By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Safe Haven, housed in the historic Edwin Thomas Home,
41 S. Beretania, provides "a portal of entry to housing and
treatment." Resident Robert Cattarini takes a
smoke break outside the facility.
How Safe Haven helps
By Helen Altonn
the menatlly ill homeless
Star-BulletinGary Kelly lived "just down the street" until moving into Safe Haven about 1-1/2 years ago. The 48-year-old Vietnam veteran is among those who have found peace, as well as food and shelter, at the facility near Fort Street Mall.
Safe Haven -- Pu'uhonua in Hawaiian -- provides refuge and services for mentally ill homeless people.
Mental Help Hawaii teamed up with Kalihi-Palama Health Center's Health Care for the Homeless Project to start Safe Haven in December 1995.
Located in the historic Edwin Thomas Home at 41 S. Beretania St., it is described as a "portal of entry to housing and treatment."
"We have 25 people here who would otherwise be on the streets, in a hospital or prison," said Joanne Lundstrom, Mental Help Hawaii chief executive officer.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Gary Kelly, 48, has been at Safe Haven for about a year
and a half. He says "it's a good place to live." Sally Erickson,
right, is a project director. She says the goal is to teach
residents skills so they can care for themselves.
Kelly, who has taken up watercolor painting at Safe Haven, says, "It's a good place to live."But the goal is to move residents out of there -- to teach them skills so they can care for themselves in the community, said project director Sally Erickson.
A 24-year-old schizophrenic, for example, is back to surfing and work as a plumber, she said. He entered Safe Haven with a head injury and substance abuse problems and returned to the community clean and sober.
Placement coordinator Lorraine McCarthy explores housing options and helps residents find living quarters. Former clients receive follow-up services and may return to Safe Haven for support and activities.
But independent living isn't for everyone, the project leaders say. The best resource for some may be the State Hospital, then back to Safe Haven, said Jaimie Page, coordinator of the Health Care for the Homeless Project.
Her project provides outreach services for up to 60 homeless mentally ill people in the Fort Street Mall area, trying to connect them with Safe Haven.
They are the most vulnerable homeless people -- victims of rapes, assaults and muggings, Page said. One woman who went to Safe Haven had been beaten every day, she said. Many have medical problems and mental illnesses.
Erickson said Safe Haven is unique because it offers comprehensive services. A full-time staff of 35 provides psychiatric, medical and rehabilitative care, pre-vocational training and community placement and reintegration.
Doing nothing for street people results in incalculable police, emergency hospital and other costs, Erickson pointed out. Safe Haven's costs totaled $95 per resident per day the past year, "and we're providing a solution," she said.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Rehabilitation specialst Susan Osaki
helps a resident make a greeting card.
People living on the streets are screened to use shower and laundry facilities at Safe Haven, have meals, participate in activities, use the address there for mail and receive other services.Workers try to identify people's needs and help them achieve their goals, whether residents want to write to the president or make a phone call.
Still, Safe Haven isn't a magnet for the homeless mentally ill -- a fear expressed during hearings on the project, Lundstrom said. A gradual process is involved to acquaint potential clients with the program before they will accept medical and psychiatric treatment, she said.
Page said it took two years to coax one man to visit Safe Haven.
Homeless mentally ill people are isolated and paranoid, she said. Many have been overmedicated and fear places where they're told they have to take medicine, she said.
"It's hard to tell someone who thinks they're queen of Ethiopia they're ill and have to take medicine."
No pressure is exerted on Safe Haven clients, Page said, but about 70 percent are taking medicine voluntarily as a result of a slow, low-dose strategy.
Residential Coordinator Gino Merez oversees services for the 25 men and women who are housed on separate floors in individual rooms.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Pool is one of the activities available for clients at
Safe Haven. Television and some exercise equipment
are also on hand.
"They take pride in their rooms," Erickson said. The residents are thrilled to have a safe place to store all the stuff they collect on the street, she said.The residence has a boutique for donated clothes. Staff members help people select outfits; they do makeup and nails and cut hair, which boosts the residents' self-esteem, Erickson said.
One man was at Safe Haven only a month, she said. "The greatest thing we did for him was cut his hair and give him clothes." With his new look, people were much nicer to him, she said.
New occupants receive a basket of toiletries with such things as shampoo, soap, towels and a razor.
With public restrooms in the area closed to homeless people, they have nowhere to clean up, Lundstrom said. Some also prefer a grungy appearance, she said. "It is a coat of armor, and a sad one."
Many of the homeless are Vietnam veterans. "The tragedy of the vets," Page said, "is they're most paranoid about the agency to help them, the Veterans Administration. Their disillusion is associated with the military."
