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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN HSSSC 2017/09/19 2016-2018Committee on Human Services and Social Services 5th Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway. Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii September 19, 2017 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Human Services and Social Services ORDER: was called to order at 9:30 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Chair Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair (came in later) Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Member Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. The following individuals registered to speak and same forward when called by the Chair: Cherie Giffore: Comm. 447, comment. Bill `Bo" Kahui: Comm. 447, comment. (representing the West Hawaii Police Athletic League) Clare Loprinzi: Comm. 447, in support. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 447: REQUESTS AN UPDATE BY LANCE NIIMI, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE MAYOR, REGARDING THE HOMELESS SITUATION IN WEST TT A TXT A TCT From Council Members Dru Mamo Kanuha and Karen Eoff, dated August 29, 2017. HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 (Note: Comm. 447. 1, dated September 18, 2017 from Council Member Dru Kanuha, was circulated.) Motion to Close File: Mr. Kanuha moved to close file on Comm. 447. Seconded by Ms. Eoff CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Mr. Kanuha or Ms. Eoff, go ahead. MR. KANUHA: Madam Chair? CHR. DAVID: Thank you. MR. KANUHA: Mahalo, for letting us bring this communication to the committee. You know, we hadn't had an update about our—what the County has been doing and what the community's doing with regards to our homeless population for a really long time, so Karen and I thought it be a really good opportunity to bring Lance up here and maybe a few others with you, to just kind of go over what's been happening in the last several months. I know there's a lot of things that's been moving forward, I know the Mayor has been really putting this to one of his top priorities in Hawaii County. Not only West Hawaii, but Hawaii County. So I really appreciate that. But I really wanted to bring this communication forward to bring that education not only to us as a Council, but to the entire community about what's been progressing here inI mean, I said west Hawaii and we can focus on west Hawaii, if you want to bring up more things that's been happening around the island, please do so. But really more as an educational part, I know we read in the paper recently about a move to have a shelter in a certain location and I would love to hear about that. So, Lance if you can just come up and bring and introduce who you have with you. And I can give it over to Karen, but really just introduce yourself, I know you moved from housing to now the administrative side and your focus is—you can explain that, but really start from the beginning, and it's basically your table to help us learn what's been going on. Karen if you wanted to go in. Madam Chair? CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And I'd like to thank you all for being here, and just before you start your presentation, just make sure you state your name for the record. Then afterwards, we'll probably will have a lot of questions and like to interact with you. So, go ahead and leave it to you at this point. Page 2 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 (Note: At this time Executive Assistant to the Mayor Lance Niimi came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. NIIML Okay, so, we have three and a half minutes, or? CHR. DAVID: No. You can take—not all the time you want but just don't feel like time is a MR. NIIML We figured we'd take about 20 minutes CHR. DAVID: Thank you. MR. NIIML and then questions after that will be okay. CHR. DAVID: That's perfect, that's perfect. Go ahead whenever you're ready. MR. NIIML I just want to tell you that this Saturday, I appeared at a vehicle electric vehicle presentation. The mayor asked me to attend and I decided that when I go and talk to anybody about anything to do with County as an Executive Assistant now, I have a little blurb that I always want to share because it's something that's dear to my heart. So, if you bear with me I'm going to share a short piece. Making Hawaii a better place to live for all has been is and will continue to be a priority for Mayor Harry Kim. He strives to do what is right and in the best interest of our people, while living the positive values which makes him the man that he is. These values include strengthening the ohana, hard work, respecting and honoring the history and culture about people including the host culture, preserving our lifestyle and environment and serving our people with integrity, dignity, and respect. And it continues to be an honor, serving as a member of his cabinet with the primary responsibility of adjusting homelessness. We thank Hawaii—the County Council for this invitation today to share about the work that we're doing with homelessness. Allow me to introduce two people that recently formed the part of this team. So, first we have Linda Vandervort, and I wrote her name down because often mistake these two. And Linda was hired under contract agreement through monies made available through this Council. And we are in the process of transferring her position from County Housing over to the Mayor's Office. So, thank you very much for the monies that were allocated for her position. Secondly, I would like to introduce Alysa Lavoie, she's a first year masters in social work, practicum student with the University of Hawaii School of Social Page 3 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 Work Distance Learning Program. And Alysa is currently employed with the West Hawaii Community Health Center as a case manager. Alysa will share about some of our initial efforts to work effectively with the most vulnerable of the homeless population, substance abuse, abusing, and those with mental illness. So, you know, I've been a social worker for 37 years and always my emphasis has been on speaking about the assets and strengths of people and programs. And so I just want to start off about the strengths that I see and our successes that had happened since we took this homeless initiative on. First of all, we learn and work closely with those who have been doing this work before us and you know, I got to emphasize Hope Services, with Brandee Menino, the Office of Housing and Community Development with an existing Housing Division, and Sharon Hirota does a lot of work with the homeless in that department. Catholic Charities and faith -based organizations and many other community partners in the Community Alliance Partners. We've been working together to address homelessness and one of the things that we have embraced is this—and promoted the evidence based housing first model, and also for creating the coordinated entry system. The coordinated entry system prioritizes housing the most chronically homeless and vulnerable of our homeless population first. And then trying to get them into permanent supportive housing as soon as possible. And that work was being done when we came into the Mayor's Office. And I just want to recognize that because we are continuing that effort. Sharon Hirota is part of the existing housing office under the Office of Housing and Community Development and she shared