24 years later, IHS' mission still urgent
By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Institute for Human Services, O'ahu's only emergency homeless shelter, celebrated its 24th anniversary and the birthday of its founder yesterday.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The agency, which provides temporary support services to more than 2,000 homeless men, women and children a year, started in 1978 when Rev. Claude Du Teil began giving out peanut-butter sandwiches and coffee to homeless people in Chinatown on the day of his 58th birthday, said IHS spokeswoman Catherine Graham.
Sue Gosney, a resident of the Institute for Human Services' shelter for women and families, dances to the music of Koa Uka, who helped IHS celebrate 24 years of helping the homeless on O'ahu.
"It was really a special day because Father Claude saw the need," Graham said.
Du Teil, who died in 1997, would bring his homeless guests to his home in Kailua, and soon opened shelters in several smaller locations on O'ahu.
In 1986, the city gave Du Teil the Sumner Street building in Iwilei which serves as the men's shelter. A second shelter for women and families with children was opened in 1997 on Ka'aahi Street.
The agency now serves up to 800 meals a day and provides shelter to more than 500 people a night, said IHS Executive Director Lynn Maunakea.
"IHS is a place that offers heart, soul and care for individuals," Maunakea said. "Basically, we do whatever needs to be done to provide temporary shelter, food and clothes to those individuals."
One of the goals of the agency is to concentrate on individuals who constantly return to the shelters, Maunakea said.
"We've been placing a Band-Aid on the homeless problems here," Maunakea said. "But, with this new program, we want to reduce the numbers of the chronically homeless by placing them in permanent jobs and helping them find permanent homes. We can do this by increasing the number of our teams and volunteers out in the community."
Maunakea said it would also help if more people acknowledged the growing homeless situation in Hawai'i.
"In order to reduce homelessness, certain things have to happen," Maunakea said. "I think people need to be more aware of the homeless situation because if they don't do anything about it, and if they don't help when they can, then we're not going to get any better and we're not going to reduce the numbers of homeless."
Darnell Meheula, who came to IHS a week ago with her husband and 8-year-old son, said the agency already has found her a part-time job at the institute's family center.
"It's an absolute blessing that they're here," said Meheula, 42. "They have been supportive, and they provided everything to help my family. I appreciate them so much."
