The Hawaii County Council on Feb. 4 voted 8-0 to approve a resolution requesting the county auditor conduct a performance audit of the Office of Housing and Community Development’s Homeless and Housing Fund, a five-year program established by the council in 2022 to combat homelessness.
Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder was excused and absent from the vote on the resolution, which was introduced by Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball and Council Chairman Holeka Inaba.
Since its inception, the program, funded by county real property tax revenue, has awarded a little over $33.5 million in grants to numerous nonprofit organizations.
So far, the homeless services provider HOPE Services Hawaii Inc. has received the most money — 12 grants totaling more than $9.845 million.
Others receiving grants ranging from about $90,000 into seven figures include Big Island Substance Abuse Council, Neighborhood Place of Puna, West Hawaii Community Health Center, the Salvation Army, Mental Health Kokua, Bridge House Inc., Going Home Hawaii, Habitat for Humanity Hawaii Island, Lokahi Treatment Centers, Child and Family Services Hawaii, 808 Homeless Task Force, Project Vision Hawaii, Hawaii Community Lending Inc., Hawaii Island Home for Recovery Inc. and Men of PA‘A.
The program is authorized until 2027, and council members want to quantify what has been done to help alleviate homelessness with the grants already awarded.
There were two testifiers, one in person and the other via written testimony.
Joyce Folena of Leilani Estates in Puna said he county has a “moral obligation” to do “anything and everything to alleviate and help the plight of the homeless.”
Marya Mann, who submitted written testimony, alleged deficiencies in the Kailua-Kona complex where she lives, Kamakana Village, which she described as “a mixed senior and family affordable housing community.”
“While residents are not privy to funding structures or contractual obligations, we have experienced prolonged gaps in onsite management, unresolved maintenance and drainage issues, and a lack of clarity regarding routine inspections and required certifications. These conditions raise reasonable questions about performance and oversight,” Mann wrote.
“When public funds are intended to support housing stability, health and dignity, outcomes on the ground matter. We appreciate your independent performance audit precisely to assess this alignment.”
Hilo Councilwoman Jenn Kagiwada called the fund a “compassionate and necessary initiative.” She added that with the fund wrapping up its third year of grants, with two years remaining, “This is the right time for the audit.”
“I hope the audit will look at those who were prevented from becoming homeless because of the fund as well as those who were helped out of homelessness. I think that’s something that can kind of become hidden and invisible in some cases,” Kagiwada said. “… As a council, we have kuleana for creating policy through funding like this housing and homelessness fund. And it’s the administration’s job to administer the program, oversee the needed changes, and utilize the funding to support our community, in accordance with the ordinances that we establish by this body.
“I’ve been impressed with the administration’s improvements to how the funding is being directed and appreciative of the reports and candid discussions we had with OHCD on this issue over the years,” she continued. “I’ve been, and continue to be, in full support of any tools like this audit, that provide information and data to assist the council in making informed budgetary and policy decisions.”
Saying she “wanted to get information correct,” Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas inquired about the scope of the audit.
“I’ve had a number of people reach out to ask me to clarify whether or not the audit will include not just OHCD, but the actual organizations that have received the funding, and what the depth and level of auditing will entail when it comes to how the funds have been spent by the organizations,” Villegas said.
In response, Kimball read from the “be it resolved” section of the resolution, which calls for a “comprehensive review of OHCD and nonprofit use of housing and homeless funds.”
Separate from the resolution itself, Regina Weller, executive director of the 808 Homeless Task Force in Captain Cook, told the Tribune-Herald in a Feb. 2 email that her organization was denied a grant in 2023. And, despite her organization returning 178 unsheltered individuals to their families out-of-state in 2024 using $279,519 of a $292,000 grant from the fund, its grant applications were again denied by OHCD in 2025 and 2026.
“There is no credible reason for denial, since our performance stats and metrics are excellent,” Weller wrote. “… We are a smaller organization, and along with other small organizations who have submitted applications and were denied funding in the past, we all believe our denial was based on OHCD’s continued favoritism or cronyism toward the larger organizations, who already have millions of dollars from state and federal funds. We also believe OHCD’s created scoring process is skewed toward their favorites.
“We had complained to the County Council for a few years now because they have backed OHCD’s selection of the same organizations whose track record for decreasing homelessness is dismal.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.