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Human Services details Maui recovery sites and asks recurring funds for benefits and casework
Summary
Department of Human Services briefed the committee on biennium budget priorities, Maui recovery work and homelessness responses including modular site Kala‘i Ola and interim shelters; the department asked to continue prior salary differentials for child-welfare staff and funding for benefit system modernization.
The Department of Human Services presented an overview of its biennium request and described ongoing Maui recovery and homelessness-response work to the House Committee on Finance.
The director (presented as Director, Department of Human Services in the transcript) listed the department’s FY request as $4,459,000,000 and described the agency’s wide portfolio: cash, medical and social-services programs across the state. The department said it manages a large number of programs — Medicaid (administered through Med-QUEST) serving roughly 406,000 enrollees, SNAP and food-security programs, child-welfare and foster-care services, vocational rehabilitation, and homelessness and housing solutions work — and supervises several attached agencies including the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Office of Youth Services.
Deputy director Joseph (Joe) Campos and Deputy Director Trisha Spears briefed members on response and recovery operations after the August 2023 Maui wildfires. Campos summarized interim and longer-term housing responses: a temporary field shelter (Pu‘uhonua ‘Ohana) established on DOT land, a larger modular project called Kala‘i Ola (initially planned as roughly 450 modular units) and a separate acquisition (Hale Olaie) the state purchased and is operating as temporary housing. Campos said Kala‘i Ola had broken ground and was housing families; he described site costs and said work to stabilize the site and complete infrastructure increased the project’s overall cost, and the administration continues cost engineering to stay within appropriated limits.
John Mizuno, governor’s coordinator on homelessness and housing solutions, provided a progress update on the state’s Kahale (clustered interim housing) program, saying the state had completed a set of kauhale and housed more than 750 people while planning further deployments. “We have already built 17, we've housed over 750 houseless,” Mizuno said, describing rapid procurement and a plan to encumber additional kauhale contracts in the fiscal year.
On departmental priorities, the director and deputies emphasized child-welfare staff recruitment and retention. The department asked legislators to continue a $3,000,000 differential for child-welfare positions and urged funding to modernize benefit eligibility systems (the BESD IT project) to improve SNAP and cash-assistance operations. Deputies described operational strain in offices that maintain casework and said they are carrying vacancies but have recruited aggressively over the last year.
Committee members asked for additional detail on Maui interim housing caseloads and program transitions between FEMA, HUD and state-supported options; DHS said the Hawaii Interim Housing Program (HIP) manages applications and that about 1,100 applicants remained in open or administratively closed status for FEMA eligibility, with RAP and other rental programs available as state transitions proceed.
DHS asked the committee for a range of funding items across child welfare, case management, and homelessness supports and noted that some disaster-related requests for permanency and housing services had been submitted as major-disaster F1 requests for supplemental funding.
