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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, October 20, 2002

End to homelessness sought

 •  Table: Homeless in Hawai'i

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

For the first time, city, state and federal officials are coordinating their efforts to end homelessness in Hawai'i by using federal money and assistance and looking at other areas of the country as models.

Men line up for a free lunch at the Institute for Human Services. In Hawai'i, close to 13,000 people are homeless.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i is one of just eight states approved by the federal government to form a homeless "academy," or solutions working group, and bring together all agencies involved in paying for social programs to target the problem here, according to Lynn Maunakea, executive director of the Institute for Human Services.

The newly formed "Hawai'i Homeless Policy Academy," comprised of representatives of the major government money providers for housing and healthcare, expects to release its plan to end homelessness during Homeless and Hunger Awareness Week next month. The city has also formed a task force of its own to bring together the local hands-on homeless service providers to coordinate their efforts with the academy and work toward the same goals.

The city has moved in recent months to clean up and reclaim parks and public spaces in Kalihi, downtown and Waimanalo, some of which have been dominated by the homeless for years. But the people living there have been pushed into other, more populated areas. That has focused public attention on the homeless issue and raised concerns about whether Hawai'i has any aloha for an estimated 13,000 of its most disadvantaged citizens.

But the reaction to seeing the homeless pack up their meager belongings and move on to the next park or beach gives way to one bedrock question: Can anything be done to solve what has become an intractable problem in Hawai'i?

Yes, said Maunakea, joining a host of experts who say that the cure to homelessness is simple: Provide enough shelters for people living on the streets and affordable housing and services to accommodate those who want to get off of them.

That is what they have done in New York City — site of perhaps the best model for tackling homelessness — and it can be done in Honolulu, Maunakea said.

While the solution will take years to fully implement, it won't cost much more than the state and city are spending now, she said. But it will require a comprehensive approach, and that's where the Hawai'i Homeless Policy Academy comes in.

"The federal government called upon the states to bring together the real resource providers to look at existing ways services are provided and how to improve it," Maunakea said.

Keith and Nora Ventura, a homeless couple in Waimanalo, said they welcome opportunities to improve themselves and get into a home.

They have been homeless for about two years. Both are out of work and live in a van. Their three children are being cared for by other people and attend school in another community, and the couple sees them only occasionally.

Keith Ventura, 41, said he would be willing to sign up for the program if it helps bring his family together under one roof.

"I want my family together again," Keith Ventura said.

A recent occurrence

Keith and Nora Ventura, who have been homeless for two years, live in a van in Waimanalo. The couple, whose three children are being cared for by others, said they would be willing to sign up for the new umbrella homeless program. "I want my family together again," Keith Ventura said.

Advertiser library photo • Aug. 21, 2002

The Homeless Academy is based on a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness titled "How to End Homelessness in Ten Years" and a five-year study of the homeless population in New York and Philadelphia by University of Pittsburgh researcher Dennis Culhane.

According to the report, widespread homelessness did not emerge until the 1980s following two decades of reductions in affordable home construction, wages that did not keep pace with the cost of living for low-income people and dwindling federal support for health services to balance the budget. Social trends including new kinds of illegal drugs, and more single-parent and teen-headed households with low earning power added to the problem.

Maunakea said the report shows that efforts to provide food and shelter are simply sustaining the homeless population, not helping to solve the problem.

According to Culhane, 60 percent of homeless people are moved off the street fairly quickly after being helped by existing providers to find jobs and housing.

Another group is considered "episodically homeless," according to the study. They are in and out of homelessness frequently and often have substance abuse problems.

"Sometimes they are working, but lose their jobs and fall back into homelessness," Maunakea said. "They make another effort toward sobriety, find employment and housing and then relapse. It is part of their cycle. It is very difficult to break."

About 10 percent of homeless people are considered "chronically homeless."

"(Culhane) learned that this small group of people uses 50 percent of the existing homeless resources," Maunakea said. "So it is a relatively small number that is using the bulk of the resources.

"The beauty of this study, because it was such a large group he looked at, is it can apply here. We have looked at the same thing here, and these percentages hold true."

The number of homeless in Hawai'i grew marginally from 12,346 in 1994 to 12,923 in fiscal year 2001, according to state figures. On O'ahu, 6,369 were counted in 1994, compared with 7,135 in fiscal 2001. Of those, 3,279 did not seek help from shelters for various reasons.

