Residential Youth Services Empowerment has opened Apapane, its first youth sober house in Liliha where young adults ages 18-24 who are homeless may live and receive support while recovering from drug or alcohol addictions.
“This is an important piece in our efforts to create developmentally appropriate affordable housing for young people across Oahu who are experiencing homelessness,” said RYSE’s executive director Carla Houser at a grand opening ceremony Wednesday. “This environment that is surrounded by unconditional positive regard is what we believe is the true necessity in order to help end homelessness for our young people here in the world.”
The two-story Apapane has two living rooms, two kitchens, four bathrooms and seven bedrooms, and can house up to six youths. Potential residents are selected from those who have sought help at RYSE’s Kailua shelter, said the group’s housing program manager, Angelika Taylor.
There, case managers determine which resources best suit the person’s need and those who are deemed a good fit for the youth sober house program are referred over, she said.
When determining which referrals will be accepted to live at Apapane, site coordinator Alicia Lader said that one of the main things they look for is a desire to be sober.
“They don’t have to be far into the treatment process or anything,” Lader said. “If they have a willingness and a desire to want to stop using substances, they’re between the ages of 18 to 24, and experiencing homelessness, then they would be a great fit for our program.”
The home supports its residents in ways that best further their recovery, with pantries that are regularly stocked by the Hawaii Foodbank so that residents don’t have to worry about buying groceries. A resident’s first six months of living there at Apapane are also provided rent-free.
“The goal is for them to focus on their sobriety, not be stressed out working at the same time,” Taylor said.
Apapane also offers round-the-clock support from peer mentors and trained professionals, access to mental health counseling and a plethora of life skills training opportunities, according to a news release. Among those opportunities are cooking, budgeting, employment and resume-building classes, Lader said.
“We kind of say we provide wrap-around services,” she said. “We want to support them in all areas of life.”
The sober home received its first resident at the end of July and currently houses five residents, she said.
After a resident has lived at Apapane for six months, they will begin paying rent of $400 per month, Taylor said. After one year of living at the home, the rent is increased to $800 per month, where it will remain until the resident chooses to leave or ages out of the program.
Demand for shared housing like Apapane is high, Taylor said.
“They’ll start out sometimes in individual housing and then realize they miss the community,” Taylor said.
While Apapane is RYSE’s first sober home geared specifically toward youths, other shared homes that the organization offers currently have a waitlist, she said. Depending on the success of Apapane, RYSE eventually hopes to open a second location offering the same services.
Following the grand opening, Houser expressed her pride in the fact that Apapane could bring its community one step closer to its vision to one day end youth homelessness.
“We’re looking to help them build community, finish up their education, and through that, put themselves on a pathway for a living wage career,” she said. “This environment, that is surrounded by unconditional positive regard, is what we believe is the true necessity in order to help end homelessness for our young people.”
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
