Center on the Family, HPHA release Homeless Service Utilization Report

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Nov 13, 2009

Center on the Family
Center on the Family
The Center on the Family at UH Mānoa and the Homeless Programs Branch of the Hawai‘i Public Housing Authority have released the Homeless Service Utilization Report: Hawai‘i 2009. Authored by Drs. Sarah Yuan and Sylvia Yuen, the report provides state- and county-level data about the demographic characteristics of individuals and households who accessed homeless support services during the 2009 fiscal year, based on agency-entered data in the Homeless Management and Information System (HMIS). 
 
The report includes info from both the Shelter Stipend Program (i.e., emergency and transitional shelter services) and Outreach Program (i.e., services to those living in a car, park, or beach). Further, it provides new information on the long-term homeless, as well as trend data of clients who accessed Shelter Program services from 2005-09. Some highlights of the report:
  • More males than females accessed homeless services.
  • Children ages 17 years and younger comprised about one third (34%) of the individuals receiving Shelter Program services and 10% of those receiving Outreach Program services. 
  • The elderly (60 years and over) constituted about 5% of those served statewide (4% of Shelter Program clients and 6% of Outreach Program clients).
  • The long-term homeless—i.e., had been homeless continuously for at least one year or had 4 or more episodes of homelessness in the past 3 years—were 23% of the individuals served by the Shelter Program and 31% of those served by the Outreach Program.
  • Of those who experienced long-term homelessness at the time of shelter entry, 28% were children and 69% were accompanied by a partner or family member. In contrast, their counterparts in the Outreach Program were composed of lower percentages of children (6%) and accompanied individuals (25%).
  • Approximately one third of the long-term homeless adults who received shelter (32%) and outreach (40%) services reported having some form of disability.
  • The number of Shelter Program clients has grown significantly in recent years: from 5,535 individuals in 2005 to 7,501 individuals in 2009, which represents a 36% increase in clients served.
“We developed the report to provide easy access to important statistics on the homeless, especially for those who need the data to improve policies, programs, and services for the homeless,” says Dr. Sarah Yuan, one of the Center on the Family authors of the 2009 report. Added Sandra Miyoshi, Director of the Homeless Division of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, which collaborated with UH Mānoa on the report: “The use of the HMIS data will help us to make better decisions and actions that reduce homelessness in Hawaii. Despite the gains we’ve made in the past few years, there is a continuing need to move homeless people into permanent housing.”
 
The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the funding that made the report possible. Copies of the report are available at the offices of the UH Manoa Center on the Family, located at 2515 Campus Road, Miller Hall 103. Attached is the PDF of the 2009 Homeless Service Utilization Report, which is also available on the Center on the Family website at http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu/publications/brochures/HomelessServiceUtilization2009.pdf
 
Contact the UH Mānoa Center on the Family at (808) 956-4132, via email at cof@ctahr.hawaii.edu, or see the Web site at http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu/. The Center on the Family is a unit within the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.