John Mizuno wants to make history. 

No state has been able to effectively manage — let alone solve — homelessness, says the longtime state lawmaker, who resigned from his position in the House last month to become Gov. Josh Green’s homelessness coordinator.

Hawaii, Mizuno believes, has what it takes to become a national leader in addressing this seemingly intractable social issue. 

“If we can successfully manage homelessness, this will set the blueprint for the rest of the country,” Mizuno said. “We’re flirting with history. It’s epic. No one’s ever done this.”

Mizuno’s optimism might be a hard sell for people in Hawaii who have heard governor after governor declare a state of emergency over homelessness, with seemingly little impact on the number of tents and makeshift shelters that line city sidewalks and parks.

Last year, volunteers identified 4,028 homeless people on Oahu during the annual Point in Time Count in January. It’s a figure that is definitely lower than 2017, when the number of homeless on Oahu peaked at closer to 5,000 — but it’s not much different from the 4,171 counted in 2010.

Still, there are some signs that Hawaii may be gathering new momentum in its efforts to address homelessness.

In 1990, the first year that newspapers in Hawaii began using the term “homeless crisis,” the governor of Hawaii and the mayor of Honolulu both announced plans to build a homeless shelter on the same day. Neither had any idea of what the other was working on.

Today much is being made of the alignment between Green and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who named a new homeless coordinator for the city just weeks after Mizuno was appointed to his post.

The position had been vacant in the city for more than a year said Sam Moku, who was the mayor’s chief of staff before taking the position. Filling the position is a sign of the city’s commitment to addressing the issue, he said.

Moku and Mizuno have a relationship that dates back to their time playing football at the University of Hawaii and have pledged to be in close communication.

Mizuno is also banking on the governor’s push to build numerous homeless communities dubbed “kauhale” in the next year, along with an initiative to better track individuals experiencing homelessness, efforts to coordinate the work of homeless service providers, and the possibility of bringing in additional federal funding by signing more people up for programs like Medicaid.

“We’ve got to invest a lot of money if we are going to reduce homelessness,” Mizuno said. “But the end game would be to save the state millions of dollars also.”

High Stakes

Mizuno is energized about the chance to change the trajectory of homelessness in the state. But he is also painfully aware of what is at stake if the status quo continues.

Mizuno’s younger brother, Dean, struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues, cycling in and out of homelessness for decades. He died in 2017 after falling and hitting his head on the sidewalk. Mizuno just happened to be at The Queen’s Hospital for a press conference when his brother was rushed to the emergency room.

“Being able to hold him before he passed away meant the world to me,” Mizuno said. “And I think that was a defining moment for me in dealing with homelessness and trying to do a better job.”

Mizuno believes his brother did best when he was working with a team — a nurse, social worker, psychiatrist, and peer support network. Creating that safety net for people is part of the governor’s vision for kauhales — tiny home villages with security and social services to help people get back on their feet.

Green has vowed to build at least 15 in the state in the next few years.

Until he took over as the state coordinator on homelessness, Mizuno’s most well-publicized work on homelessness was an effort to fly homeless people originally from the mainland back to any state where they had a family support system.

But Mizuno also points out that there’s an incorrect public perception of who is homeless in Hawaii. The vast majority of homeless people are local, with Native Hawaiians experiencing disproportionately high rates of homelessness.

It’s his hope that the state can work more with businesses, churches and faith-based organizations to create a better safety net for local families and people experiencing homelessness. With the help of community organizations and a concerted push to sign homeless people up for federal services, Mizuno thinks it’s possible for some kauhale projects to become self-sufficient in “a year or two.”

Homelessness isn’t something the government can solve on its own, said Moku of the city. It’s a community problem that will take the community’s effort to solve.

Better coordination, though, is needed at all levels, Mizuno and Moku both said.

There are a lot of community groups and organizations whose work helping the homeless is unknown or unrecognized, Moku believes. But that means it’s also hard to track and coordinate. Many nonprofits are also working in silos, Mizuno said, and there’s a territorial nature to the work for many organizations because they survive on contracts and grants.

“It can’t be a turf battle,” Mizuno said. “You can’t say … ‘this is my domain, stay out.’ It’s got to be, ‘We’re going to collaborate no matter what.'”

Getting Everyone On The Same Page

Mizuno replaced James Koshiba, who was well known for his activism on behalf of the homeless community before taking on the state’s top role in addressing the problem.

Koshiba, who was in the position for just under a year, focused much of his early efforts on education: Talking to lawmakers about the causes and realities of homelessness, fielding phone calls from frustrated citizens with complaints about encampments or specific homeless individuals in their neighborhood.

It was Koshiba’s goal to explain why moving or “sweeping” people from one part of the city to another did little to resolve the problem.

Koshiba also pushed to get service providers to have the same talking points when interacting with community members, said Laura Thielen, executive director of Partners in Care. As a result, many calls have been redirected to Partners in Care.

The organization is now seeking funding to create a web portal to streamline community complaints and requests for services — something that could reduce frustration for people trying to register a complaint about a specific homeless issue and also help direct the right outreach team to assist homeless people, Thielen said.

On the city level, Honolulu is trying to work on a database system for tracking people experiencing homelessness and better identifying the services they need. A similar effort to track veterans experiencing homelessness played a key role in the city’s efforts to address the needs of that population.

Creating a similar data “command center” will help the city figure out where it needs to engage and what services are really needed in each community, Moku said.

Building more affordable housing at all levels is critical Moku and Mizuno agree. As is finding the funding to pay for all the services needed.

One way to do that is by signing up more people experiencing homelessness for federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP, a food assistance program that has taken the place of food stamps.

Medicaid is a significant funder of homeless services and provides for much more than just medical help, Mizuno said. If people hit certain benchmarks with Medicaid, the program will pay for them to go into a community care home, Mizuno said. SNAP also has a multiplier effect, with funds spent in the community helping to support local businesses including agriculture, raising the possibility that homeless services could contribute to the state economy, Mizuno said.

Mizuno foresees a greater push to sign up people for services at community health centers, ohana zones and, eventually, kauhale. But again, coordination is critical.

“Right now the system’s fragmented. That’s why we’ve never been able to get a grasp on homelessness,” Mizuno said, adding that things are starting to change on that front. “We’re starting to unite in the right direction.”