with me, our existing Housing Division information on affordable housing and I think that piece needs to be brought up with you folks. You probably heard this but I just want to include this as part of the effort to address homelessness. Hale Makana O'Kupuna and Hale Makana O'Makua are currently under construction in Kailua-Kona. They're expected to be ready for full occupancy before the end of 2017. And the total of 170 affordable, one and two bedroom units will be available for families and Na Kupuna who meets eligibility requirements. The County will be entering into a project based voucher program contract with the developer providing federal rental assistance for 35 families. There's also a Mohouli Senior Phase II is currently under construction in Hilo. And the one bedroom, one bath units are designated for individuals who are at least 62 years of age. The affordable rental units will be available for occupancy starting November 1, 2017. So, affordable housing and that those accomplishments will no doubt assist people from becoming homeless and so we wanted to mention that and that information was provided to me by Sharon Hirota. Page 4 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 In the old Kona Airport area, this is the next success, I think. In the Old Kona Airport area the County Parks and Recreation Division, working collaboratively with other county departments and volunteers, restored our communities' confidence that their park could be safely utilized for our families and community. So you know, I was wondering if they were going to be on today but the Parks and Recreation did that clean up recently and we really applaud that effort. We got a lot of positive input from people saying that now, the families can go to the park and enjoy with their children. The next point of success is working collaboratively with other agencies and community volunteers. Hope Services outreached to the homeless population and you know, they found out that they were about 62 homeless—there were 68 homeless people and two families in the old Kona airport and then Hope Services worked really hard to house 17 of those individuals in a very short period of time. That really was an accomplishment. The two families were also housed. There's 62 people that wanted to be housed and they housed 17, that left 35 individuals and then we did a Camp Kekaha, which was an encampment that we put up to try and house the additional 35 people that wanted to be housed. And about 30 of them, which was 48 percent of those wanting to be housed, were provided with a place to move and to thrive. As mentioned earlier, an allocation from the County Council we hired under a contract agreement—and this I have to read to you because it's my description of Linda—we hired an experienced compassionate, enthusiastic, spiritually strong, energetic and passionate individual, this is Linda, to coordinate Camp Kekaha. Linda's going to share about her work as a coordinator for that camp. (Note: At this time, Assistant Homeless Coordinator Linda Vandervort came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. VANDERVORT: Thank you, Lance. Thank you for having me, Council Members and Chair. I'm Linda Thomas Vandervort, Coordinator of Camp Kekaha. And first of all, I just want to thank everyone for the opportunity and confidence that you have in me and giving me the ability to work with this very experimental project, Camp Kekaha. I've been—there's a lot of challenges, a lot of successes. Listening to the testimonies prior to us coming up, I feel that gives me more confidence at what we're doing right now. Camp Kekaha is the right thing, we are learning what it's going to take to have a camp before we move forward and really do the permanent one. We're figuring out how to service the people that we want to provide services for, how we can do it safely and share the community together. Just like I said, a lot of learning is being done there. Right now, we currently have 26 residents at Page 5 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 Camp Kekaha, we've had five of those residences initially go into the emergency shelter, and we have four more on the wait list to go on the emergency shelter. One thing, that once we started Camp Kekaha, this was just right after the Old Airport clean up. So, all the bed spaces and what not were taken up from that really hard push from Hope Services. So, there really wasn't available inventory for us to move people right away, we had to kind of let the dust settle a little bit. And this also, gave us an opportunity to get to know the population and find out what their barriers were to homelessness. We continue to work with those barriers whether it be legal, I'm in contact with the court system, I'm right now in the process of being able to sign off for community service, I work together with the judges, Prosecutors Office and public defenders to try to get people out of that cycle. You know, get them to show up so they don't get the bench warrants, further citations at the park, and just how we can get that—reduce that barrier so they, you know, have that freedom to move forward in their life. We also address the behavioral health and medical issues. I'm really honored to be working with Alysa Lavoie. And prior to us working together on this project, we've been working together maybe two years in the community at least, doing outreaches to the camps and that kind of thing. Also, this afternoon I'll be doing a multi -disciplinary task force meeting with the Deputy Prosecutor, community policing, this is something that I've been already been doing for at least a year now. We already have these things in place, these little things set up—the network, the network that I feel is really important in serving the individual needs of the population that we work with. One thing I also want to add is I do understand how the community feels about the homeless, but doing nothing is not an option. Doing experimental projects, that's when we find out what is wrong and what is right. Prior to the Old Airport clean-up I was sponsoring a child in little league. I know what it's like to go to the park and ask people to move on, so that kids can sit in the dugout and play. I very much see both sides of it, and I'm compassionate to both sides. But I want to add once again, doing nothing is not an option and we have to learn what to do by moving forward and learning from that experience. