U.S. VETS selected for city’s Housing First initiative

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, May 6, 2016

Honolulu – Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced today that the Department of Community Services has selected U.S. VETS’ proposal to provide permanent supportive housing to 100 households experiencing chronic homelessness on O‘ahu through the Housing First model.

On February 24, 2016, the city published a Request for Proposals (RFP) to spend up to $2.2 million to provide permanent supportive housing to a minimum of 100 households (families and individuals) experiencing chronic homelessness in one year. The Department of Community Services Housing First Program Increment II Selection Committee evaluated each proposal submitted in response to the RFP and selected U.S. VETS. The City and U.S. VETS will now enter an exclusive negotiation period to finalize the terms of a contract. The contract is anticipated to be executed later this month.

“U.S.VETS, along with its partners are excited to be working with the City and County of Honolulu to provide much needed permanent housing opportunities via the Housing First Increment II grant,” said U.S. VETS Chief Operating Officer Darryl Vincent. “It takes a collaborative effort to address and end homelessness, and U.S.VETS’ ongoing partnerships with the City and County of Honolulu, the State of Hawai‘i, Partners in Care, Housing ASAP, and the community brings us one step closer to addressing and ending homelessness in our state. Our job is not completed until every person in Hawai‘i has a home.”

Housing First Increment II builds on the success of the city’s existing Housing First initiative with IHS. From November 2014 to October 2015, IHS provided permanent supportive housing to 176 individuals in 115 households, including 35 children in 20 families who had been experiencing chronic homelessness. Now in year two of its Housing First partnership with the city, IHS is keeping those households housed and supported. With the addition of the U.S. VETS initiative, the City will serve a minimum of 215 households through Housing First.

U.S. VETS’ proposal included commitments from a host of partner agencies to assist in the implementation of its Housing First program, including memorandums of agreement from Kalihi-Palama Health Center, Legal Aid Services of Hawai‘i, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Center on the Family, and Helping Hands Hawai‘i.

For more information on the city’s Housing First initiative and the selection of U.S. VETS by the Department of Community Services Housing First Program Increment II Selection Committee, please contact Homeless Initiatives Coordinator Jay Parasco at 768-4370.

-END-