How many households and total clients have been housed through Oahu Housing Now (OHN)?

So far, 86 households have been housed through the Oahu Housing Now Project. This means that more than 200 individuals have left the streets and shelters and have moved into permanent housing over the last 2½ months.

Every day we will be housing more families until we reach our goal of at least 300 households housed with 12 months worth of assistance. We hope to meet this goal by the end of August, which means we still have a lot of work to do. This is a truly communitywide project. Funding partners (philanthropic groups, the city, HUD), service providers, community volunteers and landlords, have all come together to help us create a homes for our neighbors. All families are pre-qualified and have been selected through a systemic approach.

What incentives are helping to enlist landlords in the program when the rental market is so tight?

In the OHN Project, both the tenant and the landlord are our clients. For every landlord, their units are an investment and as such, they want to protect it and benefit from it. The last year-and-a-half has been difficult for our island landlords, and we recognize that.

The OHN Project looks to build partnerships between landlords, tenants and service providers so that housing is available to those who need it, and rental income is provided to landlords. When a landlord reaches out to us, we can offer the following: guarantee of monthly rent for 12 months or as long as the tenant is in our program, signing bonuses, damage mitigation funds and 24-hour on-call support services. If there is a problem, we are there to help resolve it.

How would you assess the effect of the pandemic on homelessness, even though the annual census was canceled?

So much has changed, and so much has stayed the same during the pandemic. What has not changed is the dedication of outreach workers and providers to provide care and respect to our neighbors who are houseless. Every day, providers go out to work with individuals on the streets, in the drainage ditches, in the shelters and on the beaches providing emergency care, and so much more.

What has changed is the addition of new services and the increase in resources coming to our islands. Providing access to COVID testing and vaccinations has made the spread of COVID low among those who are experiencing homelessness. Quickly moving people into housing with more resources has decreased the possibility of community spread.

What has not changed is the community frustration with encampments and those suffering from severe mental illness and drug addiction residing on our streets every day. Hopefully, with many of the new resources, we will be able to address the severe crisis of homelessness in our islands through dignity, respect and real help and move toward ending chronic homelessness.

What other approaches do you think would have potential, once COVID-19 aid is exhausted?

I see two potential answers regarding resources going forward. First we must make intelligent use of the abundant resources we are accessing now. This will allow us to reduce the overall number of individuals experiencing homelessness to a more manageable level. Our goal should be to see that people’s homelessness experience is short, temporary and that they do not return to homelessness in the future.

The second answer is to use lessons learned to create future projects that rely on past successes and build on the relationships and partnerships built during this difficult time. We have shown that even during a time of crisis, we can come together and have a positive effect on our community. It is my hope that policymakers see our success during this time and provide ongoing resources that will allow us to end homelessness going forward.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Oahu’s social safety net for the homeless?

The greatest strength of our safety net is all about people. Providers have been so resilient throughout the pandemic, never turning away from those who need our help. Outreach workers and shelter providers are true heroes in our community. When COVID hit, providers educated our homeless neighbors, provided COVID testing and now COVID vaccinations.

Hands down, the largest weakness of our safety net is a lack of affordable housing. A social safety net is supposed to protect our community members from falling into poverty and hardship. Hawaii has always had a high cost of living, yet we still expect folks to work at jobs that do not pay enough to even get by in our community. Communities say no to affordable housing in their neighborhoods and then wonder why it can be difficult to find any affordable housing. Without significant changes that address discrimination in housing, fair wages and the lack of truly affordable housing, we are destined to create more holes in our safety net that will lead to people entering homelessness.

THE BIO FILE

>> Title: Executive director, Partners In Care on Oahu, a coalition of homeless service providers, government entities, community stakeholder and homeless service clients.

>> Professional experience: Oversees administration of the Homeless Management Information System, the federal Coordinated Entry process for housing aid and the annual application for funds for the homeless. Formerly outreach worker, case manager and housing coordinator with Kalihi-Palama Health Center, Health Care for the Homeless Project.

>> Community work: Executive director, Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance; board member, Family Promise of Hawaii; board member and chairwoman, Community Assistance Center.

>> Personal: With her husband, has two children, 12 and 15; family time is “filled with sports and shopping trips and sleepovers.”