By Ian Bauer
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HONOLULU — The Office of the City Auditor is expected to delve into the administration and operation of the city’s homeless response program, currently overseen by the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.
To that end, the City Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted Resolution 109, which requests a performance audit of the city’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement, or CORE, program as well as HESD.
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A performance audit on the CORE program, first established by the city in 2021, is being requested in order “to promote accountability, transparency and efficiency in government, ” the resolution states.
“CORE’s mission includes providing rapid, island-wide crisis response and social service referrals, reducing reliance on police officers, alleviating the strain on emergency rooms, and improving long-term outcomes of homeless individuals, ” the legislation asserts.
“The Council believes that a comprehensive and objective performance audit of CORE and of HESD’s overall administration, particularly with regard to resource management, is necessary to assess the effectiveness of the CORE program and recommend improvements to improve the city’s emergency and crisis response systems.”
Prior to the vote, Council Vice Chair Andria Tupola, who introduced Resolution 109 in April with Council member Val Okimoto, said the requested CORE audit seeks to determine whether the city is “achieving the outcomes that we’re funding through the program.”
“So we want to recognize that CORE has been a positive step towards non-law enforcement, health-centered response for individuals experiencing homelessness and behavioral health crises, ” she said. “However, positive and supportive testimonies from experts have highlighted key areas that we could improve in the city.”
Tupola said potential improvements could include reviewing the successes of similar programs on the U.S. continent that, in part, reduced an abundance of 911 calls that can hamper city services.
“These programs, when worked in conjunction, have successfully diverted thousands of calls from emergency rooms and police, reducing the strain on both systems while better serving vulnerable individuals, which is what we desire, ” she added.
She said that based on prior testimony from the ACLU of Hawaii and the Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaii Coalition, the situation “makes it clear that while CORE’s mission is commendable, its current structure is not fully aligned with the proven response models.”
“So I think that we need to address those gaps, ” Tupola said. “I’m hopeful that the time limit we gave the auditor is sufficient so that we can look into it.”
She noted, “What we really want to do is just provide effective homeless solutions.
“The whole, entire county is relying on us to have the best tools that we can have, and I think by refining our approach, it’s going to make everything more cost-efficient, but also more impactful so that each of our (Council ) districts can see a decrease in homelessness, ” she said.
NO ONE from the public testified on the requested audit at the meeting, but in written testimony, ACLU of Hawaii policy advocate Josh Frost stated his organization believes CORE is “an indispensable program for addressing ongoing public health and housing crises impacting our communities.”
“However, we believe the program is vastly under-resourced and misapplied …, ” he wrote. “CORE is currently operated by paramedics who are essential but have not been extensively trained in crisis response. There are no trained social workers in the upper management of the program. CORE’s EMTs lack critical crisis outreach skills and are not accompanied by social workers on calls into the community.”
The city administration appeared to question the need for Resolution 109 and its requested audit.
In an Aug. 19 letter to the Council, Honolulu Managing Director Mike Formby stated the city “would benefit from understanding the referenced testimony, community concerns and questions so that HESD can have a clearer and fuller understanding of the context surrounding this resolution.”
“Additionally, if there are concrete real issues that can be addressed sooner, we would do so, ” Formby wrote. “We are committed to continuous improvement in providing city services and appreciate the strong working relationship and collaboration we have with the Honolulu City Council .”
The initial drafting of Resolution 109 in April coincided with the lengthy, contentious process to reconfirm Dr. James Ireland as head of HESD.
Okimoto, at the time serving as chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, was a skeptic of Ireland’s ongoing directorship of the department, where he has served in that capacity since early 2020, continuing in the position in Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s second term, which began in January.
In a Public Safety Committee meeting in February, opponents of Ireland’s nomination—largely former EMS workers—leveled complaints about low morale, chronic understaffing, favoritism and frequent resignations that allegedly affected the timely response of ambulances to emergencies across Oahu.
By early April, the same committee heard a chorus of support for Ireland, including from Gov. Josh Green, who came to the defense of his fellow physician, following Blangiardi’s push for Ireland’s reconfirmation as well.
Although she eventually voted to approve Ireland’s return to lead HESD, Okimoto expressed “serious concerns ” over the direction of the department.
ACTING CITY Auditor Troy Shimasaki told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that his agency will begin the approved performance audit on CORE and HESD in about two weeks.
“So we have a year to complete it, by City Charter, ” he explained. “We’ll try to do it before that, but you can generally anticipate it will take about a year because it’s a pretty extensive audit. It’s asking for a lot of review and analysis.”
Shimasaki noted CORE’s planned performance audit is similar to one his office completed in August, also via a Council resolution, on the Hono lulu Fire Department’s Fire Plans Review Revolving Fund .
That inspection determined the fund, established and created via a 2012 city ordinance as a repository for fire plan review fees, did not have adequate safeguards in place, as required by city law, to prevent fraud, waste or error in the use of those public funds.
For its part, the city administration generally disagreed with many of the auditor’s findings.
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