In this month's check-in with Gov. Josh Green, we discussed the latest services for homeless people, housing for Maui wildfire survivors, and a new working group to improve the child welfare system.
On Thursday, Green attended the opening of a new kauhale on Middle Street that will be able to house at least 50 people at a time. The pop-up villages of tiny homes offer steady housing and health services for homeless people. Last week, he also opened a kauhale in Kāneʻohe.
"This is a part of the process, a part of the desire to have a homeless health system," Green said. "Can't promise we'll open one every week, but we're going to work rapidly towards plenty kauhale statewide."
He said the now-closed medical respite kauhale near Queen's Medical Center successfully showed there is a need for such a program.
"Expect a kauhale to rise again in the region, or in the urban core, somewhere near Washington Place, but definitely near the hospitals. It's just that was a test to see if it was worth it, and it certainly was," Green said.
Good news for the kauhale initiative this week: A new federal program plans to help Hawaiʻi build out housing services covered by Medicaid.
"I talked about housing is health care for years and prescribing housing, now it's going to really be possible," the governor said. His goal is to decrease statewide homelessness by half in his first term.
On Maui, about 4,600 people displaced by the Lahaina wildfire are still living in hotels. Green said that's down from about 8,000 people right after the fires.
Federal and local organizations continue matching people with long-term housing, but Green said he's still considering a moratorium on vacation rentals if there is not enough housing inventory.
"If it doesn't need to happen, I won't do it if we have enough units. But if the number of units wanes and we can't get everybody into long-term housing, I will take action because otherwise, we're paying for hotels. People aren't completely healthy living there."
We also asked the governor his thoughts on the child welfare system after the death of a 10-year-old girl in the care of legal guardians shocked the community.
Geanna Bradley was found dead in the Wahiawa home of Brandy and Thomas Blas. The Blases had removed Geanna from public school before her death. The case renewed calls to prevent keiki from falling through the cracks in the system.
"Let me be just blunt, we don't have as much staff as you would want because it's very hard to get people to work in the public sector at Child Welfare Services. Those folks work very hard, and they are understaffed, so something's got to give," Green said. "I think we have to have eyes on children with regularity, no matter what."
A new 17-member working group, Malama ʻOhana, was created by 2023 legislation to redesign and recommend changes to the child welfare system.
"I just want to encourage everybody, if you see a child getting hurt, or you're worried — drop us a line, you know, make sure that we are out on top of it," he said. "And the real approach is to make everyone healthier in society... That's why I'm trying to focus on the essentials of making life livable here in Hawaiʻi."
Past interviews with the governor: January 2024; December 2023; November; October; September; August
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 15, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
