HOPE Services Hawaii staff get Holiday Inn rooms ready for the homeless, from left, Derrick Kai, Alyssa Souza, Carrie Hoopii and Christine Tabac. (Photo courtesy of HOPE Services Hawaii)
Sheltering-in-place doesn’t mean much when you don’t have a place to shelter. That’s why HOPE Services Hawaii is coordinating a place for homeless elderly and medically at-risk homeless to stay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting on April 9, the non-profit affiliate of the Diocese of Honolulu’s Office for Social Ministry began moving homeless kupuna into the Holiday Inn Express in Kailua-Kona. As of last week, HOPE Services staff placed 30 program participants. Some of the homeless were in a HOPE shelter but others came off the street.
“CDC guidelines recommend that we all shelter in place, but not everyone has that luxury,” said HOPE Services CEO Brandee Menino. “It’s our responsibility as citizens to follow guidance from the infectious disease experts to make sure we protect the most vulnerable members of our ohana.”
HOPE Services staff are at the hotel 24-7 to provide support. Holiday Inn Express in Kailua-Kona cleans rooms every three days, disinfects common areas and provides daily breakfast-to-go. The Rotary Club of Kona and Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise and Hawaii Island Boys and Girls Club give daily lunch provisions and hot dinners while the West Hawaii Community Health Center offers COVID-19 testing and other health services at a clinic across the street.
A $25,000 Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation grant funded the lodging effort.
Hawaii county recently did a sweep of a homeless encampment in Hilo that displaced a good number of homeless, whom HOPE Services is working with. The organization is also working with other Big Island groups to distribute grant-provided emergency financial assistance to low-income households that need it.
HOPE Services is looking for more hand sanitizer, face masks and gloves for the temporary Holiday Inn Express-Kona hotel residents and the staff looking out for them. To donate call Joycelyn Cabal at (808) 217-2830 or email volunteer@hopeserviceshawaii.org. Go to hopeserviceshawaii.org to make a financial contribution.
More temporary housing efforts:
HOPE Services has also been working on these COVID-19 shelter for homeless efforts:
Working to provide support services for Hale Hanakahi, a new group of 32 temporary shelters at the NAS Pool parking lot in Hilo.
HOPE’s Shelter in Place Program is working with the Kamuela Inn in Waimea to provide rooms for elderly and medically fragile people in North Hawaii. Six people have moved in as of April 22.
A new temporary shelter in Kona is in the works in partnership with the county that will have 18 micro units similar to Hale Hanakahi in Hilo.
