The number of people experiencing homelessness on Oʻahu has remained virtually the same, but more families are struggling with housing.
The island's Point-in-Time Count report this year found that 4,539 people were experiencing homelessness on Jan. 25 this year — only slightly higher than the 4,494 people counted in 2024, when the survey was last conducted.
There was also a 20% decrease in homeless individuals who are unsheltered, and a 35% increase in those who are sheltered.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement that those findings were “encouraging” and “point to the success of our innovative programs that get people off of the street, get them help, and get them the care that they deserve. It is vitally important that we continue to fund initiatives that have a proven track record.”
But one trend in the report that is of concern is the 19% increase in families — households with adults and children — in the PITC population since 2024, and the 43% jump since 2022.
There are 1,334 individuals in families in this year’s report, up from the 1,123 in 2024 and 933 in 2022. The last time there were this many families experiencing homelessness was in 2018, when the PITC report found 1,590 people in that group.
The nonprofit Family Promise of Hawaiʻi Executive Director Ryan Catalani said in a news release, “This alarming increase in child and family homelessness is an urgent call to our community that we need to act now. Young children are at the greatest risk of experiencing homelessness, which can have lifelong impacts.”
“Every child deserves a home. If we decide to prioritize children and families as a community, we can end childhood homelessness. We have the solutions — we just need to scale them up to meet the depth of the need today.”
For years before 2020, family homelessness on Oʻahu was on a downward trend. Support for families was put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, Catalani said.
He added that families with infants and toddlers are more susceptible to homelessness because of the increased resources required to take care of them.
The PITC survey is a snapshot of the homeless population on Oʻahu. Similar surveys have been done recently for the neighbor islands.