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo. Ms. Linda Vanderford. MR. NIIML One of the most challenging of our residents at Camp Kekaha, the most challenging of our residence at Camp Kekaha, have been those with mental illness, substance, alcohol abuse or both. And they represent nearly the six or seven, nearly all of the six or seven residents that have been asked to leave the camp after numerous warnings, refusal to comply, refusal to follow instructions, violent and disruptive behavior. And right now, we are in the early stages of attempting to address the issue to our collaboration called the Aloha Initiative. Page 6 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 Alysa is going to describe and talk about that very inital efforts that we're making towards that end. (Note: At this time, Volunteer Alysa Lavoie came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. LAVOIE: Thank you, Aloha. CHR. DAVID: Aloha. MS. LAVOIE: So, what we're seeing CHR. DAVID: Could you identifyI'm sorry. Could you identify yourself? MS. LAVOIE: Alysa Lavoie. CHR. DAVID: Thank you. MS. LAVOIE: Thank you. So what we're seeing within our homeless population nationwide is about 30 percent of the population has mental illness, while 66 percent has substance use disorders; and of course, there's that core mobility where they overlap. In Kona, I've worked in Mental Health for 13 years for community based cased management agencies. And there are definite resource deficits to address the substance use disorders and also with mental illness. And of the percent of talking about we're looking out only maybe half or maybe even one in four that are willing to address the mental health and the substance use disorders. So, research tells us that not only substance use but mental illness that effects the neurobiology of the brain, which changes the make-up and makes it really difficult for people with mental illness and substance use disorders to make— CHR. DAVID: I'm sorry. Can you move your mic closer? MS. LAVOIE: I'm sorry. CHR. DAVID: They're having problems hearing you in Hilo. I'm sorry. MS. LAVOIE: I'm sorry about that. CHR. DAVID: I'm sorry to interrupt you. MS. LAVOIE: No, that's okay. Well, I was talking about the neurobiology of the brain, it affects people's executive functions, which are the processes to Page 7 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 organize thought, make decisions, to really have the insight into noticing that you have an illness that needs to be addressed. So, we're really missing the mark with a lot of our folks because we can't mandate to treatment so much. We can mandate to the hospital, which we do and then people are discharged from the hospital a few days later. And they may have been medicated within the hospital walls but as soon that they're out, they're back on the streets in the same situation as they were prior to being admitted. So, with Lance's permission, I've been working with Dr. McGrath at Kona Community Hospital and we've set up a group of many individuals. We have people representing the County in the Mayor's Office, Mental Health Kokua, the hospital, the prosecution office and then my work, West Hawaii Community Health Center. What we're trying to do is set up a team of individuals that don't just work in their own silos, but we kind of work across boundaries with each other to be able to address the situation of mental health and substance use disorder. And what this looks like is, we are looking at leverage options. Figuring out how to get people into treatment using entitlement, using maybe legal issues or legal encumbrances to put into practice the assertive—no I'm sorry—the assisted community treatment law that was recently passed, which is a mandate to treatment. So this takes a coordination of the judicial system, folks like ourselves, social workers within the community, to try to get people who haven't been successful in obtaining treatment, haven't stayed on treatment. Our most vulnerable individuals to mandate them to community-based treatment which would include seeing psychiatrists, medications, participating with case management to address the problem with resources. Just putting the resources in place for people, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of work, especially for guys that we call the frequently flyers to the hospital. People who overdose pretty frequently, to actually get them into treatment and through the judicial system. So, everything is in its infancy stages with our Aloha Initiative. We've just met for the first time last month but we're going to continue on, and next Tuesday, we're also meeting again at the hospital to discuss the steps that we're going to be taking towards this mandated community treatment and addressing it that way. And I think you can't really talk about homelessness unless you are talking about mental health and substance use disorders, it goes hand in hand and we cannot address the issue unless we're addressing every issue involved in homelessness. So we'll keep you updated, but we're just trying to wrap people with resources. If people aren't able to have the insights to seek out treatment on their own, hopefully putting some leverage into place, so that we can get people into treatment and medication and substance use treatment too. Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo, Ms. Lavoie. Page 8 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 MR. NIIML I just have two more areas I want to cover. CHR. DAVID: Sure. MR. NIIML One would be the future plans. Are we doing okay, on time? CHR. DAVID: Go ahead. MR. NIIML Okay. People at Camp Kekaha and other future sites need to be active and have some sense of pride in who they are and what they do. It's human nature for people to want to be productive and make a difference. Unfortunately, Alysa alludes to, the homelessness have that part of their brain that prevents them from doing—keeping appointments, getting up in the morning, filing for whatever needs to be filed to doing the paper work, and that kind of thing. And so, we're looking at this model that was created in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the homeless were given daily opportunity to work and do community service. They work with their county department, they get picked up every day to get a van, they got a nonprofit that handles all the paperwork, so we don't get into the labor issues. But they take a van and they go to the homeless site and say, "You want to work today," and they pick them up, they go to the parks, clean the parks, they cut the—they work with the Public Works guys and they have a mentorship thing going on where they work alongside another person. When we talked about this thing about the homeless and the substance abusing, we realized that something like that works because it allows them to just do it, you know, and they show up and they get that successes comes from doing that. So, I'm just going to mention that model. The future, Camp Kekaha was a quickly constructed emergency camp site to house the homeless at the Old Kona Airport who were being asked to leave. There's a more plan for a larger site to house the Camp Kekaha, which has currently about 26 residences. MS. LAVOIE: Yes. MR. NIIML And other homeless in the Kona area. We were looking at a larger site to house up to a 100 people which would include those that are homeless in their vehicles. So, we would have some vehicle parking area and we're looking at the area near the West Hawaii Civic Center below the Ane Keohokalole Highway and on the Kailua side of Kealakehe Parkway, known as Village Nine. You know, there's been a number of sites that we've been looking at and this is currently the site that has infrastructure, water, sewer and electricity and that's one of the reasons that site is being looked at. Page 9 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 Village Nine is a site with about 35 acres developable land and the County is negotiating a deal with the Hawaii Housing Finance Development Corporation (HHFDC) that would secure about 20 to15 to 20 acres of this state-owned land for the homeless site. The County's seeking a right of entry permit which would allow the County construct a temporary encampment on five acres of the 15 to 20 acres parcel sought for the homeless. And the HHFDC plans to build out affordable rental housing on the balance of the parcel, which is about 15 acres. Our biggest challenge for the development of CampI keep calling it Camp Kekaha II, and any other homeless encampment in other