Family finds temporary home at church

Members of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church were apprehensive about letting a homeless family live on church grounds but were compelled to do so because their baby girl has severe asthma.

“The baby is the kicker. An infant in the rain with asthma in Wahiawa is not OK,” said member Mary Kealoha.

The church informally adopted the family of three — Malia Namakaeha, Lorenzo Allen and daughter Mikiala, 6 months old — about a month ago. Kealoha said the first time she met them was when she brought them dinner, and all her apprehension disappeared. “Right away you get a good feeling when you talk to them,” she said.

Since then she and others in the small congregation have given them rides to the hospital emergency room and brought food, diapers and money for the bus. “I see them trying very hard. I see them doing the legwork; they’re working hard” to get housing, a job for Lorenzo, she said. “That makes you want to help them even more.”

St. Stephen’s kahu (pastor) Kaleo Patterson invited the family to pitch a tent on the large, covered lanai of the church, one of 15 faith congregations on California Avenue. His members number over 100, most of whom are seniors, but the 40 regulars who attend Sunday service have been generous in donating all kinds of help.

Patterson said the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii two years ago passed a resolution permitting its 37 churches statewide to offer shelter and other support in response to the mounting homeless crisis. St. Stephen’s has allowed a single man to live on the premises for over a year, but he prefers just to stay in his car in the parking lot and has become a contributing member of the church, Patterson said.

“With most churches it’s very complicated, and (they) would rather not have anyone stay on property. … The perceptions of the homeless are very negative and stereotypical that families or individuals have problems or are not fully functioning,” said Patterson, who also pastors St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Maili and supports a homeless ministry at Waianae Boat Harbor. (St. Elizabeth’s in Palama may be the only other church in the Episcopal diocese to allow the homeless to stay on its property overnight, which it started unofficially several years ago, but the diocese said it does not track this information.)

“I was reluctant to get involved” as other members were because “it’s almost overwhelming, the kind of situation Lorenzo and Malia are in. … They need almost everything,” said Sandra Shawhan, a retired Maui principal and member of St. Stephen’s governing Bishop’s Committee. Most members, she said, were worried about liability and insurance coverage. “Jesus said many words about loving our neighbors and helping those in need,” she said, adding, “It’s kind of like the Angel Tree — you know what you do at the holidays, you kind of adopt a family.”

Only three people signed up initially to help, but a good number are contributing. This past Sunday an impromptu collection was made after Shawhan appealed for funds to provide the couple with cellphone service (necessary for medical appointments, job interviews, housing opportunities, etc.) and a bus pass.

The couple said they met at the Maui Job Corps but moved to Honolulu for better job opportunities in October after two years of being unable to find work. They stayed at a few shelters downtown but said unsanitary and bug-infested conditions worsened their baby’s asthma, requiring frequent hospital care. They moved to Wahiawa, where Namakaeha has a relative they were able to stay with temporarily. They were living in a tent at the top of the stairs of an abandoned building on California Avenue, enduring a recent downpour, when they met a member of St. Stephen’s at a bus stop. She called Patterson, who just happened to have the right size diapers in his car that someone had donated, he said.

“Every week we help them (the couple) chart their journey and set goals,” and they in turn work at the church’s food bank, keep the grounds and bathrooms clean, and attend every service, Patterson said.

Lorenzo Allen said the congregation has been like a “family showing that they cared, showing some aloha, not knowing me but at least taking a little bit of risk instead of judging me and saying, ‘He’s homeless; he doesn’t really care about his life.’” Allen compared the church’s generosity to the 2000 Warner Bros. movie “Pay It Forward,” about doing a good deed that has ever-widening impact. “It’s kinda like good fortune, kinda like a spiritual movement, where it keeps going on and on and it’s just a constant flow. I wish more people had it here.”