State must lead on housing crisis

Other pending legislation, which also should not be allowed to fall between the cracks, would attempt to provide funds narrowing the gap in the stock of affordable rentals, said Gavin Thornton, co-executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

The nonprofit has tracked the state’s housing shortage; already it was described as a looming “crisis” more than 40 years ago, Thornton said.

The failure to deal with the housing shortage in any meaningful way has led to Hawaii’s current dire straits, in which the islands have the highest per-capita homelessness rate in the nation.

The most dire aspect may be the plight of the chronically homeless. Advocates rightly are lobbying for some special focus to be placed on the need for “permanent supportive housing.”

These are the kind of subsidized rentals in which tenants are first given the critical stability of safe, decent housing. What’s better known as “Housing First” programs also provide “wrap-around” services to help address the mental health and substance abuse problems of the newly housed, right on the spot.