Almost ten months into Mayor Rick Blangiardi's term, the city's finally ready to act on his promise to clean up the streets and help improve the lives of Honolulu's neediest residents.
The city is deploying a new strategy to not only connect the homeless with resources, but to free up emergency medical services and police patrols.
The Honolulu Emergency Services Department has set aside two ambulances with teams of paramedics and social workers to respond to nonviolent homeless emergency calls -- which oftentimes aren't emergencies at all.
"But those types of calls really tie up the 911 ambulances and then they can't go to car accidents and heart attacks and other emergencies," said Dr. Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.