HONOLUU — Mayor Rick Blangiardi will meet with officials from the Biden administration in Washington, D.C., over the coming days to push for more funding for housing programs and federal assistance to address homelessness.

Blangiardi departs Honolulu on Friday and will return on May 1. Managing Director Michael Formby will serve as acting mayor while Blangiardi is out of the state.

The trip will also include a meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Homelessness Task Force.

“Preventing local families from ever experiencing homelessness is just as important as assisting those who are already on the street,” Blangiardi said in a statement released on Thursday. “Too many people in our communities are living paycheck-to-paycheck, finding themselves just one rainy day away from housing insecurity.”

Blangiardi is seeking additional funding for the city’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides for rental subsidies to be paid directly to landlords on behalf of income-eligible families. The vouchers allow a tenant to only pay around 30% of their household income towards rent.

The mayor is also looking into a voucher relief program designed for individuals who received assistance through the city’s Rent and Utility Relief Program, which has provided eligible households financial assistance for rent and utility bills. The program provided payments to approximately 15,000 landlords to help keep their low-income renters housed during the past three years, supporting more than 22,000 households, according to the mayor’s office.

At current funding levels, the city is able to assist 3,980 households with vouchers from the federal government; the Housing Choice Voucher Program is the largest voucher program in the state. Blangiardi would like to expand the program to assist as many 6,000 households each year, including the introduction of project-based vouchers to increase the supply of affordable housing on the island.

“Honolulu is consistently rated among the most expensive places to live in the United States,” said Department of Community Services Director Anton Krucky. “We must do everything we can to make it possible for our residents to continue to be able to live in the place where they grew up. Our city needs their invaluable contributions, and we cannot afford to lose them to other cities with a lower cost of living. With federal assistance, we look to continue to grow this program.”

The mayor pointed to the success achieved by creative use of Housing Choice Vouchers. In 2021, the Oahu Housing Now initiative provided short-term rental assistance and supportive services to help people get housing quickly, increase self-sufficiency and maintain housing. Through this initiative, 312 families consisting of 829 individuals received housing, and 97% of them remained housed after exiting the program using other support programs, according to the mayor’s office.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.