Low- and moderate-income residents who have been laid off or lost work hours because of the economic crisis would get partial rent or mortgage payments for several months under a plan getting early support as it moves through the Legislature.

The "shelter-in-place" program is designed to help hundreds of families avert homelessness by giving them money to fill the financial gaps created by job losses or work-hour cuts. Senate Bill 757, which would create the program, does not yet have a dollar amount attached to it and legislators were unsure just how many would be helped.

But state Sen. Norman Saka- moto, who introduced the measure, said he would like to enroll at least 300 families in the program. "It's helping them stay high and dry," said Sakamoto. "My hope is we can minimize ... the increase in people having to be forced out."

Kathleen Hasegawa, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, who helped formulate the shelter-in-place proposal, said the state needs to act in some way now to help those who have been laid off.

Otherwise, she warned, those families will become homeless. She added the program is one solution to tackle what she predicts will be a growing homelessness crisis in the coming months.

"There's just so many people who are going to lose everything," Hasegawa said. "I don't want that to happen, whether you're a renter or a homeowner."

The measure comes as nonprofits statewide are struggling to meet increased requests from families for everything from food to assistance with rent, utilities and other household expenses, and as Islanders are seeing more layoffs and foreclosures. In January, Hawai'i saw some 337 foreclosure filings — nearly triple the 123 filings recorded in the same month last year, according to California-based RealtyTrac.

NONPROFITS SWAMPED

Meanwhile, thousands of Hawai'i residents have lost their jobs in recent months, bringing the unemployment rate in the Islands to 5.5 percent in December 2008, up from 3.1 percent in the same month the year before, state figures show.

Leon Watson, Salvation Army family service office coordinator, said he and countless other nonprofits are getting many more calls for help. And, he said, the calls aren't just coming from the poor — but from people in the middle class who have lost their jobs or have seen their hours cut.

"What I think we're seeing is the individuals who had regular, middle-income-type jobs who were living paycheck to paycheck," he said. "All of a sudden, one of those paychecks isn't there or both of those paychecks aren't there."

From Jan. 1 to Jan. 19 alone, some 510 people called the Salvation Army to ask about getting rent assistance or other financial help. Officials said the numbers are way up from previous months, though figures for those months were not available because the nonprofit just started tracking the number of calls it gets.

The nonprofit also had to start a waiting list for its assistance program because of all the inquiries.

Watson added that the actual number of people the program is helping hasn't increased dramatically because the nonprofit only has so much money to spend.

STATE OFFICIALS WARY

The shelter-in-place measure passed through the Senate Committee on Education and Housing on Feb. 9, and is headed to the Ways and Means Committee. It did receive some opposition from state officials, who say creating a new program during troubled economic times is not a good idea.

Opponents also pointed out that Hawai'i has contracts with Salvation Army and Catholic Charities to provide rental and other assistance to families.

The existing program, which helps people with one-time grants for rent, utilities or rental deposits, gets about $500,000 annually and issued some 600 grants to families in fiscal year 2008.

The proposed program is for homeowners and renters, who would get money over several months, presumably until they're able to find a new job or get back on their feet.

Chad Taniguchi, executive director of the Hawai'i Public Housing Authority, which oversees the existing state program, said he's not sure it's wise for lawmakers to be putting more money into programs at a time when so many other programs are being cut.

He also said the existing program could be expanded if necessary, rather than a new program being created. "There is a shell of a program that could be used," Taniguchi said. "However, in this time when government must cut programs, I'm not sure it's the right time to expand programs." He added that lawmakers should look to federal programs and the upcoming stimulus package to help homeowners and renters in financial distress.

The state's existing assistance program, which at present does not help homeowners, was expanded once before -after the Sept. 11 attacks. The program got about $1 million, on top of its usual $500,000 appropriation. With the increased funding, the state also temporarily expanded the program to help both homeowners and renters.

Hasegawa, of Habitat for Humanity, said she supports setting up the shelter-in-place program separately from the existing program. She said converting the existing program to meet the requirements of the proposed program "would take a lot of changes" and lots of time that families don't have.