Bridging the Gap Homeless Point-in-Time Count January 22, 2019
Executive Summary
From Continuum of Care, April, 2019
Results from the 2019 Neighbor Islands Homeless Point-In-Time Count conducted on January 22, 2019 revealed a two percent decline in one-day homelessness from 2,035 persons in 2018 to 1,995 persons in 2019. This decrease can be attributed to overall decreases on the islands of Hawaii (21%) and Maui (1%). Kauai realized a 51 percent increase in total homelessness; however, this increase was more than offset by the reductions noted for Hawaii and Maui.
The 2019 overall decrease was fueled by a seven percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness to 1,237 persons compared to 1,330 in 2018. Unsheltered homelessness declined on two of the Neighbor Islands, Hawaii (33%) and Maui (7%). This continues a three-year downward unsheltered trend, using 2016 as the baseline year. The count of homeless persons living in emergency or transitional shelters increased eight percent from 705 to 758 persons, with increases registering on the islands of Hawaii and Maui, and Kauai reporting a modest decrease. In 2019, two new disaster emergency shelters in Pahoa, Hawaii accounted for 30 of the total sheltered homeless. These shelters opened in response to the volcanic eruptions occurring on the Big Island during 2018.
An assessment of the type of individuals experiencing homelessness found that 1,324 individuals represented 66 percent of the total one-day homelessness. Individuals are defined throughout this report as people in households (single or multiple adults) without the presence of dependent children under the age of 18. A total of 671 family individuals were counted as homeless, including 43 families with a total of 164 persons canvassed and living unsheltered. This represents a 50 percent decline in the total number of unsheltered homeless family individuals compared to 2018. A total of 87 children were found living unsheltered within these families. Sheltered families totaled 134 households, with 507 persons including 296 children (170 in emergency shelters and 126 in transitional housing); down one family household compared to 2018.
A review of key subpopulations indicates that the total number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless veterans on the Neighbor Islands decreased three percent to 121 veterans compared to the 2018 total of 125 veterans. A total of 96 unsheltered veterans were encountered in 2019, a one percent decline compared to the 97 counted in 2018. This marks the third consecutive year that unsheltered veteran homelessness has declined on the Neighbor Islands. 44 unsheltered chronically homeless veteran individuals were tallied on the Neighbor Islands in 2019, representing 46 percent of the 95 total unsheltered homeless veteran household members without children.
Data from the 2019 report supports an increase in the level of chronic homelessness, with 550 individuals and 77 family individuals, for a Neighbor Islands total of 627 persons in chronically homeless households. This represents a five percent increase compared to the 597 surveyed in 2018. The overall increase reflected a six percent increase in chronically homeless individuals, and a four percent decrease in chronically homeless family individuals.
This report tabulates data on two additional subpopulations of increasing significance; persons in unaccompanied youth and parenting youth households. Unaccompanied youth are defined by HUD as people in households without children who are not part of a family with children or accompanied by their parent or guardian during their episode of homelessness, and who are all 24 years or younger. The Neighbor Islands reported 41 total unaccompanied youth in 2019, with 33 (80%) living unsheltered, and 8 residing in emergency or transitional shelters. The 2019 total youth count decreased by 11 percent compared to the estimate in 2018. There were zero unsheltered unaccompanied youth under the age of 18 reported in the 2019 count.
A parenting youth household is defined as a household only containing persons 24 years or younger with one or more dependent children. In 2019, the Neighbor Islands parenting youth households were reported at 10 households with 29 total persons, including 14 children. The number reported in 2019 decreased significantly from the 2018 count of 23 households with 75 total persons, including 40 children.
Given the numbers of homeless found in these counts and the state and federal initiatives to reduce homelessness, continued recommendations to improve the overall implementation of the count include the planning, supervision and execution of the count’s efforts, the training of count staff and volunteers, the handling and verification of all survey forms and electronic data, and the introduction of data quality controls by outreach funders or the CoC.
read … Results from the 2019 Neighbor Islands Homeless Point-In-Time Count
Feb 27, 2019: Oahu 12% More Homeless Refuse Shelter
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