Add the University of Hawaii medical school’s mobile homeless outreach motor home to the growing list of catalytic converter thefts.

A team of volunteer premed students spent Feb. 3 in Haleiwa treating homeless patients and, at the end of the day, parked the Hawaii H.O.M.E. Project’s 2008 Ford Itasca RV on the Ewa side of UH’s John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako.

When they fired up the RV the next day for a visit to St. Augustine’s in Waikiki, it made a strange and loud, horrible noise.

“We worried about the noise,” said Dr. Jill Omori, Hawaii H.O.M.E. Project director and director of the medical school’s office of education. “It was really, really loud.”

The team moved its operations into a passenger van used for a homeless teen mentoring program and rented a trailer to keep making visits across Oahu, which it does nearly every day of the week.

The RV is now undergoing routine maintenance at UH fleet services at UH Manoa, Omori said.

But the H.O.M.E. Program — a nonprofit organization that pairs UH medical students with UH and Tripler Army Medical Center residents to treat homeless patients on the street — has to cover the estimated $4,500 to buy a replacement catalytic converter, plus additional labor costs, Omori said.

Replacement catalytic converters typically run around $1,000. But replacing the unit on the RV requires an expensive, special order “because the vehicle is so large,” Omori said. “It’s not just like any other truck or van. It’s not easy to get it.”

At fleet services, she said, “They’re doing our routine maintenance now, and then they’re waiting on us to decide on what we want to do (about replacing the catalytic converter.)”

A GoFundme Account has been created that as of Tuesday had raised $4,134 toward a $5,000 goal.

After the H.O.M.E. Project’s catalytic converter was stolen, Omori learned about the growing spate of catalytic converter thefts across Oahu for their precious metals, including platinum.

“I didn’t realize what a big problem it is,” she said.

Two companion bills in the state Legislature — House Bill 446 and Senate Bill 55 — would make thefts of catalytic converters a Class C felony and require more documentation from sellers and Hawaii scrap dealers willing to buy them.

Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, there were 289 catalytic converter thefts across Oahu, mostly in Kalihi and Kapolei, state Rep. Jackson Sayama (D, Palolo-St. Louis Heights-Kaimuki) said last week. Sayama introduced HB 446.

The GoFundMe campaign to replace the RV’s stolen catalytic converter has inspired even bigger thinking for the Hawaii H.O.M.E. Project, Omori said.

A virtual fundraiser already was planned on Facebook and YouTube from 6 to 7 p.m. March 31 that would include live music, a silent auction and sales of bentos for viewers to enjoy at home while watching the event.

But now Omori is thinking of revamping the H.O.M.E. Project’s mobile outreach with a more practical, new cargo van and a request for a retired ambulance from the city.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get the RV into places,” Omori said. “Plus, it’s old, and it’s been giving us some problems.”