New shelter offers services to houseless fire survivors
Pu‘uhonua o Nene to open to general houseless public next week
KAHULUI — In the days after he spent three hours treading water off Front Street as a wildfire raged through Lahaina town, Bill Jackson kept having nightmares.
“I didn’t sleep for about two or three days because I was going to have nightmares,” he said.
Then he met the health care workers at Pu’uhonua o Nene who sat with him, encouraged him and helped him start to work through his trauma.
“It’s got me to a point where I don’t think I’ve ever, just in the last couple days, have never felt so good. It got rid of my nightmares,” Jackson said Friday. “The more life they speak into me, the more I now sleep all night. … I still have a lot of unresolved issues that I’m working on and stuff. But I’m just so grateful of everybody here.”
Jackson is among the estimated 60 people living at Pu’uhonua o Nene, a temporary shelter of military-grade tents housing air-conditioned sleeping quarters, dining space, medical facilities and hot showers on a gravel-lined parcel of once-vacant brush at the corner of Hana Highway and Mayor Elmer Cravalho Way. The shelter opened on Sept. 29 for Maui wildfire survivors who were houseless before the fire and were not covered under shelter eligibility requirements because they did not lose a physical structure. The effort is a partnership between the state and the nonprofit Project Vision Hawai’i, a mobile health and social services provider.
Pu‘uhonua O Nene resident Bill Jackson lists what he appreciates about the temporary shelter set up near the intersection of Hana Highway and Mayor Elmer Cravalho Way in Kahului. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Project Vision Director of Social Services Bob Wardlaw said the site has capacity for 150 people and will expand next week from wildfire survivors to anyone in the general public who is houseless. About 15 tan-colored tents strung with outdoor lights are currently set up, and a few more will be added next week. The larger tents can hold 10 to 20 people, depending on whether bunk beds are used, and the smaller tents can house six to 12.
Portable bathrooms are provided, but more permanent bathroom facilities are being constructed.
A local chef provides three meals a day, and Wardlaw said they hope to eventually cook on-site.
Other services include laundry, Wi-Fi, transportation for appointments and state-funded disaster case managers who will work with survivors to help them develop a recovery plan, the Department of Human Services said.
Pets are also welcome.
Pu‘uhonua O Nene resident Damon Johnson talks outside the facility Friday afternoon. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
The shelter is accepting donations, with some of the needs including clothing, towels, bedding, toiletries and furniture.
Wardlaw says they also have longer-term hopes for the site — there’s a dirt plot on the edge for a future garden to grow food, and “we’re hoping we can develop this into some affordable housing” that people who live there can have a say in.
“We know that very often, people who are unhoused, they don’t have a voice in what’s being offered to them. So we hope that this can be different,” Wardlaw said.
Currently the shelter is for adults only, and while this could change in the future, Wardlaw said it’s not really geared toward children. The Department of Human Services said it has worked to secure additional resources for families with minor children, and the American Red Cross will allow them to remain in hotels until they can find a housing alternative.
Wardlaw said when they first opened the site, it was “sort of a reuniting opportunity” for survivors of the fire. “I think a lot of them haven’t seen each other since the fire,” he said.
Damon Johnson was living at Ka Hale A Ke Ola in Lahaina before the fire burned down the facility. Fortunately, he wasn’t there on the afternoon of the fire. He was eating dinner in Kihei and had most of his belongings with him because he’d had items stolen in the past. Because of that, he was able to save personal documents like his ID.
Johnson came to Pu’uhonua o Nene when it opened last week and said the facilities were clean, with meals, amenities and security on-site.
“The only thing that isn’t brand new is the humanity part of this,” he said. “This is a place where people can come for refuge. People who lost their stuff in Lahaina, family members. This is a place they can feel safe, start getting their mind and spirits back in order. Anywhere you turn there’s someone here who can help you.”
He thinks he’ll be at the shelter for the near future.
“As time goes on and people become more independent, I’m sure things might change a little bit,” he said. “But this is a place that I actually see a future, a piece of land that was given to a righteous purpose.”
Jackson is also relieved to have a place to go. Before the fire, he had been houseless in Kahului and went to Lahaina a couple of times a week to get clothing and other services from The Salvation Army. On the afternoon of Aug. 8, he was enjoying the narrow strip of sand near Cheeseburger in Paradise when the fire began spreading through town.
“At that time I knew I was in trouble so I just had to get in the water. That was my only option. It came so fast. I didn’t have any time to do anything,” Jackson said.
At first, he waded into the ocean up to his chest. But then, as the fire grew closer and the water grew hotter, he started to swim farther offshore, eventually getting about 100 yards away where he began to tread water. Jackson is still haunted by some of the images — the cries for help, the dead bodies, the person he says he saw running down Front Street on fire. He says he got a bacterial infection after being in the polluted water for so long.
“I’m almost getting to the point where I can talk about what I did without getting emotional,” Jackson said.
Jackson explained that “my true feeling is I had to go through that so I could help other people that went through that.” With some shelter and services at Pu’uhonua o Nene, Jackson said he and others are finally getting a chance to focus on their immediate needs so they can take the next steps.
“People don’t realize when you’re homeless, all you want to do is take care of that next hour, that next hour, and years go by and you don’t accomplish anything,” he said. “I come from the adage that if you take care of their needs, you can minister to their potential. So now they’re taking care of everybody’s needs here. They don’t realize it yet, but now they’ve gone from, ‘Where can I get some dope?’ to ‘Man, I think I’m going to start doing some job interviews.’ … They realize how grateful they are, but they don’t realize the concept of ‘Wow, my needs are taken care of, now I can go do something.'”
The shelter is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
For more information, call (808) 754-1241, email mauistrong@projectvisionhawaii.org or visit projectvisionhawaii.org.
By Colleen Uechi, The Maui News
Available at https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2023/10/new-shelter-offers-services-to-houseless-fire-survivors/