SLIDESHOW: Helping The Homeless Along River Street - Honolulu Civil Beat

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SLIDESHOW: Helping The Homeless Along River Street

Maintaining hygiene and preventing skin, wound and respiratory infections are more difficult for the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.  
By Cory Lum Eleni Avendaño / November 1, 2020
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  • <p>The Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center’s wound care and medical outreach team visits homeless along River Street twice a week to help them avoid trips to the emergency room. The team focuses on cleaning wounds but also orders prescription medications and antibiotics for patients in need.</p>

    The Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center’s wound care and medical outreach team visits homeless along River Street twice a week to help them avoid trips to the emergency room. The team focuses on cleaning wounds but also orders prescription medications and antibiotics for patients in need.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Danny Honea, 71, who lives on the North Kukui Street sidewalk in Honolulu, said he keeps to himself to avoid contracting COVID-19. He was most worried about catching the virus when public bathrooms were closed earlier in the pandemic.</p>

    Danny Honea, 71, who lives on the North Kukui Street sidewalk in Honolulu, said he keeps to himself to avoid contracting COVID-19. He was most worried about catching the virus when public bathrooms were closed earlier in the pandemic.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Christina Wang, the nurse practitioner who leads H3RC’s medical outreach and mobile wound care team, gave a flu shot to Danny Honea. Honea has lived on the same sidewalk for three years and said he’s still waiting to get housing assistance. “I’d like to get into housing, not transitional housing, and have my own room and lock the door if I need to,” he said.</p>

    Christina Wang, the nurse practitioner who leads H3RC’s medical outreach and mobile wound care team, gave a flu shot to Danny Honea. Honea has lived on the same sidewalk for three years and said he’s still waiting to get housing assistance. “I’d like to get into housing, not transitional housing, and have my own room and lock the door if I need to,” he said.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Honolulu’s homeless have been among the most repeatedly cited by Honolulu Police Department during the pandemic, Civil Beat investigations have shown. Oahu has had sit-lie bans since 2014 which extend across 17 neighborhoods. The number of citations issued this year have reached record levels.</p>
<p> </p>

    Honolulu’s homeless have been among the most repeatedly cited by Honolulu Police Department during the pandemic, Civil Beat investigations have shown. Oahu has had sit-lie bans since 2014 which extend across 17 neighborhoods. The number of citations issued this year have reached record levels.

     

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Timothy McInally, 62, requested help from Wang and Medical Assistant Sophie Collis with bandaging his hand to ease pain from a possibly broken thumb. “You get infected easily down here,” he said.</p>

    Timothy McInally, 62, requested help from Wang and Medical Assistant Sophie Collis with bandaging his hand to ease pain from a possibly broken thumb. “You get infected easily down here,” he said.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>The wound care clinic is among many Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center programs designed to address hepatitis, homelessness, substance use, mental illness and poverty. The medical team carries anti-fungal powder, saline, cotton gauze, cohesive bandage wraps and alcohol wipes. The most commonly requested items are bandages, soap and lotion.</p>

    The wound care clinic is among many Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center programs designed to address hepatitis, homelessness, substance use, mental illness and poverty. The medical team carries anti-fungal powder, saline, cotton gauze, cohesive bandage wraps and alcohol wipes. The most commonly requested items are bandages, soap and lotion.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Yvonne Christie, 63, was cited on Oct. 23 for sitting on the River Street wall with a shopping cart of belongings. Christie says she is trying to get help to get into housing, but in the meantime, she is waiting for her COVID-19 test results to gain access to sleep in a nearby shelter.</p>

    Yvonne Christie, 63, was cited on Oct. 23 for sitting on the River Street wall with a shopping cart of belongings. Christie says she is trying to get help to get into housing, but in the meantime, she is waiting for her COVID-19 test results to gain access to sleep in a nearby shelter.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat
  • <p>Yvonne Christie said she visits the Punawai Rest Stop hygiene center weekly to do laundry and shower. She said she’s struggled with addictions to alcohol and prescription painkillers for most of her adult life, and lost her last apartment after a relapse about a decade ago.</p>

    Yvonne Christie said she visits the Punawai Rest Stop hygiene center weekly to do laundry and shower. She said she’s struggled with addictions to alcohol and prescription painkillers for most of her adult life, and lost her last apartment after a relapse about a decade ago.

    Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The medical team from the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center is well known among the people who congregate around River Street weekday mornings in Honolulu.

Twice a week the nurses tend to wounds, administer flu shots, and order medical prescriptions for Honolulu’s homeless. Since April, the mobile H3RC Wound Clinic has assisted nearly 200 people 600 times. 

Christina Wang, who holds a doctorate degree in nursing, leads the clinic with a cheery and non-judgmental demeanor. She and her team are approachable and equipped to tend to the varying needs of patients right on the sidewalk.

Maintaining hygiene and preventing both skin and respiratory infections are among her patients’ greatest challenges. Preventing those issues is even more difficult during the pandemic.

“A lot of things for basic human needs got turned off,” she said. “Places where people go to get showers and clothing got completely disrupted.”

Wang and her team use ongoing wound care services as a way to build trust with the people who live outdoors and connect them to other services. Many of them have mental illness or suffer from the effects of substance use.

“It helps us engage with them and meets a medical need that is so needed on the street,” said Courtny Tanigawa, a nurse practitioner. “It keeps them out of the emergency room as much as we can.”

Preventing infections is top of mind, especially among seniors. The most requested items from the H3RC team are bandaids, soap, lotion and medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has only added to their existing worries about maintaining their health.

The closing and reopening of public bathrooms has been the most frustrating, said Danny Honea, 71, who lives in a shelter he made on the North Kukui Street sidewalk.

“The government shutting down toilets and fresh water I think would bring more disease,” he said.

The medical team says referring people to medical and social services is more difficult because treatment and hygiene centers have shifted hours and occupancy rules to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

“That’s been the hard thing because when people are ready (for help), they’re ready,” Tanigawa said.

About the Authors

  • Cory Lum
    Cory Lum
    Cory Lum was the chief photographer for Civil Beat.
    Use the RSS feed to subscribe to Cory Lum's posts today
  • Eleni Avendaño
    Eleni Avendaño
    Eleni Avendaño, who covers public health issues, is a corps member with Report for America , a national nonprofit organization that places journalists in local newsrooms. Her health care coverage is also supported by the McInerny Foundation, the Atherton Family Foundation , the George Mason Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation , and Papa Ola Lokahi . You can reach her by email at egill@civilbeat.org or follow her on Twitter at @lorineleni.
    Use the RSS feed to subscribe to Eleni Avendaño's posts today
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