent danger to themself or others. At this time, they have the authority to take them to our new Behavioral Health Crisis Center rather than the emergency room.

How a U.S. Supreme Court Decision Could Change How We Deal with Homelessness

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of the City of Grants Pass (Oregon) VS Johnson. The decision has allowed for the ban of outdoor camping on public property in this town, and as a result, cities like Honolulu can enforce stricter laws when it comes to keeping sidewalks clear.

This offers another tool for our City Council to remove homeless encampments by expanding our sit-lie law, where it is currently illegal to sit or lie between the hours of 5AM and 11PM in certain areas of Honolulu.

This decision also provides HPD greater flexibility when issuing citations for trespassing or a violation of the sit-lie law following attempts to place homeless individuals in shelters.

What Do Your State House Candidates Think?

When it comes to addressing homelessness, unfortunately a one-size-fits-all solution does not exist. The root causes fall across a varied spectrum, from poverty to domestic abuse to mental illness, and everything in between, and we must act in intentional ways that recognize such differences.

Presently, we are putting funding into outreach and transitional shelters, as well as increasingly into mental health and substance abuse treatments and sending homeless individuals who have come from out-of state back home. Though, to move an individual permanently out of the cycle of homelessness we need to invest in the full continuum of care. By helping individuals all the way through the transition from living on the streets to living in stable housing with secure employment/income, we can avoid having them fall through the cracks when it comes to gaps in our current efforts and achieve more permanent outcomes.

For those that are in a mental state where they are unable to make the best choices for themselves, use of Assisted Community Treatment (ACT) to provide necessary mental health and substance abuse treatment should be expanded.

In addition, especially in Urban Honolulu, it is clear to see more and more homeless individuals who are new to our islands. Efforts have been made to reconnect these individuals with family on the mainland, though we must take a stronger stance when it comes to deterring other states from sending their homeless populations here, especially in the winter months.

In a recent candidate forum with current State Representative Adrian Tam, he shared the following perspective on homelessness:

"One of the biggest issues that we saw in homelessness is that it is really hard to find someone who is homeless during the day because everyone is moving around. Especially in Waikiki where you see a lot of people going to the beach and you don't know who's homeless and who's not because everyone is in their bathing suit." - Rep. Adrian Tam (Kokua Council Candidate Forum, 8/28/2024)

In my personal experience, all throughout Waikiki, day and night, along the beach or on the streets, our homeless population is apparent. We need leaders who recognize this unfortunate situation for what it truly is and work towards achieving tangible results with no excuses.