Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Thursday detailed a Housing First pilot project to provide shelter for up to 100 chronically homeless people across Oahu.

He said it will work where others failed because it will seek community buy-in and try to place the homeless in dwellings in the areas where they are now rather than far from their usual stomping grounds.

The difference from past efforts “is we’re taking a scattered approach to Housing First,” Caldwell said at a news conference. “They need to be housed in places where they reside right now, on our sidewalks, in our parks and on our beaches. And that’s the big difference: where they’re located.”

The goal is to help up to 100 people find housing — ostensibly apartment units — by the end of 2015.

The “demonstration project” is the centerpiece for the Housing First initiative Caldwell submitted to the City Council on Thursday. The project is expected to cost between $3 million and $4.9 million over two years, or $30,000 to $48,000 per person helped.

The plan would target homeless populations in Waikiki, Chinatown and along the Wai­anae Coast, the three areas identified as having the greatest number of homeless people, city Housing Coordinator Jun Yang said.

The 75 to 100 people who are to be helped account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the estimated 505 chronically homeless population on the island as determined by a state “point in time” count in January.

Joined by three Council members, state homelessness official Colin Kippen and representatives from agencies that offer shelter and services, administration officials said the cost is minimal compared with homelessness’ social cost.

The report submitted to the Council pro­jects that it would cost up to $4.9 million over two years, which would come out to about $48,000 annually to provide “permanent” shelter and treatment for a chronically homeless person.

City Community Services Director Pamela Witty-Oakland said the cost drops to $30,000 per person when 50 or more people are helped because overhead declines significantly. She said the estimate came from U.S. Vets, a Kalaeloa-based nonprofit that has a Housing First project underway.

To run the project, the administration is seeking only one full-time position and an additional $150,000 in the operating budget for the 2014 fiscal year. Proceeds would come from existing federal housing sources, assuming the plan gains the approval of a majority of Council members.

Witty-Oakland said the initial two years would likely be funded from the city’s sale of its affordable-housing inventory to a private company, which is expected to generate about $35 million in proceeds. The Council will need to approve the funding, Witty-Oakland said.

In future years, possible sources of funding could be federal programs like community development block grants.

Caldwell emphasized the proposal is a pilot project and not expected to solve all of the city’s homeless problems.

“If it works, then we want to expand on it, working with the providers you see standing around us today,” the mayor said.

The Housing First philosophy is based on the principle that putting a roof over a person’s head should take precedence over the “treatment first philosophy” that attempts to fix the ills that often lead a person to homelessness, such as drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness and joblessness.

Advocates for the homeless have long argued that housing offered to those most in need should not be dependent on participation in programs that deal with addictions or mental illness since many homeless are reluctant to participate.

Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, chairwoman of the Council’s Intergovernmental Affairs and Human Services Committee, said it’s those homeless with addictions or mental illness “that cost us the most.”

Pine said it’s more important to tell someone in such a circumstance, “We want to house you, and we will provide the services around you while you are housed to make sure you are safe while you are overcoming the many challenges that you face.”

Jerry Rauckhorst, president and chief executive officer for Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, said his caseworkers deal with the “Housing First” challenge every day.

Darryl Vincent, chief operating officer for U.S. Vets, said his organization and the Institute of Human Services already have contracts with the state to provide “Housing First” assistance to up to 24 people each.

Vincent said it makes sense for the city to give the project two years.

“There’s a learning curve,” he said. “You have to get the landlords on board, and that takes time, and you want to have all the units furnished before they even move in there. Once you get it going, the synergy grows, and then people are able to see the approach and start buying into it.”

He added, “A lot of folks who are chronically hopeless are not necessarily interested in the kind of services they may need. But once they get into housing, it’s a whole different kind of environment for us providers to begin a relationship. They’re not as hopeless as they are out on the street. They have a roof over their heads.”

The report says the city will continue to compile data on “all usable city property for the purposes of homeless residential developments and safe zones,” although initial accounts are there are few usable lands or buildings.

Safe zones, or “safe camping facilities,” offer a “stop gap alternative” that should be explored further, but they are not “considered a viable permanent solution,” the report said.

Chris “Nova” Smith, a (de)Occupy Hono­lulu member, said he’s happy Caldwell has come forth with a Housing First initiative. The group has camped at or around Thomas Square since November 2011 to protest the government’s policies on homelessness and other issues and has fought off the city’s attempts to remove it.

“I am cautious in holding hope that the initiative will actually start,” Smith said. “I have to wonder how in one hand the city wants to start a humane process of housing first for the homeless when in the other hand (they want to) criminalize the homeless.”

Caldwell on Thursday reiterated his intent to use the recently passed sidewalk nuisance ordinance to permanently remove the encampment, which now keeps a series of tents along the Ward Avenue side of Blaisdell Arena. The city is waiting for rules to be developed and expects that process to be done by June.