Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell presented the first draft of a plan to the City Council on how to deal with the homelessness problem that has been affecting the island of Oahu. Under the Caldwell administration’s plan, Honolulu will follow New York City’s concept of “housing first”, which would initially provide permanent shelter. Additional issues affecting homeless, such as mental illness, drug abuse, and joblessness, will be addressed after permanent shelter had been found. The city’s executive director on housing, Jun Yang, stated, “Many times treatment can actually be the barrier that stops a homeless person from getting into housing. Re-housing should be the central goal of working with our homeless.” According to a recent study, there are a total of 4,556 people on Oahu who are defined as homeless. Out of these, 14,65 were “un-sheltered homeless” and 505 of them were considered to be “chronic homeless”.
One question being asked is where the funding to provide permanent shelters would come from. There are no funds currently set aside in the mayor’s 2014 operating budget for this initiative. It is possible that if the city sells some of their affordable housing projects to a private developer that some of those proceeds could be used for this project.
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 5-9-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
