Homeless service providers are supporting a proposed state-funded program that would provide airplane tickets for people who have come to Hawai'i from the Mainland and then find themselves homeless — and stuck.

State Rep. Rida Cabanilla, chairwoman of the Housing Committee, said she plans to ask for $100,000 this legislative session for a pilot program that would fly people who have recently arrived from the Mainland and are now homeless back to where they came from.

Some Mainland critics contend the proposal is a ploy to ship homeless people elsewhere, instead of dealing with the problem. But supporters say the program, which would be modeled on similar efforts in a host of other states, could save the state money at a time when it faces a worsening budget crunch and advocates are seeing increases in the need for services, from food to shelter requests.

Advocates stressed that the "return home" program would not solve the homeless crisis in the Islands, since most homeless statewide are longtime residents or born and raised here.

It's unclear just how many homeless people the program would help, or what percentage of the homeless population statewide are relatively recent Mainland arrivals (within the past year).

A University of Hawai'i survey found that of the 4,387 adults in homeless shelters statewide in fiscal year 2007, about 19 percent — 813 adults -had been in Hawai'i for a year or less. Of those, about 75 percent were U.S. citizens, most of whom presumably came from the Mainland.

Some 17 percent of those in homeless shelters were identified as arrivals under the Compacts of Free Association (from Pacific island nations).

The remainder of recent arrivals were immigrants or U.S. nationals.

Meanwhile, almost 37 percent of homeless adults in shelters were lifetime Hawai'i residents.

The proposal to fund a return home program comes as the state is in the midst of a massive effort to address the homelessness problem in the Islands, including spending more than $40 million over the past several years from the general fund, special funds and grants to help open shelters on O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands.

Darlene Hein, program director for the Waikiki Care-A-Van, which provides homeless people with medical care and links them to services, said many nonprofits statewide already try to help homeless people who want to get back to the Mainland, by providing them with clothes for the flight, giving them transportation to the airport or helping buy the ticket. Her program alone helps about two to three people a month get home.

Most are single, but she has also helped some families.

"They think they're going to come here and it's going to be nice," said Hein, adding that not all homeless recent arrivals were homeless on the Mainland.

At a legislative hearing on homelessness this month, Hein told lawmakers that some people come to Hawai'i with unrealistic images of life here, thinking that they'll be sipping a "mai tai on the beach."

CONNECTING TO HELP

Across the nation, there are dozens of programs — run by nonprofits or by states — that help homeless people get back where they came from. In recent years, such programs have become controversial, as states accuse other states of shipping off homeless people willy-nilly, sometimes without even making sure they're heading back home.

Hawai'i lawmakers have long had their own suspicions that at least a portion of the homeless people in the state end up here thanks to a one-way plane ticket courtesy of some Mainland city. But Hein and others said they've never heard of any homeless person getting a free ticket to Hawai'i.

Often, they said, recent arrivals end up homeless in the Islands because they don't know how expensive it is here.

Advocates also said many of the accusations against return home programs on the Mainland are unfounded, and that nonprofits that run such programs most times don't get someone on a bus or a plane until they're sure that person has services on the other end.

But, they add, not all programs are problem-free.

"You can't just give them a flight ticket and send them home. I call that the leafblower mentality," said Joel John Roberts, chief executive officer of PATH Partners, a homelessness service agency in Los Angeles, which has a program that provides bus tickets to homeless people to get home.

He said there are some programs that don't do enough to make sure homeless people are linked up with services in another city before they're put on a bus or a plane. He added, though, that by and large such return home programs are helpful in improving people's lives.

"I definitely think it's one of the solutions for Hawai'i," he said.

Not everyone is convinced, though.

In a recent online blog entry at homelessness.change.org, Boston homelessness researcher and advocate Shannon Moriarty questioned the proposed return home program for Hawai'i. "I can't help but be skeptical about the intentions," she wrote, asking for comments from others.

Several people subsequently criticized the plan, saying it would cause problems in other cities and appeared to be a ploy to get rid of the homeless.

Cabanilla countered that the program won't "dump homeless people" on other states, but send them back home - if they're interested -to places where they may have family or established links with service providers.

She also said that though the initial price tag appears steep, paying for plane tickets is cheaper than providing a host of long-term services, from shelter and food to job training. And, she added, no one would be pressured to leave.

SOME JUST STUCK HERE

Carol Strickland, 37, who came to the Islands from New Mexico in September to start a new life and found herself homeless shortly after getting off the plane, said she would jump at the chance to get a free ticket home.

She said her wallet was stolen several months ago, and she hasn't been able to get new identification or save up for a plane ticket. She also isn't able to ask her family for money because they're going through their own tough times.

"I knew it was going to be expensive," said Strickland, standing outside the free soup kitchen at Saint Augustine Church in Waikiki.

She just didn't know how expensive.

"It's hard (to save)," added Strickland, who lives in a friend's van.

But not all recent arrivals from the Mainland who find themselves homeless are interested in going back. Bill Lukasik, 54, came to Hawai'i from Chicago about a year and a half ago and said he is here to stay.

"There's nothing to go back to," said Lukasik, adding that he lost his job in Chicago and found himself homeless before heading to the Islands for a fresh start. As he ate a bowl of rice, veggies and meat from Saint Augustine's soup kitchen, Lukasik said nothing would persuade him to pack up and go back.

"It's so great here," he said.

Hein said some recent arrivals may have been getting housing and other services in their home states that they assume they'll be able to receive here.

She said the proposed "return home" program should link homeless people back to support services in their home state, including to agencies that could provide shelter and other needs as soon as they land.

"It wouldn't be, 'you don't belong here, get off my rock,' " Hein said.

Holly Holowach, chairwoman of Partners in Care, a consortium of homelessness service providers, said she likes the idea of a state-funded return home program. She said the program won't help the bulk of homeless people in Hawai'i. But, she added, it will help some, especially those who come to Hawai'i "looking for a better life" and instead find themselves worse off.