areas of our island will be getting the support from the community, nearby communities and also, the issue of funding. I want to emphasize, I already got some concerns that came out of the newspaper article about the site. We have been looking at various different sites and this is currently the site that we're looking at. But Roy Takemoto, who's our—doing our planning issues mentioned that, you know, there's going to have to be an environmental assessment, which will mean that we will have to get public input. So, we are already getting a lot of input from the community about their concerns. So, we are going to look at hearing what their concerns are and move forward. As we give out the details of what we're going to do with this site. The issue on funding is an important one. The County would assume most of the startup cost, including those associated with preparing the right -of -entry permit and conducting the environmental assessment. The County might also foot the bill for preparing the land which will include grading and acquiring the necessary permits. The other large costs involved would be, you know, the type of shelter modality, which we are looking at different modalities. I like the igloo shelters and will share more about that as we move forward. They're easy to construct, they're moveable, they can handle hurricane force winds; and they can also be units that would be for emergency shelter, as well as permanent supportive housing. So it has that possibility. So, you know, there are other issues that would require costs and security, port -a -potties and someone to manage the site. And so those are all the issues that we're working on at the present time, so with that we welcome any questions that you folks may have. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo, Mr. Niimi. Council Members, questions. Ms. Eof£ MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you very much for the presentation and for all the work that you folks are doing. Also, appreciate the fact that you acknowledge the work that had been done prior to this administration because I know this has been the focus of all of us for quite a while. And I'm just going to focus a little bit on this site, at Villages Nine because yes, we have been getting, I'm sure the same emails that you're getting and our State Representatives are getting and there's some concern about the location. And I too have some Page 10 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 concerns, I've been thinking about it though, and I know every site that we've looked at maybe there was like 13 that we were slowly eliminating one at a time till there was none left, and this seemed to be a very good option for a lot of reasons. And it isn't impossible I think for us to mitigate some of the concerns. And one of the ideas that I had, and I wondered if this is possible to look at as we move forward, is that the access, the ingress and egress to the site could be on the police station side, so that it would be more conducive for the people living there if they did have to go town, to go that way rather than having people wandering maybe uphill towards the high school, orI'm just saying that might be one way to mitigate the concerns, because it is kind of a far walk uphill to get to the high school from people might be visualizing the site as right across from the high school, but it's actually quite a ways down the hill. I don't know how many blocks that is. But I think it's possible to arrange the egress and ingress, so that you would be encouraging that access towards the police station side of the property. So, that might work as and—but I like your ideas, I think we could become a model, as some of the testifiers mentioned, to help put people back into our community in a very productive way. There's enough land there to do the—some of the things that were mentioned, gardening or moving people to worksites, where they could be helping the County do some maintenance and stuff I think you have a lot of really good plans and I feel optimistic, and I think you have good people. And I'm glad that you moved to the administration level where you can really focus. So, I'd like to say that even though I do have concerns about that site as people had mentioned, but I think if you could in the planning phase, think about that idea that I just put out, and maybe that would help. When we get tobefore we go to the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) or the EA (Environmental Assessment) process of public hearings. I would hate to see us get that far and then have the communities still be upset, so I say before we put a lot of time and money into developing that EIS and the EA that we already work out that site plan so that we've mitigated some of the issues. I know the other issue is that is far from town and far from services, and we have to provide some kind of transportation. I know that's also an issue but I think you can work that one out, if we're willing to spend the resources there, which it seems like we are. So, I'll yield to my other Council Members at this time. But I thank you for this presentation and update. MR. NIIML Thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Eoff Mr. Kanuha. Page 11 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 MR. KANUHA: Thank you and mahalo again for being here and giving us that update. I really think the Mayor picked a good team to help in our homeless efforts here on this island. Glad to see Linda and Alysa part of this team and you know, hearing from you guys and what you're doing and what you plan to do in the future really gives me hope that we can really—that we can get ahold of this situation that we have. And you know, it's really working with each and every service provider, again, with the judiciary, with the State, with the Federal Government, to try to maximize all the little monies available out there to help out, you know, just thinking about how much it's going to cost to house a hundred people, you know, I look back on how much it cost to house the 28 people down at Hale Kekaha and it was a pretty substantial amount of money. Especially when you have to do a lot of the ADA compliance work. But you know, it was an emergency situation and needed to be done. I'm not a big fan of a "not in my backyard" type of situation because you know, us living here on this island, this is all our backyard. You know, so if we can work to figure the best way to help those that need the most help, I'm there. And so, that's why, you know, I understand the anxiety to have this specific location on the highest priority list, to move forward for housing our homeless but you know, if we can get all the concerns, if we can mitigate all of that beforehand and work with the community and try to make this a positive location, I'm all for doing all that beforehand. And hopefully it can work out because I know that the other sites that we looked at previously was almost impossible to do. But also, I wanted to kind of mention too that I'm glad that we're moving forward with a lot of the low income housing. You know, sure we talked about the substance abuse, sure we talked about the mental health but a lot of our families are, you know, living pay check to pay check, day to day. It's extremely difficult to live here in Kona. Prices are inflated a lot more than the rest of the islands. So, you know, if we can really focus on that affordability aspect with the housing department, I really want to push for that