The number of homeless people on Hawaii Island increased by almost one-fifth in a year, fueled by a sharp uptick in unsheltered individuals.
That’s according to the yearly Point-In-Time Count, released Wednesday by Bridging the Gap, with the count and report funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The count, taken by community volunteers over a five-day period between Jan. 23-27, found 1,004 homeless people islandwide, compared to 837 counted in 2022.
Of those, the numbers of unsheltered individuals accounted entirely for the increase, with 725 people reporting that they were unsheltered on the night of Jan. 22. That’s up from 554 people reporting they were unsheltered a year ago.
Homeless but sheltered individuals decreased slightly, from 283 last year to 279 this year.
“Unsurprisingly, our numbers of unsheltered and houseless people on Hawaii Island has gone up about 20% overall in one year, which is quite severe,” said County Councilwoman Jenn Kagiwada, speaking Thursday to an online meeting of the Hawaii Island Housing Coalition. “And, probably, a lot of people might not be surprised by that, just based on their personal experiences.
“Our actual number of families, I think, experiencing homeless has gone down slightly. But individuals has gone up.”
As Kagiwada noted, the number of unsheltered families counted this year was 55, a decrease from the 66 tallied in 2022. In addition, the number of sheltered families also was lower, 40, as opposed to 48 in 2022.
“Unfortunately, the district that I represent in Hilo, and also council member Sue Lee Loy’s … the South Hilo district in general has the largest number of people experiencing homelessness. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but I thought I’d share that since it just came out (Wednesday),” she said.
The largest number of unsheltered homeless individuals, 290, was in the South Hilo district, and North Kona second with 223 individuals. Puna’s count of homeless individuals was a distant third, with 60.
North Kona had the largest count of unsheltered homeless families, with five. South Hilo reported four and Puna tallied two.
Virtually unchanged from last year is the percentage of individuals considered chronically homeless, almost one in three, with 326 reporting having been continuously homeless for a year or more.
Homeless individuals, both sheltered and unsheltered, reporting severe mental illness numbered 356, more than a third, and 260, or 25.8%, reported chronic substance use.
The largest number of homeless respondents, 18.5%, said a family or relationship conflict led to their homelessness, while 15.7% said they couldn’t afford rent.
Another 10% cited disability — whether physical, mental or due to addiction — and 8.2% said they were evicted. Smaller numbers cited numerous other reasons, and 17.4% didn’t know or declined to answer the question.
A total of 504 of 661 individuals described as heads of households said they had been in Hawaii more than a year, with 48 responding that they had moved here from another state in the past year, and 109 were unable or refused to answer the question.
“People often talk about the large numbers of people from other places coming here and being homeless,” Kagiwada said, an apparent reference to a longstanding local urban legend that some mainland municipalities allegedly bought homeless individuals one-way plane tickets to Hawaii.
“That really isn’t necessarily true. It seems like the largest numbers of people have been here for a very long time, and are not necessarily coming from somewhere else.”
The report notes that Hawaii County has recently invested financial resources to curb homelessness. The county is allocating 75% of real property tax collections for homes valued at or above $2 million to fund homeless services and housing.
According to the report, the county anticipates executing new contracts with providers to expand services beginning next month. In addition, the county also appropriated $9 million in fiscal year 2022-23 to facilitate programs that support affordable housing production, the report said.
“Hawaii County providers successfully pursued and were awarded $3 million in HUD funding to expand homeless outreach services for the next three years and to increase permanent supportive housing by an additional 13 units,” according to the report. “Providers are anxiously awaiting the execution of these contracts later this year.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.