County will receive donated rapid response shelters

The County of Hawaii Office of Housing and Community Development will soon have another tool for its toolbox to address homelessness and emergencies on the Big Island.

The County Council voted 8-0 Wednesday to accept the donation of 10 Maui County Pallet Shelters valued at $70,000. Measuring 64 square feet, Rapid Response Prefab Shelters can accommodate up to two beds and are quick to assemble. Furthermore, they have a shelf life of 10 years and can be stored in a warehouse and shipped as needed.

“They come pre-packaged on a pallet, as I understand it, and you open them up and put them together; they can be built in about an hour,” said Puna Councilor Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder, who introduced the resolution accepting the donation. “It’s a very clean shelter and good for housing for the homeless or for an emergency, whatever.”

The shelters were used by Maui County during its COVID-19 emergency response, which is winding down, said Sharon Hirota, a specialist in the Office of Housing and Community Development’s Community Engagement Division. While Hawaii County plans to primarily use the shelters to address homelessness, the impetus for securing rapid response shelters was much different.

“We started our conversations actually in preparation for whether Mauna Loa was going to impact our neighbors,” Hirota said, noting that a call to his counterpart in Maui quickly led to the donation being accepted by the County Council on Wednesday.

The next step, he said, is to finalize the logistics of transporting the shelters from Maui County to the island of Hawaii. It is not yet determined where they will be used for the first time on the island.

Hirota called pallet shelters “another tool in our toolbox for addressing the need for emergency shelters.”

“We will have it here on the island, so whatever the need is, whether it is addressing homelessness right now or addressing a need due to natural disasters, with these we will have 10 in stock ready to go,” he said.

He also noted that the donation gives the county the ability to “pilot” its use without great expense.

“We’re excited to bring it here, set it up, and see how it actually works in our elements, in our community,” Hirota said.

The shelter donation comes amid the annual point-in-time count conducted by volunteers and advocates to provide a snapshot of all the homeless on the island of Hawaii. The count began on Monday and continues through Friday.

It also comes as the county prepared to break ground today on the $12 million, 30-unit Kukuiola Emergency Shelter and Assessment Center in the vicinity of the West Hawaii Civic Center and Kealakehe High School.

The 2022 Point in Time Count indicated that homelessness without shelter increased 6% (33 people) to 554 total people compared to 521 in 2020 on the Big Island. There was no count in 2021 due to the pandemic. Homelessness without shelter among people increased to 496 or 14% (60 people) compared to 436 in 2020.

The total number of homeless families was 66, down two from 2020. 48 sheltered families were identified, a 50 percent increase compared to 2021. In 2021, the capacity of family shelters was reduced to meet guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of the homeless homeless in 2022, 240 people were identified as chronically homeless, meaning a person with a disability who has been continuously homeless for a year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years where the combined length of time homeless on those occasions is at least 12 months. Some 250 people identified as having serious mental illness and 189 said they were chronic substance users.

Email Chelsea Jensen at [email protected]