In the weeks before being sworn in as mayor, Rick Blangiardi, long an outspoken citizen advocate for more effective solutions for homelessness, said he would eliminate the previous administration’s “compassionate disruption” approach of sweeping homeless camps from the streets, a policy that he said moves the homeless “from park to park and street to street.”
He was probably right about that, but the question now, two years into the first term: Is Mayor Blangiardi’s philosophy working any better?
It could be argued that it’s too soon to say. Homelessness is a complex phenomenon that has permeated communities nationwide due to a constellation of economic, health and social problems. Any expectation that it would be eliminated in Honolulu, or any other specific jurisdiction, is unrealistic.
What is realistic to expect, though, is an understanding of the full strategy, which the Honolulu City Council should demand soon.
The administration on Friday unveiled its budgetary request for the 2024 fiscal year that needs more details but that does shed light on some of his priorities. The $3.41 billion operating budget and the $1.09 billion for capital improvement projects included the funding sought for two related categories: homelessness and, to accommodate those moving off the street permanently, affordable housing.
The largest allotment in the homelessness bucket is the $10.2 million for the Housing First program. This comprises rent vouchers for existing units owned by private landlords as well as for publicly funded housing, said Aedward Los Banos, deputy director of the Department of Community Services.
According to the city announcement, smaller appropriations would continue services at Hale Mauliola Housing Navigation Center at Sand Island, another rent subsidy program called Home Investments Partnerships, the Punawai Rest Stop in Iwilei and the administration’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement (CORE) program, the mayor’s own initiative.
CORE provides health and social interventions through mobile crisis teams, largely in the downtown, Chinatown and Waikiki areas. The plan is to expand to other neighborhoods, Los Banos said, using about $10 million in federal funds.
For affordable housing, $100 million from taxable bonds is in the CIP budget for land and property acquisition. This would entail largely conventional construction projects in the transit oriented development zone along the rail line, Los Banos said.
It’s a large outlay, he added, because $170 million the Council had authorized for affordable housing is going to lapse. Those funds would have come from tax-exempt bonds that don’t offer the flexibility needed for what the administration wants to incorporate in the projects, including service centers for lower-income clients and other mixed uses.
All of that suggests that the specifics of the projects need to be outlined for the coming budget hearings before the Council, along with a clear explanation of the development planning it will entail.
The city’s approach to addressing homelessness has been multipronged. Officials have embraced the concept of kauhale or village- type transitional housing that is a key part of the state’s current homelessness focus; Los Banos said the city is pursuing nearly $12 million in federal funds to support future expansion on that idea.
The administration also rightly points to new projects such as the triage center unveiled last week by the Institute for Human Services as a promising means of closing a gap in treatment of the homeless afflicted with mental health and substance abuse problems.
The scope of the city’s counter to homelessness was laid out in a report the administration submitted to the Council Feb. 16. The mayor was responding to a resolution seeking an update to the Homeless Action Plan issued by the administration of then-Mayor Kirk Caldwell, last updated in 2018.
The report cited five main focal points: strengthening the homeless crisis-response system (such as CORE); integrating health care in the outreach; building career pathways to exit homelessness; housing; and homelessness prevention.
It summarizes the myriad funding sources and activities, from policing teams to the various emergency shelter and outreach programs. Blangiardi touts the value of nimble response to crises that erupt in various neighborhoods, and some of that has been seen.
But, although the administration calls its overall approach “five strategies,” it’s not yet very strategic.
Los Banos and other officials have said they see signs of progress in that the more personal outreach through CORE and other programs fosters relationships that lead the homeless to get the help they need.
We certainly hope so. But with all the competing demands on city resources, leaders need more than anecdotal evidence to make fiscal choices. The public wants them to make the case that on homelessness, despite what might be seen on the streets, this city is headed in the right direction.