as well, so that we don't get people you know, get them out of their houses and put them on the streets. You know, one of the concerns that always keeps bringing brought up, always keeps being brought up to me is that the fact that a lot of people are coming in, you know, roves and roves of and I'm just hearingI'm just saying the perception. If you could explain a little bit of how we deal with the roves and roves of mainlanders or whoever it is coming in using our services, and we're not doing enough or we're using these monies, it's being you know, thinned out so that we're not taking care of, you know, our local families that are on the streets. Is that a perception -wise, a misperception, it's something that I just wanted to get on Page 12 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 the record that we're—what's going on with that, if that? If that was a question, a good enough question. MR. NIIML You know, it's interesting that you asked that question because I was with Brandee Menino yesterday at a meeting in Honolulu and we looked at the stats and most of the homeless that are here are from—have been in Hawaii for more than 10 years or up to 10 years, more than 50 percent. So, it's not it's a misconception that the majority of our homeless are from somewhere else. It's a veryI think it's like a small percentage, if I recall from the 2016 stats, I think it was like 16 percent or—from outside, you know, so, most of them have been here for a long time. MR. KANUHA: Okay. MS. VANDERVORT: I just wanted to give you an idea of the population at Camp Kekaha. MR. KANUHA: Oh, Linda can you just state your name one more time for the record. MS. VANDERVORT: Oh yes, Linda Vandervort. Excuse me. I just want to do the demographic at Camp Kekaha, most of our population there are a little bit older in age and have been on this island for a very long time. So I'm dealing with a lot of people that are considered by HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) definition chronically homeless, and have been on the Big Island for a very long time, yes. MR. KANUHA: Okay, thank you. And moving forward, I know Parks was going to be here but they had another meeting to do, but you know, with the Old Airport especially, I'm so glad that we moved forward with the effort to basically enforce the rules down at the Old Airport. And really mahalo the Parks Department for working with the community, and everybody actually, helping out with that situation. I know they've hired security down there to enforce the park rules. Do you know, how's that working out or, you know, are people moving back in or? MS. VANDERVORT: I may be able to share a little bit about that. I'm Linda Vandervort, once again. And the security that we have on site at Camp Kekaha also patrols the Old Airport Beach Park area, and they share with us a little bit about some attempts of people trying to re-enter and I think that's something that we can expect, you know, there's going to be people that wants to go back. And I think with continued enforcement though that they'll realize that's not an option and one thing that encourages me about that is the less comfortable we make it for people to return there, the more likely they are going to need to seek services. Page 13 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 It's amazing at Camp Kekaha. When we got the population, most of them, not most of them that's not fair to say, some them would have been considered for a very long time service resistant or assistance resistant. I call it not interested in any way engaging with Hope Services or other social services agencies. But after being stabilized at Camp Kekaha and being in just eye shot of Hope Services with their emergencies, the West Hawaii emergency housing program on the property, people who say "Oh, I will never go in there," have softened their heart in that regard and either have gone in or went ahead and put their name on the wait list to go in there. And interested in getting—we have people that are in line to sign up for grants. There's—it's kind of cool that right at Hale Kekaha right across from us, there's a vacant unit that one of our resident who's been chronically homeless in the area, wants to apply for that unit. So, like I said the—making it a little bit more inconvenient, I think is encouraging people who would not in the past seek services, do so now. MR. KANUHA: Okay, thank you. And just real quickly I want to say again, mahalo for working with us. It's been a really, really tough situation that we have here and you know, truly we're a community of compassion, aloha, and working together. And so, really want to mahalo you guys on working with everybody to help those that are in most need. And if we can get these individuals under a roof, in a safe location with the service providers available to them, with clean bathrooms and places to eat, you know, we're doing our job. So again, mahalo for that. And really we're here to support you guy on these efforts so, or at least I am. So again thank you, and mahalo, Chair. CHR. DAVID: Mahalo, Mr. Kanuha. And just for the record I'd like to note that Director Kamaka and Deputy Director Ryan Chong are available in Hilo, in case we have questions for them. So, I'm going to go to Ms. Poindexter. MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you for the presentation, and I know Council Member Eoff touched on that a little bit about the workforce. And you said that, you know, you're trying to model this program after what you feel may have been a successful model in Albuquerque. So, Albuquerque's Mayor in 2015 had done this work force where they offered jobs to the homeless people, paying them I think even a stipend, I'm not sure. MR. NIIML Nine dollars an hour. MS. POINDEXTER: Nine dollars an hour, that's pretty good. And you know, whether it was simple beautification projects of pulling weeds, maybe that's a great thing. You know, some people don't want Roundup spray certain areas. Maybe we could have them doing some partnerships with, you know, the County, and doing that. So, hopefully that will work out, because by now, since that was Page 14 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 in 2015, it's two years later, they will have some of the stories of what the pros and cons of that project was and if worked or if it didn't work. So, I would love to see it move in that direction, I think that it's important to give people their own self-worth, and when they do go apply for jobs, they can say, "Hey, I worked for the County, and I did," blah, blah, blah and this, you know. So it's a good thing on their resume, gives them a little bit of money, maybe for startup or savings, so they can move forward with the social workers working with them. But I want to hear fromI know that Billy Freitas had a story to share about a situation. I want to be able to hear from him, if that's okay? Madam Chair, if I could call Billy Freitas up? CHR. DAVID: Thank you. Yes. MS. POINDEXTER: No, it's not testimony. So, I just wanted you, if you could share that situation that happened. (Note: At this time William Freitas came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. FREITAS: Aloha, I'm Billy Freitas, well William Freitas. Thank you very much for this time that I have to share. I work hands onI have had the opportunity to work hands on with the homeless people down at the Old Airport through Honl's and down to Kahalu`u. I work on a daily basis with these people, I see them in