Off the News: River of Life support flowing into Iwilei

The nonprofit River of Life, a fixture in Chinatown since starting meal service to the homeless in 1986, is moving soon to the homeless Resource Center under construction at 806 Iwilei Road.

Iwilei is now becoming a kind of “campus” for homeless care, with the Institute for Human Service and the Punawai Rest Stop nearby.

The Chinatown business community, which long complained about being a magnet for the homeless, will approve. But Iwilei has businesses, too, and is watching carefully, no doubt.

Going to town on Restaurant Card

Hawaii residents who’ve been laid off or furloughed gobbled up the Hawaii Restaurant Card program — spending $70 million over three months. The initiative, funded by federal COVID stimulus money, was considered a win-win: helping 148,576 who’d lost jobs or work hours with $500 debit cards, to spend at some 4,200 eateries statewide.

For whatever reason, many didn’t use up their allotments by the mid-December deadline, so about $5 million in unused balances went into the state’s depleted unemployment insurance pot. Now that’s a welcome use of leftovers.