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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.