LIHUE — “Donald” wishes he had seven daughters. That way, he has a place to eat dinner all seven days of the week. The homeless man, who did not want to give his real name, was sitting in front of
LIHUE — “Donald” wishes he had seven daughters. That way, he has a place to eat dinner all seven days of the week.
The homeless man, who did not want to give his real name, was sitting in front of the old Big Save in Lihue Tuesday afternoon.
The father of five calls the area home.
“‘Houseless’ is just a word, you just don’t have a house. You can have a home anywhere,” he said.
The homeless man is one of several thousand people in Hawaii Gov. David Ige is trying to help. Hawaii officials announced Tuesday that the state extended its emergency proclamation, aimed at tackling homelessness.
Under the initial emergency proclamation and previous extensions, Ige released $6.3 million for homeless services statewide. The proclamation will now go until April. It doesn’t include additional funding.
The extension aims to help Maui’s effort to establish long-term housing in Wailuku to help at least 64 households with micro-units by relaxing some state zoning, historic-preservation and contract rules to speed up the building process. It’s also designed to help the counties of Honolulu, Kauai and Hawaii repair and maintain shelters and build temporary and long-term housing.
Statewide, there are 7,620 homeless people, according to a State of Hawaii Homeless Point-in-Time, or PIT, Count for 2015. Hawaii saw a 23 percent increase in its unsheltered homeless population between 2014 and 2015, and a 46 percent increase in the number of unsheltered families,
Outreach programs both on the county and state level are poised to put that additional funding to good use, said Debra DeLuis, community director for Catholic Charities of Kauai.
“What (the governor) is doing is great,” she said. “We appreciate he’s recognizing the homeless problem and local leaders have stepped up to remedy the situation.”
According to the PIT count, there were 339 homeless people on Kauai in 2015. Of that number, 74 percent of the homeless population were unsheltered.
But DeLuis, who also serves as secretary for the Kauai Community Alliance, an organization that works to end homelessness and increase affordable housing options, believes there are more.
“There are people who hide from outreach workers, or don’t want to give their names, so there’s no record of them,” she said. “We think there’s around 200 who aren’t on the radar screen.”
Catholic Charities of Kauai helps families and individuals by giving them information and resource to build a better lives. Services range from providing snacks and bus passes to helping with a deposit on a home, DeLuis said.
She estimates the organization helps about 600 families a year. She said three people came to the office Tuesday seeking assistance.
Proposed county efforts like giving developers options to build affordable housing, coupled with local nonprofit efforts, give DeLuis hope.
“For the first time in many years, there’s a real effort from everyone to work together to address the issue, and that is inspiring,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
