Bill creating a luxury home sales tax to fund homeless services misses key deadline

For advocates working to solve homelessness in the state, the measure’s demise continues an ongoing sense of uncertainty for long-term solutions.

“There are a lot of other things also moving this session, but they relied on one-time funding,” said Kenna StormoGipson, the housing policy director for the Hawaiʻi Budget and Policy Center.

“There was nothing else being proposed that would create permanent new funding and create certainty that we will still have the ability to fund housing three, four, five years from now, and we can hire staff,” StormoGipson said.

Throughout the Legislative session, advocates testified their concerns about an increasing amount of case workers leaving the field. They cited employees “burning out,” due to growing demands and needs from individuals, as well as the growing financial struggle to support themselves and their families.

“If we’re only building things, but you’re not also hiring people to manage and maintain and build programs, then it’s not going to work over the long term,” StormoGipson said.