Hilo, Wednesday, November 2, 2011 – The Downtown Hilo Registry Week marked Hilo’s participation in 100,000 Homes Campaign, a national effort to house 100,000 Homeless by July 2013. Downtown Hilo was the first community to kick off this campaign in Hawaii.

Fifty community volunteers outreached across the Downtown Hilo community for three mornings, Oct. 23-25, to find, identify and survey the area’s homeless. The Downtown Hilo Registry Week created a by-name, photographic registry of local homeless and prioritize the most vulnerable for housing.

More than 100 homeless persons were encountered and more than 80 percent of them completed the surveys in the volunteer’s group effort to assess the homeless’ health and housing needs.

A local coalition of volunteers and community providers spearheaded by HOPE Services Hawaii teamed up with the nationally renowned organization, Community Solutions, and its 100,000 Homes Campaign (www.100Khomes.org).

The program has become a national model for reducing/eliminating homelessness. One hundred cities across America have participated in this campaign in it’s inaugural year. The State’s Interagency Council on Homelessness recently adopted this model.

Read Hawaii 24/7 article:

http://www.hawaii247.com/2011/11/02/hilo-kicks-off-100000-homes-campaign/