Many are loath to use the limited public shelters even when there is space because they are crowded and the barrackslike facilities are unappealing.

The mission statement of the Homeless Academy, which has been meeting monthly since April, reads: Plan and develop a more comprehensive and integrated system of housing and services for people who are chronically homeless and help them achieve their optimal level of health, safety and well-being.

New York blueprint

Several cities and states nationwide are beginning to develop plans to end homelessness based on the blueprint started in New York City.

On an average night in April, 33,000 homeless people were provided emergency shelter by the New York City Department of Homeless Services. The city's spending on homelessness is nearly $1 billion a year.

With that money, New York City has created emergency shelters and 15,000 permanent affordable housing units with services to homeless people with special needs across the city. More are planned.

Hawai'i will need to increase spending — but nowhere near the levels of New York — to provide homes and services, Maunakea said.

"They found out that it costs $900 more a year to house them permanently in the community with the support needed to keep them in that housing than it does to service them in shelters and on the streets," Maunakea said. "It's a little bit more, but it is more appropriate. You've got people off of the streets, out of the parks."

Hawai'i provides 967 beds in 24 emergency shelters statewide and in fiscal year 2002 will spend $6.5 million on homeless services, $1 million of that from federal grants.

The city is spending more than $6 million this year, mostly federal money, on homeless programs including emergency shelter grants, according to Managing Director Ben Lee.

The city's task force, which has been meeting since March, is focusing on the hands-on homeless providers to coordinate services and limit redundancy.

Lee said the city has looked at what other places are doing to provide services for the homeless and likes the "drop-in centers" created in Washington and Portland, Ore., which provide a safe place for the homeless to rest, wash and meet resource providers but are not technically shelters.

"There is no silver bullet per se ... The first step is to bring all of them together," Lee said.

Laura E. Thielen, coordinator for the Health Care for the Homeless Project, said a real solution to homelessness must include tackling all aspects of the problem simultaneously, not just housing but drug and alcohol treatment programs and services for families and the mentally ill.

"The Legislature, the Congress and the community think there is one big solution and that if we do one big thing, that will solve everything," Thielen said. "That is just not going to happen."

Thielen, who is a city task force member, supports the idea of drop-in centers, and said community involvement is another critical component to any solution.

"At the downtown center in D.C. they created a business improvement district and they put money and resources toward the center, essentially taxing themselves to become a community partner for the social service programs," Thielen said. "The community has really become involved."

Nora Ventura, the homeless woman in Waimanalo, said the city and state are on the right track and could eliminate homelessness if they put their resources to work in the right places.

Help should include job opportunities because shelters on O'ahu require some kind of financial security such as a job or welfare, Nora Ventura said.

She is brushing up on her computer skills at a class at the Waimanalo Health Clinic, but her husband, Keith, said he has little opportunity because he doesn't have a high-school diploma.

There is plenty of vacant land in Waimanalo to build housing for the homeless, and in exchange for shelter, they could maintain the property, Keith Ventura said.

"There shouldn't be any reason for homelessness over here," he said.

George Harris, the city missionary for Central Union Church, gathers volunteers every week to provide a church service and serve a free meal for about 75 homeless people at Ala Moana Beach Park. The volunteers also offer counseling, job placement and a friendly ear to anyone who needs it.

The church program is typical of groups the city hopes to bring together with its task force.

"I really believe everybody should stop seeing the homeless as a public policy issue and start seeing this as a real human problem with our neighbors, brothers and sisters and friends who are on the street," Harris said. "(People) always talk about the homeless problem, but it is 'how do we get these folks out of our neighborhood?' not 'these are members of our community that live in our parks and streets and how do we respond to them?'

"Neighborhood boards and churches are really in the best position to take some sort of positive action."

Harris hopes to raise money to start a job-training business for the homeless.

"If we start a business, that is a chunk of money and we will need to find that in the community somewhere," he said. "The public's response is most often 'Why don't the police do something about this?' or 'What is the Legislature doing?' They just want somebody to fix it and make it go away. Once people decide they are not willing to let it go on anymore, the money would follow, public policy would follow, the legislation would follow. It takes that will."

Staff writer Eloise Aguiar contributed to this report. Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.

• • •

Homeless in Hawai'i
The number of homeless in Hawai'i receiving services under state stipend and outreach programs has dropped in recent years but has inched back up during fiscal year 2001. (Click table for bigger graphic.)
Source: State Housing and Community Development Corp.