their most lowest point and I see them when they're in their highest point. I mean not using drugs or alcohol, but when things are good for them, they express it to me because I allow them to social to talk with me. I believe that a lot of people are upset by their presence there at the Old Airport. One of the main reasons why they're there is because the water is available and water is life. And I think the next subject we're getting into is about the water. But I get to interact with these people on a daily basis and what I've seen is all different walks of life. Dru, Mr. Kanuha has pointed out that I believe the—one of the main points we can concentrate on is how do other states allow people to come in and use the services of the tax payers in this state. That is one strongpoint that we can start working on to avoid more burden on the taxpayers in Hawaii. One of the main things I wanted to address is that I've made it a point that every paycheck I get, I would look for the most depressed homeless person and give them $20. I've been doing that for eight years. How many people in Kona have done that? I look at humans that are depressed, they're not there becausea lot of them is not there because they made it that way. There are people that were contractors, there were people that lost their homes, there's families that had Page 15 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 homes. There's about 60 percent of those Hawaiians down there are kanaka that have rights to these lands. Now, I don't want to get into any of that, but it's true. And when their things are taken away and they are subjected to move when the park is open. The park is open from 6 to 11 p.m. Anytime between that time, homeless, whoever is allowed to be in there by law. Okay. After 11, there's nobody supposed to be in there. So, that's why they have the private security down there. I believe its working, is really paying off We have all different walks. Like I say, some planes come in late at night and homeless are walking down the road with their bags from other places, from Oahu, from other islands, from other states. So, these are kind of some of the concerns that I feel can help with the situation. know when they are given help from the heart, they appreciate it. Whether they have mental health or not. So, give from the heart. Give that aloha and I know it will help big time. MS. POINDEXTER: And thank you for sharing that and that's the reason why I wanted to bring you up. Because it's not just the County employees, the County department on Lance's area to figure all this out. Each of us as individuals have a responsibility. So, thank you for sharing that. MR. FREITAS: Oh, you're welcome. MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you for all that you do. MR. FREITAS: And thank you for listening and I hope that I've set a good example in a way that other people can look these homeless people and not judge them for the way they're dressed or the way they smell or the way they look. MS. POINDEXTER: Thank you. MR. FREITAS: Thank you, aloha. CHR. DAVID: Aloha. Ms. Poindexter, are you done? Anyone else, Council Members? Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, thank you Madam Chair. You know, first of all I wanted to thank Lance and his team for being here. And Lance, you know, that was a really nice TV news piece of you staying over at I think it was Camp Kekaha, right? Very nice, thank you for your hands on approach to all of that. But you know, I'm going to phrase my statements just as comments, not as questions. But I will say this, I think Mr. Kanuha and our first speaker, as well as Mr. Freitas brought up a point about the people coming in from outside. And I know the answer that you guys gave, 16 percent, that's a small percentage, but in my opinion it really Page 16 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 didn't answer Mr. Kanuha's question. It's whether there is a concerted effort on the part of outside jurisdictions to send their people here. Because it may be 16 percent right now. It may be a small percentage, but what was it maybe five years ago? And what do we see it being five years hence. This could be a big problem, okay, because if people are sending their people here, and I know they are because I've been told that by people who have been sent here. We're finished. Okay, because we have a consistent climate. Guys up there they have to deal hot summers, cold winters, over here it's consistent all the way through and we're small, limited in size, we have no chance if this 16 percent becomes bigger. So you guys got to work, part of your game plan has to be in working with the federal government, our congressional delegation, to see if we can stop that influx. If not we cannot manage the burgeoning population, impossible. But now, I'm going to get into another thing too. You know, Lance—and thank you so much for your efforts by the way. But you know back when we had our program reviews I think, you know, I think you or Neil said that the Mayor was going to be coming up or making unveiling his homelessness program, his game plan sometime in September and here we are in September. I know this is limited in scope what's been asked today, you know, it just deals with West Hawaii and it's been very instructive I have to say because it could be applied on a broader scale. And you and I have had several conversations and I said, you know, take your time, but at some point you guys have to come up with something. It's not going to be perfect. We all know it cannot be perfect, but it's going to be a work in progress. Yeah, and we'll work our way through all of this. But having said that, when can we expect the master plan, because I think in that master plan it's going to be multi -faceted, right you going have to talk about enforcement, mental health; because mental health, you know, when you guys talked about the dual -diagnosis problems that, you know, all of these people are facing or most of the population is facing, wrap around services, legislation. Both Mr. Kanuha said on all levels of government. We need numbers, where we're at right now, because we're looking at this horrible upward trajectory, right? And maybe we've kind of stemmed the tide possibly somewhat, but we need numbers. Where are we now, where this trajectory is taking us maybe five, ten years from now, and what we're doing in hopes that we can curb that trajectory and bring that back to some level amount or even bring it back down? But we need that game plan; we have to have the master plan. It doesn't have to be perfect again, Lance. When do you think we'll get that plan? I'm not rushing you and don't get me wrong. Page 17 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 MR. NIIML I know in his last comments, Mayor Kim says, we're not going to rush this effort because one of the lessons we learned was that to rush it was not the way to go. MR. CHUNG: Correct. MR. NIIML So, you know, like we talked about trajectory, there's a lot of data that shows that what is currently being done by the Coordinated Alliance Partners (CAP), Coordinated Entry System, that those efforts are paying off and the collaborations that are happening with CAP, that actually the numbers have gone down in terms of the homelessness in Hawaii County. And so, we know that we're doing the right things. I agree with you about a plan, but I think we're still learning at this point on how we doing. