Care home getting a face-lift
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The Palolo Chinese Home is one of the oldest residential care homes in Hawai'i and the facilities are showing their age with plumbing, electrical and drainage problems. The newest building on the 15-acre grounds is more than 30 years old and others date to the 1920s.
Advertiser library photo
But that is about to change. Officials broke ground yesterday on an $18 million project that will transform the care home into a modern facility with double the capacity and offering a range of healthcare services to middle-income seniors.
"The groundbreaking marks one of the largest changes in the Palolo Chinese Home's history," said Leigh-Wai Doo.
"The groundbreaking marks one of the largest changes in the Palolo Chinese Home's history," said Leigh-Wai Doo, chief executive officer at the home. "We are undertaking a campus-wide redevelopment. All the buildings. We are secondly reaching out to the community as a permanent feature of the Palolo Chinese Home to serve elders in the greater community rather than just the residents on campus."
Plans for the 15-acre property at 2459 10th Ave. include increasing the resident population from 60 to about 130 and the adult daycare program from 15 to 30 people.
The project will then have a total of 88 assisted-living units: 68 one-bedroom and 20 studio apartments. There will also be a 40-bed intermediate/skilled nursing care residence.
Doo said the areas of Kapahulu, Kaimuki and Palolo have some of the highest concentrations of senior citizens in Hawai'i, according to the 2000 census.
The Chinese home is planning to expand its outreach program to provide self-sustaining, culturally sensitive continuing care to the elderly in their own homes.
The group is also the largest supplier to Hawai'i Meals on Wheels, which delivers hot meals to the elderly. The home prepared more than 16,000 meals last year.
Advertiser library photo • July 17, 2002
The work will be done in four phases starting with the renovation of Lani Booth Hall followed by construction of the new kitchen and service building, the skilled-nursing building and the assisted-living apartments. The project is expected to be completed in 2007.
Lani Booth Hall, part of the Palolo Chinese Home, will be the first to undergo renovations as part of an $18 million project.
The development is being financed by donations from more than 40 Hawai'i Chinese organizations and societies, and grants from the city and charitable groups.
The project faced opposition by area residents who said the expanded scope of activities planned were not compatible with a quiet residential community.
After a contentious hearing Aug. 19 on a city conditional use permit to allow food and medical services in a residential area, a compromise was reached between the 59 homeowners bordering the property and the Chinese home's board of directors.
A limit was set on the number of outreach patients and number of meals prepared each day, and a parking lot was eliminated.
"They wanted to provide services for 400 or more nonresidents," said George Lee, who lives next to the home. "If all these people came on the grounds daily, it would be quite a burden on the neighborhood, with all the traffic and noise.
"The whole project was made more friendly to the neighborhood. We have endorsed the project because it will provide a needed service to the community. It was a good outcome."
Miriam Tom, 79, has been a resident at the home for four years. Before retiring, she was a social worker with the state Health Department, taking care of children with heart problems and arranging for them to have surgery on the Mainland. She also ran a learning disability clinic on Kapahulu Avenue before retiring.
She suffered a stroke and is now partially paralyzed.
Doo said she is typical of the kind of person the home is designed to help — single, with no children and a low-middle income.
"She earns too much with her pension to qualify for government-funded services, but it's too little to get into the higher-end elderly developments," Doo said.
Tom is happy at the home and said the location, price and the care are all good.
"Check out the menu," Tom said. "We get a variety of food — Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Korean."
In 1897, Chinese residents of Honolulu established a Chinese Hospital as a "home to the aged and infirmed." The founders quickly realized it was undersized for the needs of the elderly Chinese men who were single, aged, immigrant plantation workers with no families to care for them.
They bought the property in Palolo Valley in 1917 and established the Palolo Chinese Home.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