One homeless, disabled man has $1,600 monthly coming to him from the V.A. that he won't accept, Page said. "It's not with lack of effort by the V.A., which makes a very good outreach effort."
He goes to Safe Haven periodically for meals, clothing and cigarettes, she
said. "He can't tolerate eating in the dining room. He gets food to go, and the staff keeps tab on his medical condition."
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
The rooms provided are clean and neat. Above,
Sally Erickson shows off the facilities.
Lundstrom said the facility doesn't want to be a soup kitchen, but homeless people are encouraged to eat there or participate in other activities as a step toward other services.Only about five to 10 show up daily for meals, Page said.
"They're even frightened of coming in to eat at first."
One woman had lived on the beach 17 years and still eats on a grass mat on the floor, she said. Another sits at the piano to eat.
Lundstrom said Hawaii Pacific University has some concerns about the mix of college students and homeless people in the area.
"We are working with the HPU administration to make sure we can live together as neighbors," said Lundstrom.
The Safe Haven sponsors also belong to downtown neighborhood boards and do outreach with neighbors. "They see that the (homeless) people are not there any more or they look different," Lundstrom said.
Opponents blocked initial attempts to establish Safe Haven in the old Kakaako fire station. However, Mental Help Hawaii still hopes to win approval to use that site to help homeless in that area, Lundstrom said.
She would like to see mini-Safe Havens across the state with comprehensive services for homeless mentally ill people. "That's the key. If services are there, they'll use them. If they have to go somewhere else, forget it."
Page said Hawaii's Safe Haven is a model for those being developed on the mainland. "The philosophy, the values we had at the beginning are true. Homeless people in society who were thought hopeless are not hopeless at all."
Transitional center offers
By Helen Altonn
a step into the community
Star-BulletinFour houses at the edge of the Hawaii State Hospital grounds represent "one big step into the community" for Kearny Loa. He was in the hospital twice, the second time for 11 years. Now he's living in a care home in Kalihi and looking for work.
Loa, 47, attributes his leap from institutional to independent living to the four-house Transitional Residential Assistance Center.
Mental Help Hawaii operates the 24-hour residential and social rehabilitation program -- the opposite of the agency's Safe Haven, said Joanne Lundstrom, chief executive officer.
At Safe Haven, a residential program for homeless mentally ill people in downtown Honolulu, "We try to pull them in and engage them in services," she said. "This (TRAC) is to disengage them."
The transitional center opened in July 1996 with room for 14 people in the four houses. The longest stay has been one year, said project coordinator Victoria Stark.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Kerney Loa has made the leap to independent
living through a transitional center.
So far, there have been 18 court-approved discharges. "TRAC is directly opening beds at the State Hospital," she said.Clients pay $300 a month toward their room and board, and the state Health Department pays for services. Most occupants have been men. One woman lives there now.
The center has five full-time staff members but no doctors or nurses, Stark said, explaining that clients are linked to those and other resources in the community. "This is home, where people can be themselves in recovery," she said.
"We don't focus on the past," said Jim Carter, program director. "We try to pull out their strengths for independent living."
Social and living skills are emphasized, he said. "We try to take a person where they're at and go from there."
Rudy Camarillo, 47, said he's been in the center seven months "recuperating from things happening to me." After seven years in the hospital, he said, "I love this program. It's a benefit to know myself."
He's also learning to cook, wash clothes, clean his room, do chores and other things necessary to manage on his own, he said.
"Here, they do everything themselves," Stark said. "They take themselves to doctors. Some have cars. Some have jobs or are looking for jobs. Some volunteer at different places in the community. It's like getting back into life, what Rudy is doing now."
The residents did all the landscaping and built a rain shelter and patio.
"Pride in ownership is definitely there," Stark said.
Kaneohe Marines helped with the construction, she said, noting that the center has a lot of community support and interaction.
Only one person has returned to the State Hospital from the transitional program.
"When I first started, my expectation of success was not as great," Carter said.
John Tassi, 42, moved into a group home after five months in the hospital and five months in the transitional center. A poet, he is working on a portfolio with his writings and images and is seeking to publish some of his works.
The transitional center is great for people leaving the hospital with nowhere to go, said Tassi, who formerly lived in the woods on Maui. There are certain restrictions, such as a 9 p.m. curfew, he said. But he said the center is affordable, clean and well-managed, "with a collection of people who help each other out."
Clinics, doctors, counselors and case managers are arranged before a person is discharged from the transitional center.
Stark said graduates can always return for dinner or activities -- "every day if they like, and it's all right with us. There is no cutoff.
"Every once in a while someone comes with bags and wants to move back 'home.' "