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, no. MR. NIIML So we're going to try to put that together as move forward. MR. CHUNG: Totally expected, but any idea when we might have a presentation on an overall master plan? Next year? Two years from now? Three months from now? Any idea, I'm not going to hold you to it, Lance. MR. NIIML I tell you what, you guys can invite us back and then when we do have something more substantialI think we're going to have like this, periodic checks to fill you guys on as where we're at. I actually personally think to have to beI have the people come to me and say, "What is your master plan," you know. And at this point you know, I couldn't tell you. I think we need to get something together. We'll brief you guys as we're moving forward and then we'll go from there. MR. CHUNG: Well, I would urge you to try to come up with something. Okay, and this is the reason, even with our ice initiative, way back when, you know, I thought, you know, we had an interesting plan. Actually was during Harry's time, too. But you know it lacked an overall master plan too. You know, like if you're going into war, you have these generals, they're going to get together, they're going to have a road map as where we're going to get, we have to have that, right. We have to know where we are now and where we want to be, you know, five years, hence. We've got to know that. MR. NIIML Right now, we're working with Iain DeJong, who's been a consultant that's been working on the homeless issue, and our last meeting was developing a continuum of care plan with the partners that had been addressing homelessness. So, that's something that's in process but even if you ask me a Page 18 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 date, I would say give us—this is—we're looking at some kind of update probably at the end of the year. MR. CHUNG: Okay. Again, Lance I'm not trying to pin you down, and I know we have an equally important presentation coming up right after this. But I'll tell you why it's vitally important, and it ties into this whole location issue. I think you and I have talked about this, how important it is to have the entire community buying into this initiative, right? But when you have things like location problems, you know, than one segment of the population is going to be put aside and they're going to, you know, maybe resist some parts of the initiative. But you want everyone coming together. And if you come up with a master plan and you allow the media now, to be your partner in all of this, then the public will be able to see how each piece of this master plan is coming into play as it develops and it's part of like a story, it's almost like a soap opera. I mean, you know, it's a good TV program. And people will now start to see the successes and they're all going to buy into it, and that's why it's important, I think, for you guys to develop something that's easily identifiable to the general public. And that's why I stress that. I'm not rushing you guys or anything, right Lance? MR. NIIML Thank you for your input, Aaron. MR. CHUNG: Okay, yeah, thanks. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Chung. Ms. Ruggles. MS. RUGGLES: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, I think you guys are coming at this way with the right attitude and I'm frankly very pleasantly surprised. I just wanted to say that recently a few other Council Members and I attended a National Association of Counties conference and there was a special presentation on homelessness. And it's really interesting because they explained how between the police having to work on social problems, children having behavioral problems that come from poverty and being homeless, the cost of welfare, recidivism, jail, emergency rooms, houselessness actually costs the county a lot of money. And they said that housing first models like the one that you're implementing is a really effective way to reduce the cost. And you just can't provide housing, you have to provide the services tailored to each situation, which is why I'm really grateful for what you said, Alysa. And that the majority of the homeless that are given housing and services combined will self -resolve after a few months. And that's just what the statistics say. And so not only is it more effective to provide housing, it's actually cheaper for the County. And in some states the Department Page 19 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 of Health will pay for the housing because it costs them less to take care of the people then to have to deal with these emergency situations over and over. They also explained that the criminal justice system is really closely tied to homelessness, and that people who are homeless have a greater risks of being caught in the criminal justice system, and people in the criminal justice system will have a greater risks of being homeless. And so, they say there were these re-entry programs that they implemented that were meant to reduce the cycle. And I just wanted to ask if this is in the purview of any of the services that you're looking at. Are there any re-entry programs that you guys are looking at? MR. NIIML You know Les Estrella from Going Home Consortium is working a lot on the re-entry stuff for those who have been incarcerated. And I know that he is a critical piece that we have to get together for this piece that we're trying to adjust the homeless that's substance abusing and mental ill. So, that's one piece that I know is going on right now that we have to integrate. MS. LAVOIE: Hi, Alysa again. We're also working with Dale Ross on kind of coming up with a homeless court -type thing and Linda's really helping out with that. But what it is, is having all of our folks, especially the residents at the camp, have their court dates on the same day being able to give transportation to those court dates, so we're not getting bench warrants and, you know, sucked up into the system, rather than fines. It's kind of like drug court, so rather than having fines and things like that, community service which can actually do it at the camp, now that Linda's getting it registered for community site. So, we kind of—in other states they have homeless courts and we're trying to model it after that. Although, Ms. Ross did not get the grant money to do the homeless court but we're trying our best to just too kind of do a modified version, I guess, so people don't get into the judiciary system and get caught up, you know. MS. RUGGLES: Right. Are there any, sort of Workforce Development programs in place or is that you're working towards? MS. VANDERVORT: Not yet. We will though. MS. RUGGLES: Okay. Yeah, they demonstrated the numbers of how criminalizing the homeless is a really high cost and low yield strategy. And that barriers for the criminals to get resources makes it really costly and so there are these things that—they say that denying services based on the criminal justice background is a dead-end strategy with dealing with this problem, and that we need to implement collaborative consequences in giving them opportunities to leave their criminal justice background behind and get them into the work force. Page 20 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 Which leads me to my next question, I was hoping that you could elaborate more Lance, on the—you said they were coming and volunteering with Parks and Rec and doing a mentoring program? I don't know if I misheard that. MR. NIIML No, we haven't started on that, it's a program that we're looking at right