City unveils hygiene center for Oahu’s homeless

The city Monday announced it will open a shower and toilet hygiene center on the ground floor of its latest facility to address homelessness — a building in Iwilei that will offer more services than anywhere else in the country, according to Councilman Joey Manahan.

The unnamed four-story building on Kuwili Street — in Manahan’s Council district — is designed to include the ground-floor “hygiene center,” a second level of medical services and two top floors of 40 studio apartments for people who would otherwise be living on the street.

The hygiene center is expected to open by the end of the year, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said. The entire building is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2019.

The ground floor alone offers a long list of features not seen anywhere else in the country, said Manahan, whose district already includes the city’s Hale Mauliola “navigation center” on Sand Island and businessman Duane Kurisu’s Kahauiki Village along Nimitz Highway.

Another city homeless-­related project is planned

for Manahan’s district, but both Manahan and Caldwell declined Monday to offer specifics.

The Kuwili Street project was inspired by visits to homeless projects in the Pacific Northwest by Council members in 2015, which followed a trip there by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to report on projects that might work in the islands.

Manahan said no other hygiene center combines medical assistance with permanent housing in one location.

Amenities on the ground floor are designed to make it more welcoming for homeless people — and theoretically easier for them to trust social service workers who will try to connect them to resources that could come with permanent housing.

The amenities include pet kennels; cages where the homeless can park their shopping carts while they use one of eight showers; one of four male and four female bathrooms; and 10 washers and 10 dryers for laundry.

There will even be a special machine designed to superheat belongings to kill bedbugs, Caldwell said.

Even if they don’t use the facilities, homeless people still will be able to use on-site mailboxes to receive mail.

“There’s nothing like it in the country,” Manahan told the Star-Advertiser. “It’s giving people back their dignity one shower at a time, one laundry load at a time.”

Mental Health Kokua has a $1 million contract with the city to offer services, with an option to extend the contract for four additional years.

“It’s a lot of money but worth every penny,” Caldwell said.

Greg Payton, CEO of Mental Health Kokua, expects to see 100 showers per day, or 36,000 visits annually.

“This is a different concept than what we’ve been doing,” Payton said.

The Kuwili Street hygiene center will dwarf the city’s only existing hygiene center, on North Pauahi Street in Chinatown, which is also operated by Mental Health Kokua. The Chinatown hygiene center offers one 8-by-12-foot room for men and another for women with a shower, toilet and sink.

The 43,000-square-foot, 42-year-old building on Kuwili Street had been the home of Malihini Sportswear until the city bought it in 2016 at a cost of $6.3 million. With the ongoing build-out, the total cost is expected to come in around $10 million.

It’s just around the corner from homeless squatters in Aala Park and near the Institute for Human Services’ shelters.

Caldwell uses the term “compassionate disruption” for his two-pronged approach to getting the homeless off the street. Housing and programs like the hygiene centers are intended to provide shelter and services. He has also pushed through city ordinances that curtail park hours and prohibit sitting and lying on sidewalks and storing property in public areas. Last week the city hired Hawaii Protective Association guards to enforce rules aimed at keeping the homeless out of nine city parks.

As he stood inside the ground floor of the Kuwili Street building, Caldwell said, “This is about compassion.”

Manahan has been the only Council member to embrace a hygiene center in his Council district. All nine Council members have $2 million for their use for some kind of homeless project, and Manahan said his colleagues could start with a much less ambitious hygiene center.

With complaints about homeless activity across Oahu, “Everybody needs a hygiene center in their district,” Manahan said.

“With $2 million you can make a difference,” Caldwell said. “(Manahan’s) the only Council member who said, ‘Put this in my district.’”

Also Monday, Caldwell helped Kaimuki residents Craig Shoji, 53, and Danica Fong-Shoji, 49, unveil their Revive + Refresh shower and toilet mobile trailer, which they began operating last week.

With three toilets and showers — including one pair that’s compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act — the Revive + Refresh mobile hygiene center is similar in design to the “Hiehie” hygiene trailer that began operating in February.

Both are intended to offer basic hygiene as a centerpiece of homeless outreach efforts provided by social service agencies.

With no technical expertise, the Shojis founded the local branch of Laundry Love three years ago to provide laundry services to homeless people in Waimanalo.

Two years ago the Shojis wanted to replicate San Francisco’s Lava Mae shower bus program, which was featured in a Star-Advertiser story. But the high costs of hiring a commercial driver and retrofitting — and maintaining — an old city bus like Lava Mae’s proved prohibitive, and the city ended up changing its original contract proposal to a hygiene center that can be towed.

Caldwell said Monday that he initially was skeptical that the Shojis’ good intentions would result in success — but the couple proved him wrong.

“They had to learn all this stuff from scratch,” Caldwell said. “I like the fact they believed. We want to see more guys like this.”

The Shojis now have a $400,000 contract with the city for five years. After spending about $150,000 on a trailer and a truck to pull it, Fong-Shoji said the couple needs to raise about $150,000 annually to cover expenses, including the cost of a driver.

In addition to monetary donations, the Shojis said they’re happy to accept donations of towels, soap and toiletries — including toothbrushes, toothpaste and toilet paper.