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Committee backs resolution urging housing ladder program to help families ‘graduate’ into unsubsidized housing
Summary
SCR 160, urging HPHA, DHS, the Statewide Office of Homelessness and HHFDC to develop a housing ladder program, was moved forward after agency support; DHS described its family self-sufficiency program and said it has graduated about 30 families and includes a five-year escrow element.
The committee advanced SCR 160, which urges several state housing and homelessness agencies to create a housing ladder program to help people move from subsidized housing into unsubsidized housing.
Representatives from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation said they support the resolution and stood on written testimony. Ben Park of the Department of Human Services described the department’s family self-sufficiency program, which he said is a five-year program that includes an escrow benefit for participants. Park said the program historically graduates "maybe 30 families" and described the escrow component as "about $100,000 a year for one participant" (his phrasing).
Park also told members that federal HUD funding for local resident services used to be more common but has declined over the last two decades, limiting local program capacity.
The committee moved SCR 160 forward with the recommendation adopted.
