Who are the homeless in Hawaii? They are a varied population, and any concerted campaign to guide them away from life on the streets is going to have to be varied, as well.
A proposal before the City Council to consider "hygiene centers" — perhaps they’re better understood as service centers — is generating some enthusiasm as well as apprehension in the community, and both reactions are justified.
The centers are generally envisioned as a public space for people to use restrooms and showers, as well as gain social and health services. The danger of directing too much energy and resources toward such projects is that they could distract policymakers from the core mission of getting people housed and on the road back to stable living conditions.
The city administration indicated last week that it wants to remain focused on its Housing First initiative, which at the outset targets the needs of the chronically homeless. That is the right first step, given that this most vulnerable population, beset with a mix of mental-illness and substance-abuse problems, quickly deteriorates on the street and causes a strain on the social safety net.
But hygiene centers also address a very real problem, and there should be a place for this among the assorted homelessness solutions Honolulu should try. That’s because in addition to the chronically homeless, there are also families that recently have become homeless due to loss of jobs or other financial crises.
Life on the streets is hard on everyone, but it’s an untenable place to raise children. Their parents either need to find new jobs or report to the ones they have, and it’s tough to look presentable for either duty when they can’t clean up and put on fresh clothes.
City Councilman Joey Manahan sponsored Resolution 13-116, which requests that the city administration study the feasibility of modeling such a facility after the Urban Rest Stop project in Seattle. The rest stop provides free toilet, shower and laundry facilities seven days a week for the homeless, with extended hours to assist homeless persons who work or are seeking jobs.
On Thursday the measure drew impassioned support from service providers such as the Institute for Human Services and community groups such as the Chinatown Business & Community Association. That group’s president, Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, said there have been few public toilets in the area, and the result has been that the remaining restrooms have deteriorated and people have been relieving themselves wherever they can.
This has produced a public sanitation problem that can’t be ignored.
But critics are right that these centers should function more as an extension of the services that IHS and other emergency shelters provide than as a mainstay of city housing and homelessness policy.
The city and state could assist by providing locations — Aala Park and areas near the Kakaako waterfront are among the reasonable choices suggested — but the primary funding should come from federal and private grants, with operations managed by nonprofits.
The success of the centers would hinge on making them a resource for the homeless and a point of contact with the social service professionals who can help them, not erecting another city-funded public bathroom that quickly becomes nothing more than an uncontrolled hangout.
There are other promising partnerships that could be set in motion.
Some from the medical community have suggested that the University of Hawaii medical school’s mobile clinics serving the homeless could be stationed at the centers on a set schedule, and that sounds like an effective way to coordinate services.
However, city and state officials must take care to keep such stopgap measures from simply making life on the streets more comfortable.
Drew Astolfi is state director of the nonprofit Faith Action for Community Equity, which concentrates on issues of housing and poverty. His preference is for the city to pursue policies encouraging development of very low-cost, single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments that are paired with services — permanent housing, not accommodations to the street.
He doesn’t object to the centers but doesn’t want them to overtake the agenda.
"We don’t want to be a society that’s comfortable with a permanent homeless class, which is where I think this could end up," he said.
That is a rational concern. Most of the homeless want a way back into mainstream society and need basic support to get them there.
Finding the right balance between short-term assists and long-term housing options is the real challenge Honolulu faces if it is to manage its mounting homelessness problem responsibly.
