Department of Human Services

Corporate body

Department of Human Services

• DHS

1960-present

The Department of Human Services was established in 1960 as the Department of Social Services. It was renamed the Department of Social Services and Housing in 1970 and received its current designation in 1987. Its records are organized into two sub-groups of one series each, Records of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility and Records of the Long Term Care Channeling Office/“Project Malama.” Neither agency remains in the department. The Hawaii Youth Correction Facility was placed under the Office of Youth Services in 1991 and the Long Term Care Channeling Office was disestablished in 1995.

The primary purpose of the department is to administer programs designed to improve the social well-being and productivity of the people of the State. It concerns itself with problems of human behavior, adjustment and daily living through the administration of programs of family, child and adult welfare, economic assistance, health care assistance, rehabilitation toward self-care and support, public housing and related programs.
Its specific duties are to:
• Establish and administer programs and standards and adopt rules for all public assistance programs;
• Assist in preventing family breakdown by planning, establishing and directing family support programs;
• Establish, extend and strengthen services for the protection and care of neglected children and children in danger of becoming delinquent;
• Establish, maintain and operate suitable receiving homes for the care and custody of neglected children;
• Receive from the police or other agencies for care and custody any neglected child;
• Place or assist in placing neglected children in suitable private homes or institutions including suitable adoptive homes;
• Administer medical assistance programs for eligible public welfare and other medically needy individuals;
• Cooperate with the federal government in carrying out the purposes of the Social Security Act and other matters of mutual concern pertaining to public welfare, public assistance including food stamps and child welfare services;
• Conduct research and compile statistics relative to public and private welfare activities;
• Develop plans for the prevention and treatment of conditions giving rise to public welfare problems;
• Determine the appropriate level for the “Hawaii security net” by developing a tracking and monitoring system to determine what segments of the population are not able to afford the basic necessities of life and advise the legislature annually regarding the resources required to maintain the security net at the appropriate level;
• Plan, organize and direct programs for the vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities;
• Exercise administrative supervision over programs under the jurisdiction of the Office of Youth Services, including the care of children incarcerated by the courts of the State.

Established: As the Department of Social Services by Act 1, 2nd Spl SLH 1959, effectuated by Gubernatorial Executive Order No. 9, January 19, 1960.
Redesignated: Renamed Department of Social Services and Housing, June 19, 1970; renamed Department of Human Services, July 1, 1987.

Prepared 2003-04-04 by Allen H. Hoof.

Revised Laws of Hawaii: Chapters 74, 83, 108, 109, 349 (1955).
Hawaii Revised Statutes: Title 20 and §26-14 (1968, 1976, 1985, 1993).
Session Laws of Hawaii: Act 41, SLH 1905; Act 129, SLH 1931; Act 190, SLH 1935; Act 296, SLH 1941; Acts 113 and 150, SLH 1945; Act 75, SLH 1951; Act 1, 2nd Spl SLH 1959; Act 105, SLH 1970; Acts 338 and 339, SLH 1987; Act 114, SLH 1991.
Hawaii Administrative Rules: Title 17 (Department of Human Services).

2021-04-27, Carol Kellett: Entered into AtoM.