Safe Haven helped man enjoy life, if only for a short while

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Evelyn Clark never gave up on her youngest boy.

The way she tells it, Michael, the fifth of her seven children, was always special.

She remembers when he was about 7 and the family was living on Kaua'i. On one breezy day, Michael ran along the street gleefully flying his kite and watching it soar. He was so entranced by the kite, he ran smack into the neighbor's parked car.

"He was so funny," Clark says. "Whatever he did, he concentrated full-force."

By the time Michael was 17, the changes to his personality became obvious. The child who had always been "sweet, kind and vulnerable" became withdrawn and moody. It would be years before his family understood his diagnosis: paranoid schizophrenia.

For 20 years, Evelyn Clark looked for answers and prayed for help. There were psychiatrists and counselors, but nothing seemed to stick. Michael's condition deteriorated. He became homeless, living on the streets of O'ahu, from Downtown to the Windward side. Though her son's downward spiral was heartbreaking, Clark was determined to be there for him through it all.

"He would contact me through pay phones all over the island," she says. "Or I'd get in my car and drive around until I found him. He'd be hanging out under a bridge or in a doorway, living right down to nothing. He'd be looking for food in garbage bags near fast-food places."

But these reunions never lasted very long. Michael would get disengaged and agitated, and when he realized his behavior was starting to scare his mother, he'd make her pull over to the side of the road so he could get out. Then he'd be lost to the streets again.

But in 1996, Clark heard about a program that would change everything. Safe Haven, a collaboration between Mental Health Kokua and Heathcare for the Homeless, opened a facility in Honolulu. The program offers a transitional homeless shelter for people with severe mental illness, people like Michael who were on the streets and not getting any treatment. Clark took Michael for an interview. He was accepted into Safe Haven, and he accepted the help. From that day forward, Clark says, Michael got better. Much better. He could hold long conversations with his family; he learned self-care skills and was eventually able to move into his own apartment.

"Everything was getting together so beautifully. I was so proud of him," Clark says.

And then, on Jan. 7, Evelyn Clark got the phone call every mother fears. Michael was found lying face down on Vineyard Boulevard near Pali Safeway. He was taken to Queen's, where he was pronounced dead. He was 47 years old. Clark said it was essentially a heart attack that took her son, and she thinks he was trying to get to a pay phone to call her when he collapsed.

After all the years of battling with his illness, Michael was finally on his feet, and then he was gone without warning. Through their sorrow, Michael's family has chosen to focus more on their gratitude than their grief. They're grateful that before Michael died, he had the chance to live a happy life, if only for a short while.

"Thank God for Safe Haven," says Clark.

"Over 20 years of struggling with him being on the streets and everything, I saw the results in the end. He was happy. It gives me comfort to know that he was OK."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.