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Jinna Stevens and Lovely Reiger can identify with the hundreds of people who wait in line each week for a hot meal and groceries from St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church’s Wallyhouse outreach program in Kalihi-Palama.
The two women, who used to be homeless, lived on the street behind the church.
“We used to stand that line,” they both said.
But a few years ago, Wallyhouse offered them something more than food — a chance to get off the streets and off drugs. Now Stevens is in charge of the church’s food pantry and joins Reiger to greet people and hand them sandwiches and groceries almost daily. Every Tuesday, a homemade hot lunch is distributed to about 150 people.
Since August 2019, they’ve been living in a former shipping container converted into two bedrooms on the grounds next to Wallyhouse and the church on North King Street. It was only supposed to be for three months as part of a rehabilitation program offered to the 20 people living in tents on Kanoa Street behind the church.
Stevens and Reiger were the only two who accepted the opportunity to make the “scary” life change, as they describe it. But over the last three years they’ve become exemplary assistants to house manager Barbara Bennett.
“These ladies are invaluable,” said Bennett. “I got really sick and was in the hospital for two weeks, and they ran the whole show without missing a beat. They did it all!”
It’s unusual that a Catholic-based charity is housed on the grounds of an Episcopalian church, acknowledges Wally Inglis, who started Wallyhouse with his wife, Kay, almost four years ago. They are members of the Newman Center, a Catholic church in Manoa, who’ve long been interested in establishing Hawaii’s first Catholic Worker house to serve the poor, he said. The “house of hospitality” is a hallmark of the Catholic Worker Movement, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, social justice and nonviolence activists, in 1933.
Wally Inglis said the Rev. David Gierlach, St. Elizabeth’s pastor, has been a longtime friend and offered him the use of the empty rector’s house, and “he honored me by calling it Wallyhouse.” Inglis put the word out and recruited Bennett and a Catholic Worker companion to be live-in managers.
Volunteers from the Quaker, Mormon and Episcopal churches, along with some individuals, contribute food or other support, as there are no religious requirements under the Catholic Worker’s “big umbrella,” said Inglis, who helps out a few times a week. About a dozen regular volunteers keep the operation running daily except for Sundays, when it closes.
Kay Inglis cooks the weekly lunch — under the auspices of Kay’s Cafe, Stevens and Reiger make the rice and Bennett the salad. Food also comes from the Hawaii Foodbank and Aloha Services. One of the regular individual contributors is Chris Sy, owner of The Breadshop in Kaimuki, who donates his unsold bread weekly, Bennett said. Funds come from a variety of sources, primarily grants and individual donors, as well as St. Elizabeth’s.
Before the pandemic, Wallyhouse served about 40 to 80 people each day; and now, 120 to 200 a day. Numbers vary, but in May, “we served around 2,000 individuals and gave out 4,500 bags of food,” she said.
Wallyhouse just restarted its free shower service after being closed for months because of the pandemic, and will soon resume its free laundry service for the homeless.
Stevens and Reiger said Wallyhouse has turned their lives around, and they’ve learned how to do things they’ve never done before. Stevens hated sewing, but she’s become a proficient face-mask maker because of the pandemic; she organizes the food pantry and packs the grocery bags. Reiger helped put in a vegetable garden at the church, which helps feed the homeless, and charges their phones and other devices weekly. Both learned about how food banks work and to cook for hundreds, including the poor who come for the church’s free Saturday breakfast.
“We grew over here. When we first moved in, it was to better ourselves, and get off the street. We ended up helping Barbara,” said Stevens, adding, “Barbara is really into helping to change someone’s life. She helped us get better and stay off drugs.”
Reiger, who lived on the streets much longer than Stevens, said, “It was scary at first, but we did it. Just taking that step and doing something new.”
Whenever Bennett has to leave for a trip, Stevens and Reiger have it covered.
“We know how to do everything,” said Reiger. “Barbara has no worries.”
They haven’t forgotten their friends still living in tents, encouraging them to work with another social service agency, the Institute for Human Services, to move forward in their lives.
“I talk story with them everyday,” said Stevens. “That’s what they need — an ear, or encouragement.”
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Wallyhouse
St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, 720 N. King St., 535-5677; wallyhouse720@gmail.com, stelizabeth720.org/wallyhouse
Services:
>> Sandwiches and groceries: 8 a.m. to noon Mondays through Saturdays; 2 to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays
>> Kay’s Cafe hot lunch: 11 a.m. to noon Tuesdays
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