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Hawaii News

Emergency declaration is extended

Acting Gov. Shan Tsutsui on Tuesday again extended the state’s emergency proclamation to address homelessness on all islands.

Gov. David Ige, who is now in Washington, D.C., issued his first emergency proclamation Oct. 16, followed by supplementary proclamations Oct. 26 and Dec. 24.

Hawaii has the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the county.

The latest extension is scheduled to last through April and is specifically aimed at helping Maui County’s efforts to help 64 to 128 homeless households with a long-term housing project in Wailuku, according to the third supplemental proclamation.

The proclamations ease procurement and other rules and helped in the forging of a $5 million contract between the state and Aloha United Way. Among other projects, the AUW will spread $4.6 million to help provide rental assistance to get homeless people into homes — or keep others from becoming homeless.

“I believe it’s important that we continue to provide the support and services to our state, city and county partners to address this pressing issue,” Tsutsui said in a statement. “There’s still much work to do to address this crisis and we must keep the momentum going to help the homeless community.”

8 responses to “Emergency declaration is extended”

  1. Keolu says:

    The dinner bell is ringing………

  2. wrightj says:

    Great. Now the San Francisco hoboes will want to move here.

  3. mikethenovice says:

    Hawaii’s education quality is at rock bottom, and our leaders rather aid the homeless. Am I missing something?

  4. Manawai says:

    Hawaii is very expensive place to live so it’s not surprising that we’d have lot of local residents falling into homelessness. Add to that our warm climate and favorable social services, it’s not surprising that mainland homeless are moving here as well. Hence our leadership in the number of these sad cases.

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