now, and one of the challenges is with find a non-profit that can do that because of the labor laws and stuff. And this program that was in Albuquerque, they did get another nonprofit to handle the paperwork and all of that. So, it's a great idea. We haven't started on it yet. MS. RUGGLES: Okay, great. And also, Alysa, I wondering if you can give me those numbers on what is the percentage of the homeless that have mental health disorders and substance abuse? MS. LAVOIE: Okay, so these are coming from just give me one second. I believe it was 66 percent with substance use disorder and 30 with mental health, mental health diagnosis and the numbers are from Dr. McGrath so hold on, I had exactly where he came up with them, I believe it wasoh, I know, sorry, National Drug Control Policy. MS. RUGGLES: Okay, so that's for all of the U.S., it's not specific to here. MS. LAVOIE: That's nationwide. MS. RUGGLES: Okay, okay. That's all the questions I have, thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Ruggles. Ms. Lee Loy, and then we're going to Mr. Richards. MS. RUGGLES: I think, Linda wanted to elaborate. I'm sorry. CHR. DAVID: You have to come to the mic, sorry, and identify yourself. MS. VANDERVORT: Thank you, Linda Vandervort. I really, really appreciate your point of view on homelessness. I just want to say as far as addressing the legal issue at Camp Kekaha, we're kind of setting up the model to really break that cycle. And just your point of really emphasizing on housing first, well, that's what we're kind of doing at Camp Kekaha, except we don't have the house yet. So, we'll call it shelter first. Shelter first. This morning we had Alysa Lavoie and her team, which I'm part of that team, usually as a medical outreach, so we have doctors, nurses, behavior health coming on site and talking to our people and seeing them, doing wound care and whatnot. And then even later on today going to the courts. I'm going to the court to check on some papers I filed for recalling bench warrants. Page 21 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 So, we're doing all these things. You know, even though it does look like we're spending a lot of money at Camp Kekaha, if you look at the bottom line, what I hope to reduce is frequent utilizers to hospitals and getting these people existing from the legal system, I think our bottom line is going look a lot better then what it just looks at first sight. Thank you. MS. RUGGLES: Thank you, Linda. And I also wanted to say that I'm really glad that you guys aren't trying to invent the wheel here. There are successful models across the nation. And that Uncle Bill, I really appreciate your attitude as well. And it's really refreshing, we do need to remove the stigma around homelessness, and that many of us—many of the population are just a few paychecks away from being in the same situation. Okay, I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Ruggles. Ms. Lee Loy, go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Lance and Linda for being here and I really appreciate the approach you know, compassion and aloha. But I do want to circle back on something that Mr. Chung is asking for. And I had the privilege and honor to sit on the nonprofit committee with three of my other colleagues, and we went through a bunch of applications asking for monies to help with this problem. And it really fell upon us to try and find the connections between helping with homelessness, helping with drug court, helping with housing and you know, those wraparound services, we really need that plan, Lance. Because there are a lot of nonprofit agencies trying to do it and if we can partner you folks and these programs better and then leverage the dollars better, we'll be more successful with it. And as a freshman Council Member sitting on that committee, it was extremely eye opening as far as the services that are needed across the entire island. But there was always common thread. It was taking care of our families and transporting them to where they need to get. And so Lance, you know, I'm going to urge you to go back to the Mayor and bring forward that land sooner than later, because we're going to be moving into the budget cycle very quickly again, here. And then we're going to be sifting through these nonprofit applications again. What was really refreshing is to learn that these dollars are making a difference. But if we could accelerate those dollars that's how I want to make a bigger difference. So, just a general comment, the sooner the master plan than later and you know, like Ms. Ruggles said "we don't have to reinvent the wheel," there's a lot of good programs out there. We just need to coordinate them better. So, thank you. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Richards, go ahead. Page 22 HSSSC-5 September 19, 2017 MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Madam Chair. Lance, I'm justI'm not going to echo—or I should restate what's been stated before, but I'm going to echo what Mr. Chung and Ms. Lee Loy had said. We need that plan sooner rather than later. We have to plan for that fiscally, and though I completely agree with all my Councilmen and women's statements, my concern is resources and what's going to happen. And if we build these villages, yes it's going to take care of our situation but then are we going to be attracting more. That's a concern that Mr. Chung was trying to echo there. So, sooner rather than later. I applaud the efforts that's are being done all of you but we have to be able to physically afford this and I fear that we may start a tsunami coming at us. So, with that I yield. CHR. DAVID: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Council Members, anyone else on the second round before we close? Okay, seeing none. Then I really want to express my mahalo to you Mr. Niimi, Ms. Vandervort and Ms. Lavoie. I think what you're doing for this particular situation is very honorable because having a interdisciplinary team or forming one is quite the—takes a lot of effort. And when you're dealing with—and I speak because I used to work with Legal Aid for five years and served a lot of the people that you are helping or trying to help. And the big part about that was the interdisciplinary team that met every month and got together to do what exactly what you're doing. So, I thank you folks for addressing this problem head-on and I look forward to your progress. And I also, want to thank the Parks and Rec's Director, Ms. Kamaka and they're not there anymore. But anyway, and Mr. Chongoh, they're in the back. Mahalo, Parks and Rec for all your efforts in trying to move forward with this issue. I also want to thank Mr. Freitas for his contribution to this very important and sensitive matter, that I think you're doing a great job and I applaud you. Aloha. So, seeing that, all those in filing Communication 447. Vote on Comm. 447: The motion to close file on Comm. 447 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and Chair David – 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 23 HSSSC-5 September 19,2017 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, at 10:50 a.m., Mr. Kanuha moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, Richards, Ruggles, and Chair David—9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. DAVID: We are adjourned. Mahalo everybody. Approved: 11101p- I 14 In /lammom111, Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Chair (Date) Human Services and Social Services Committee MD/vc Page 24