U.S.VETS this fall will take over the city’s efforts to find 100 permanent homes for some of Honolulu’s chronically homeless households through a model known as Housing First.
The nonprofit usually helps homeless military veterans. But in a contract that’s still being negotiated with the city, the organization will partner with Kalihi-Palama Health Center, Legal Aid Services of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii’s Center on the Family and Helping Hands Hawaii to find 100 fair-market rental units for the homeless population stretching from West Oahu to Waikiki.
Under the Housing First program, the units would be open to people struggling with mental health, drug or alcohol problems while being helped by social service case managers.
The Institute for Human Services is on the second year of its Housing First contract with the city after finding housing for 115 households by its first deadline, which was in October. In all, IHS provided so-called permanent supportive housing for 176 people and 20 families which included 35 children who were all considered “chronically homeless.”
Starting in November, U.S.VETS will have a one-year, $2.2 million contract with the option to renew for a second year, said Jay Parasco, the city’s homeless initiatives coordinator.
Unlike the IHS contract, only $1 million of the U.S.VETS contract will come from the city’s general fund. The other $1.2 million for rent, utilities and deposits will come from the federal government, Parasco said.
“We’re leveraging the federal dollars to get more out of our city funds,” he said.
In a statement, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said, “After successfully housing 115 households who had been experiencing chronic homelessness, with a 97 percent retention rate, we’ve proven that Housing First works in Hawaii. While the city continues to house those 176 people through our partnership with IHS, we’re going to help more individuals and families together with U.S.VETS. We continue to ask landlords and property managers to be a part of the solution and make units available for Housing First clients.”
U.S.VETS and its partners will focus on finding housing for homeless people in three specific areas: downtown/Chinatown, Waikiki and West Oahu.
U.S.VETS’ Chief Operating Officer Darryl Vincent said the Housing First model has proved more effective and cost-efficient by getting chronically homeless people and families into long-term housing as quickly as possible rather than denying such housing until substance abuse and other problems are more fully addressed.
The organization, which operates residential sites and service centers in 15 cities nationwide, as well as on Guam, runs the state’s $1.25 million Housing First program on Oahu, along with Kalihi-Palama Health. Under the state contract, U.S.VETS focuses on homeless veterans while Kalihi-Palama works with nonveteran homeless clients.
“We have had zero issues that we were not able to solve,” Vincent said. “We have not lost one landlord.”
U.S.VETS also works with Partners in Care and Housing ASAP in ongoing efforts to convince landlords that they will have more security in renting to Housing First clients — even those who have been homeless the longest and might have substance abuse problems.
“We provide a cushion of security,” Vincent said. “We’re going to handle anything that might pop up. In some cases we’ve even gone as far as renting in our name and subleasing it, which allows us to be the responsible party. The landlord has a solid stream of income and is also contributing positively to the community by addressing homelessness.”
For landlords and property managers with multiple units, Vincent asks that they take a chance on one chronically homeless tenant and “let us build some trust and confidence and show you that this model works.”
“I believe in this Housing First model,” Vincent said. “First of all, we’re never going to build our way out of homelessness. It’s the whole community’s responsibility, and integrating homeless individuals into neighborhoods is the answer. Through positive peer pressure, they become part of the culture. And landlords can help in small bites.”
