The Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development will soon have another tool for its toolbox to address homelessness and emergencies on the Big Island.
The County Council on Wednesday voted 8-0 to accept the donation of 10 Pallet shelters from Maui County valued at $70,000. The pre-fab, rapid-response shelters, measuring 64 square feet, can sleep up to two beds and be put together quickly. In addition, they have a 10-year life and can be stored in a warehouse and dispatched as needed.
“They come prepacked on a pallet as far as I understand and you open them up and put them together — they can be constructed in about an hour,” said Puna Councilman Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder who introduced the resolution accepting the donation. “It’s a very neat, good shelter for housing for homelessness, or for an emergency — whatever it may be.”
The shelters were used by Maui County during its COVID-19 emergency response, which is winding down, said Sharon Hirota, a specialist in the Office of Housing and Community Development’s Community Engagement Division. While Hawaii County plans to mainly use the shelters to address homelessness, the impetus for securing the rapid response shelters was far different.
“We started our conversations actually in preparation if Mauna Loa was going to impact our neighbors,” Hirota said, noting a call to her counterpart in Maui quickly led to the donation accepted by the County Council Wednesday.
The next step, she said, is to nail down the logistics of transporting the shelters from Maui County to Hawaii Island. It’s not yet determined where they will first be used on the island.
Hirota called the Pallet shelters “another tool in our toolbox to address the need for emergency shelters.”
“We’ll have it here on island — so whatever need is, whether it is to address homelessness right now or to address a need because of natural disasters, with these we’ll have 10 in storage ready to go,” she said.
She also noted the donation provides the county the ability to “pilot” their use without a large expenditure.
“We’re excited to bring it here set it up and see how it really works in our elements, in our community,” said Hirota.
The donation of shelters comes amid the annual Point-In-Time Count being conducted by volunteers and advocates to provide a snapshot of all those experiencing homelessness on Hawaii Island. The count began Monday and continues through Friday.
It also comes as the county prepared to break ground today on the $12 million, 30-unit Kukuiola Emergency Shelter and Assessment Center in the vicinity of the West Hawaii Civic Center and Kealakehe High School.
The 2022 Point-in-Time Count indicated unsheltered homelessness increased 6% (33 people) to 554 total people when compared to 521 in 2020 on the Big Island. There was no count in 2021 due to the pandemic. Unsheltered homelessness among individuals increased to 496 or 14% (60 people) compared to 436 in 2020.
The total number of homeless families was 66, two fewer than 2020. There were 48 sheltered families identified, up 50 percent compared to 2021. In 2021, family shelter capacity was reduced to meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance.
Of the unsheltered homeless in 2022, 240 individuals were identified as chronic individuals, meaning an individual with a disability who has been continuously homeless for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time homeless in those occasions is at least 12 months. Some 250 individuals identified as having serious mental illness and 189 said the were chronic substance users.