my beef is that the author of this article is just citing the statistics of increased homelessness in Hawaii and implying that what the city and state homeless programs are a failure because of the increases.  he did not review the service utilization report you mentioned.  to me this is irresponsible reporting (since not editorial), giving misguided information.  further, believe the increase in homelessness since 2008 was due primarily to the recession that hit America, where many people lost their jobs and people who bought houses were being foreclosed because they were not able to pay the mortgage.  not sure if I agree with the uh center's report that a rising economy creates more homelessness, since a rising economy creates more jobs.  many of the homeless people (not the chronic ones) say the reason they are homeless is because they lost their jobs.