HONOLULU (KHON2) — Mayor Rick Blangiardi leaves Friday for Washington D.C. To meet with officials from the Biden administration where he’s expected to ask for more federal funding to help tackle homelessness in Honolulu.
The federal funding the mayor plans to ask for would help the homeless population we don’t see: the working homeless.
Blangiardi plans to ask for more money for HUD Section 8 housing funding.
The city’s community services director said the need is great.
“So every couple of years, we issue a waiting list, we open up the waiting list and we get 15,000 applications of which randomized by a computer, we have 3,000 that we will work through and then give vouchers to to be housed,” said Anton Krucky, Department of Community Services Director.
He also plans to make the case for more financial resources from the federal government to support Honolulu’s homelessness prevention and housing placement efforts such as the city’s housing now vouchers that assist with rent.
“We took a section of people that were out of the HUD programs and we offered vouchers to and we were able to house 308 families and over 850 people off the street in one year. And over 94% of those people are still housed today,” added Krucky. “So we’re going to look for another specialty housing program like that, that the mayor is going to ask for, and the expenses that go along with it.”
The effort is part of the mayor’s plan to address homelessness through a corridor of prevention and care.
Care that includes the city’s core program, creating more affordable housing, and providing rent assistance, a model that the mayor thinks can be used for other cities around the country.
“Because those numbers don’t go away, there’s only so much we can handle because money is finite, resources are finite. But if we can get more money, more resources, we can do more,” said Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi.
Those who work directly with the homeless say they hope the mayor is able to rally support.
“I can tell you that at IHS, the last quarter, January, February, March, every month, we’ve been housing more people and it’s because the vouchers have been available. But if we run out of vouchers, we run out of units, then you know, that’s going to really stop the system,” said Connie Mitchell, executive director at the Institute for Human Services.