The head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness drove through the Kakaako homeless encampment this week and called it “one of the larger ones I’ve seen.”

Perhaps more important, the council’s executive director, Matthew Doherty, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an exclusive interview that “the presence of children in that encampment is a crisis that needs to be addressed,” adding, “It has to be our No. 1 priority.”

A snapshot survey of the encampment conducted the week of Aug. 3 showed that 124 of the 293 homeless occupants at the time belonged to 31 families.

It was two teenage cousins, ages 14 and 17, who allegedly instigated the June 29 mob attack on state Rep. Tom Brower (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako), which highlighted both the growing encampment and the inability so far of state and city officials to find housing for the occupants who live in reinforced tents and tarps around the University of Hawaii medical school and Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center.

The encampment expanded rapidly over the last several months, in part due to the city’s “sit-lie” ban, which continues to force homeless people out of Waikiki, downtown and Chinatown.

Hawaii’s Child Welfare Services Branch does not consider homelessness by itself to be a cause to take children away from homeless families — a policy that the federal council supports.

“Homelessness is evidence of a family in crisis,” Doherty said. “We would never want to see local communities taking away their children just because they’re struggling with homelessness.”

Doherty and USICH’s regional coordinator — Seattle-based Katy Miller — arrived Tuesday after Gov. David Ige formed his now 4-week-old Governor’s Leadership Team on Homelessness. They’re scheduled to leave Friday.

Doherty and Miller met this week with federal officials, Ige and his leadership team, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s staff, the Hawaii Interagency Council on Homelessness and the executive committee of Partners in Care, a coalition of 30 nonprofit agencies which conducted the survey of the Kakaako homeless and is dedicated to ending homelessness on Oahu.

The federal council describes itself as an independent agency within the executive branch of the U.S. government that works with federal agencies, state and local governments and service providers, and homeless advocates to end homelessness.

“We want to use our ability to connect resources, ideas and best practices to strengthen how Hawaii can turn the corner to ending homelessness,” Doherty said. “We’re dedicated to helping this community identify the technical assistance needs that federal agencies can provide. With the governor stepping forward and forming the leadership team, it seemed like a higher level of engagement, and we wanted to offer the support of federal partners to create real solutions here. We want to be a support to local and state government on long-range solutions.”

Asked to compare the Kakaako encampment with others on the mainland, Doherty said he has seen similar ones in downtown San Diego and Fresno, Calif.

But they “are not quite as large or substantial,” Doherty said. “They do not have as many structures and tents.”

He called the Kakaako encampment “distressing.”

“It represents a crisis in homelessness,” Doherty said. “It’s an indication the current business-as-usual strategy isn’t working. It represents a symptom of the homeless crisis and the need to find new strategies.”

Doherty pledged to work with Hawaii officials but said he does not know the exact “strategies that will be effective.”

But he knows what does not work on the mainland.

“You can’t criminalize or disrupt people,” Doherty said. “That’s not a solution. It’s a crisis that needs to be responded to early. You need to lay the groundwork for longer-term strategies, or we’re going to end up back in crisis again.”

Homeless shelters, Doherty said, should be thought of as “short-term intervention,” adding, “Sheltering people does not end their homelessness. If you think shelter is an endpoint, we’re not creating the solutions that people really need.”

The long-term answer is creating more Housing First options that put homeless people — even those with substance abuse or mental health problems — into homes where they will be surrounded by social service assistance.

For the Housing First model to work, Doherty said, landlords must be willing to accept housing vouchers as rental payment.

“That’s a conversation that needs to continue here in Hawaii to meet the needs that the whole community is now aware of,” Doherty said.

And county, state and federal officials have to work together, he said.

“It’s essential across all levels of government that the agencies and staff are working on the same level to address this crisis with greater levels of coordination and collaboration,” Doherty said.