The state Legislature approved $30 million this year to create ohana zones — legalized homeless camps. The funding allocation was hailed by legislative leaders as a major step toward addressing the state’s ongoing homeless problem in which an estimated 3,500 people remain unsheltered statewide.
But how — or whether — that money is used will largely depend on who is elected governor in November. The two major contenders for the office — Gov. David Ige and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, both Democrats — have staked out opposing positions on the
issue.
Ige has said in recent days that his administration will not build ohana zones, also known as safe zones. He said they haven’t worked in the past, go against national best practices and could cost as much as or more than permanent housing solutions.
“It doesn’t help to reduce homelessness. Safety and security is an issue and a problem, and it gets very expensive. In many instances the actual cost per individual in the safe zones are actually very similar or even higher than costs for programs that have a proven track record of working,” Ige told the Honolulu Star-
Advertiser in an interview Friday. “So we are focused on those programs that really move homeless individuals into permanent housing, rather than safe zones that don’t work.”
Hanabusa supports ohana zones and has attacked Ige’s leadership on the issue. On the day she announced her campaign to unseat Ige, she said he lacked vision and that politicians must consider solutions that may not be “politically correct,” including safe zones.
However, a Honolulu Star-Advertiser poll in March suggests that Ige is actually staking out the more politically risky position. Some 62 percent of respondents statewide said they support safe zones, while only 18 percent said they opposed them. Another 20 percent of respondents said they were undecided on the issue.
The polling numbers are likely reflective of ongoing public frustration with the amount of people sleeping on the streets and in makeshift homeless camps that continue to spring up in parks and along highways despite government sweeps that try to push people into shelters or other housing. Further, Hawaii’s per capita homeless rate remains among the highest in the nation.
Legislative leaders said the ohana zones are needed to address the immediate needs of the homeless, while working to get them into permanent housing. The ohana zones could include hygiene centers and communal kitchens as well as social services.
While the public may be on board with legalized homeless camps in theory, it becomes a much thornier political issue when discussions turn to where the government should locate the camps, how many people they should support and what type of infrastructure and services should be provided. Early sites that were scoped by a working group included residential areas in Kaimuki and Pupukea and at Wallace Beach Park in Haleiwa.
Hanabusa declined to be interviewed for this story in recent days. A spokesman for her campaign said she was too busy preparing for the Monday gubernatorial debates and had a full schedule.
Hanabusa also didn’t respond to specific questions about where the ohana zones might be located if she becomes governor or whether she had a vision for what the homeless encampments would look like. But her campaign did release a statement Sunday reiterating her support for the camps.
“I applaud the Legislature for thinking more innovatively, committing $30 million toward ‘ohana zones where homeless can be safely sheltered and receive the social, housing and health care services they need,” Hanabusa said in the statement. “It’s unfortunate the Ige administration simply dismissed and ruled out the idea of ‘ohana zones early on.”
She added that “determining the details of these zones, where they will set up and how long they will remain, must be worked out with the community, government and the private sector.”
If elected, it will fall to Hanabusa to quickly come up with those details. The Legislature largely left it up to the governor to fill in the specifics of the ohana zones though stipulated in Senate Bill 2401 that three sites be on Oahu, with one site each on Hawaii island, Kauai and Maui. By the end of the year, the governor’s office is also to come up with the criteria that agencies will use to identify locations, a monthly timetable of milestones for establishing the camps and performance metrics.
Ige said that while his administration would not initiate safe zones, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t use any of the funding. He said he was talking with homeless providers and the counties to see whether they had any proven programs that might be suitable. He is also considering using some of the funds for transitional or emergency housing for people left homeless in Lower Puna from the ongoing Kilauea eruption.
Still, he said he is “not going to waste taxpayer money on political projects that don’t make sense.”
He noted that under his policies homelessness has fallen 9 percent statewide in each of the last two years, according to the nationwide Point in Time Count. The number of shelters and permanent housing beds for homeless individuals also increased by 2,434 beds during Ige’s time in office, according to federal housing numbers.
“It’s easy for people to criticize when they have not really been responsible and accountable for homeless programs,” said Ige in response to Hanabusa’s criticism. “I stand by my record.”
