Gov. Josh Green is closing out 2023 with more ambition than caution as he steers the state away from the worries of this year.

For a state that makes its living as a tourist destination, having one of its major tourist areas, Lahaina, destroyed in a fiery and deadly catastrophe makes any leader apprehensive — but Green has put together a new state budget plan this month that one way or the other marches forward.

Green is in charge of a small state with few options for growth, so budget miracles are not to be expected.

In his budget message to the state Legislature, Green said things must change. He moved $164 million in state funds to address last year’s continuing wildfire costs. He also plans to rejigger the state budget to convert general funds to bonds. That is an important budget change, if difficult for the public to fuss about. Consider it to be like a mortgage refinancing: Books still balance, but you didn’t pay off anything.

Green knows he heads a state with problems; the biggest, mostly costly and apparently unsolvable one is housing. No governor has ignored the high cost of housing Hawaii’s citizens, but no one can walk or drive without seeing the peril of those living without secure housing. Just last week Honolulu emergency services rescued seven homeless people living under a bridge who were swept into a raging stream near Kapiolani Boulevard.

In that constitutionally- required budget message, Green 14 times used the word “homeless,” which gives one an understanding of what is top of mind for Hawaii’s chief executive.

“We are focused on a permanent solution by creating affordable spaces for our people to be housed and healed,” Green said, adding that Hawaii’s rate of homelessness is about “double the national rate.”

Back in 1991, then-Gov. John Waihee offered a plan for temporary wooden cabins. A Los Angeles Times report at the time described them as “villages having five clusters of 11 cabins surrounding a central playground and lawn area. Each cabin will be about 200 square feet, including a bathroom, and will rent for about $350 a month.”

And even back when he was lieutenant governor, Green envisioned the emergency housing projects to be “traditional, cultural models of housing consisting of tiny homes and communal areas for restrooms, cooking, and gathering.”

Already $15 million of state funds have been appropriated for the project, although no one is saying it is a final solution.

No Hawaii official has found an immediate solution for the Maui crisis, or replaced the thousands of homes destroyed in the fire. And even if there was a solution for the homes burned, it would not change the permanent problem of affordable housing for local families statewide.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.