The general concept is right: Give struggling homeowners and renters more help in keeping their living arrangements intact. This "shelter in place" concept is sensible: Money is more effectively spent if it lets families hang onto their homes until households return to firmer budgetary footing.

With foreclosures and unemployment rising at an alarming pace, it's critical that such help be delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible. That's why Senate Bill 757, while well intentioned, is not the best way to tackle the problem.

The bill seeks to create a pilot program under the Hawai'i Housing Finance and Development Corporation. State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, Senate housing chairman, introduced the measure to help up to 300 families on the verge of foreclosure on their mortgage or eviction from their rental because of job loss.

But creating a new program and another layer of state bureaucracy is not the answer.

Chad Taniguchi heads the Hawai'i Public Housing Authority, which delivers aid, primarily to renters, in an existing program. He proposes expanding the existing program, which has been cut back due to budget shortfalls, so that it offers mortgage and rent subsidies to more qualifying families.

He has a point: It would be more efficient to use a "shell" of an existing program to funnel a combination of available state funds and whatever federal dollars the Obama administration may set aside.

And given current economic trends, it's wise to avoid needless delay in the delivery of aid. The rate of foreclosures in Hawai'i may not be as high as on the Mainland — one filing per 1,500 households, compared with one in 466 nationally, according to a report by RealtyTrac, a California-based foreclosure listing service. But current figures showed 337 filings for January, up from 123 a year ago — an ominous statistic. And with unemployment on the rise, both home renters and owners face the prospect of losing everything, fueling the downward spiral.

The state should work to arrest this trend, using the most efficient — and unbureaucratic — means possible.