LIHUE — Portable county offices behind the convention hall could be converted into shelter for the homeless, possibly by this time next year. “There is talk of them possibly being set up for homeless housing somewhere,” probably relocated away from
LIHUE — Portable county offices behind the convention hall could be converted into shelter for the homeless, possibly by this time next year.
“There is talk of them possibly being set up for homeless housing somewhere,” probably relocated away from the convention hall, said Doug Haigh, chief of the Building Division in the county Department of Public Works.
“That’s an option that’s being considered.”
The county housing agency is scheduled in early 2004 to move out of the portables and into new offices in the old Gem store in the former Lihue Shopping Center, now the county-owned Lihue Civic Center, he said. The vacated portables would then be available for homeless shelters.
There are between 500 and 600 homeless people on Kauai currently receiving food and services from Kauai Economic Opportunity, Inc., and likely many more homeless individuals and families not receiving the services, according to information from the county Housing Agency.
Last month, Shioi Construction, Inc. was awarded a contract for $3,165,118, for the first phase of the Gem renovation. The notice to proceed is expected to be issued early this summer, Haigh said.
The old Gem space will house the county Offices of Community Assistance’s (OCA) Agency on Elderly Affairs (AEA), Housing Agency, and recreation section. The AEA offices are now on the first floor of the Lihue Civic Center’s round building.
The renovated Gem will include a hallway system with an open courtyard in the middle, Haigh explained. A portion of the old Gem has been designated for OCA, with the balance for storage and future office area.
“Right now, the county doesn’t really have need for additional office space, so there’s no point to build it now. What it will become in the future, it’s hard to say.”
Big Save has an option to lease space adjacent to its Lihue store for expansion purposes, “but that has not been exercised yet,” Haigh said. “And who knows what our needs will be in the future.”
The Shioi work is contracted to take 210 calendar days to complete, which would be the end of January if notice to proceed is given July 1.
Once OEA moves from the round building, the county office shuffle will continue, with a goal to find the Wastewater Division “a better home” than the division’s current, cramped, converted meeting room in the civic center, Haigh said.
The scenarios are shifting and many, with one having the Kauai Fire Department moving downstairs in the round building to the former AEA offices, and relocating Wastewater and Solid Waste divisions to where KFD is now, he said.
Another plan would move the Department of Finance’s Purchasing Division to where KFD is, and move Wastewater temporarily into where Purchasing is, he continued.
When OCA staff moves into the old Gem location, it will be timely to request funding in the 2004-05 fiscal-year budget for moves of various other offices, Haigh concluded.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
