Family Promise of Hawaiʻi, an organization that serves families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, has seen the number of calls for assistance significantly increase over the last few months.
On average, 300 to 350 first-time callers are reaching out to the organization a month. At this time last year, that number was only about 200.
Executive Director Ryan Catalani explained that some of the uptick in calls can be attributed to the organization’s expanded services. However, it’s largely due to the cost of housing and higher living expenses that were exacerbated by the government shutdown.
“ It could be that if they're renting, the owner of their property has had increased costs that they're passing along to their tenants, it could be that their everyday costs — whether it's food, child care, other essentials have increased and their paycheck is not increased as much to be able to keep up with that,” he said.
“They are living in a very precarious economic position so that if something happens, it is an unexpected expense or an unexpected loss in income, that could lead to them not being able to afford their housing and getting into this housing crisis.”
He said that in the past three months, 75% of callers have been classified as ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. It means that the families are fully employed, but cannot afford the cost of living.
Family Promise can accommodate up to about 18 families or 72 individuals at a time for temporary housing. It has volunteer opportunities available and a wishlist for items families need at familypromisehawaii.org
