State working on long-range plan | The Honolulu Advertiser

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State working on long-range plan | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Monday, October 24, 2005

State working on long-range plan

•	'You got to be invisible'

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state is pushing several homeless initiatives in concert with a federal Department of Housing & Urban Development agenda to have a homeless program in place within 10 years.

Here is a rundown of some recent announcements:

In January, Gov. Linda Lingle named the Interagency Council on Homelessness to advance a 10-year plan in collaboration with city/county, state and federal agencies.

Also that month, state and county agencies in Hawai'i received $5.6 million in federal grants from HUD to help homeless families and individuals.

The Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i's Homeless Programs section's budget was increased in July to $6.5 million. The money will be used to increase services such as parenting assistance, substance-abuse treatment and job skills training, said program administrator Sandy Miyoshi.

The state has increased the annual share of federal shelter-rent subsidy support for homeless persons with disabilities to $900,000 annually while its Adult Mental Health Division is providing rent subsidies and 1,700 supportive housing units statewide to address housing needs of the mentally ill, many of whom are homeless.

Supportive housing refers to individual housing that comes with support services, such as a case manager, said Miyoshi.

Affordable housing, which refers to housing that takes up 30 percent to 35 percent of a person's income for rent, is another avenue being addressed.

There are 23 state-financed service shelters on O'ahu, Maui, the Big Island and Kaua'i.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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