River of Life helps homeless with 40 sites across Oahu

River of Life Mission, once the center of blame for homelessness in Chinatown, has reinvented its model to aid the needy by shutting down its Chinatown feeding program and instead helping the homeless at 40 different sites across Oahu, with plans to expand to the neighbor islands and even to foreign countries.

River of Life Mission used to serve 600 to 700 meals a day in its dining room on North Pauahi Street, which led to widespread complaints that the free meals attracted homeless people from outside the area, some of whom would defecate on sidewalks and in front of businesses.

“Pauahi Street was basically impassable with people lying on the sidewalk with their trash and what we may politely call hygiene issues,” said Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, whose district includes Chinatown. “If clients didn’t like the meal, they would just throw it on the sidewalks and cars. On Hotel Street even the buses would have plate lunches thrown at them from time to time.”

Closing River of Life’s feeding program, Dos Santos-Tam said, “has made a marked difference.”

Under pressure from the city and Chinatown residents and businesses, the original plan was to move River of Life to nearby Iwilei, which could have merely shifted Chinatown’s homeless problem next door.

Instead, River of Life now prepares even more meals out of its kitchen but now delivers them to 40 “hub spots” as far away as the North Shore, with eight more on the way.

“The future is endless with this model,” said River of Life’s executive director, Paul Gates.

In May, Gates is scheduled to address an international gathering of 320 missions in Orlando, Fla., to talk about how they can replicate River of Life’s new model to help their countries’ homeless.

It began with a $100,000 investment to buy three used vans and other equipment to deliver ready-to-eat meals. The new model also relies on volunteer drivers using their own vehicles to pick up and deliver meals prepared at River of Life.

To prevent a repeat of the Chinatown experience, River of Life limits its meals to 50 per day at each location and brings food to the same spot only once a week.

It also now partners with 53 churches and 54 social service agencies. Along with 100 or so volunteer veterinarians, barbers, manicurists and other professionals, the hubs offer everything from haircuts to health care, pet checkups and assistance getting government benefits and IDs and offers of housing.

The homeless hubs also allow people who want to help reduce homelessness do what they can while building relationships designed to get homeless people off the street.

Since River of Life transitioned to a mobile outreach approach just over a year ago, 77 homeless people across Oahu have gone into detox or shelter, Gates said.

Volunteers joining River of Life’s new model all across Oahu is “so important that I don’t have a word to describe it,” Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “This is about community taking care of their brothers and sisters.”

Blangiardi supports the new approach, which he says has reduced homelessness in Chinatown while bringing a more concentrated outreach across Oahu.

“The fact is that so many of these people need support,” he said. “They need wrap-around services. … I support River of Life and their effort to promote their ministry and do the good work that they do.”

When it shut down its dining room feeding program on April 1, 2022, River of Life had served an estimated 12 million meals over the previous 35 years while becoming a pariah in the neighborhood.

“We knew we had to be a good neighbor,” Gates said. “We knew we had to have something new.”

Some of the dine-in clients weren’t homeless, but were often low-income Chinatown residents, who were mostly seniors as old as 90.

So twice a month — on the second and fourth Fridays — River of Life distributes about 460 bags of food, which often come from donations.

The food handed out Friday included canned corned beef, canned fruit, canned soup, vegetables, rice and saimin.

Since River of Life closed its dining room, there are still plenty of homeless people in Chinatown.

But they’re no longer concentrated around River of Life at meal time, and many of the more notoriously chronically homeless are gone, said Eric Wong, who manages the Kekaulike Courtyards apartments in the middle of Kekaulike Market.

“There are still quite a bit of individuals in the neighborhood,” Wong said. “The drug dealers still seem to be ongoing, and that’s creating a different vibe. And there’s still quite a bit laying down or sleeping on the ground. It’s sad that there’s not a solution for everybody.”

One of River of Life’s success stories now oversees its meals as its food services director.

Hildaanne Gibson, 62, was abused while growing up in Kailua, became homeless, served five years at the Women’s Community Correctional Center for selling drugs and came out feeling worthless.

“I thought I was stupid,” she said while preparing 37 meals at River of Life intended for the Waimanalo hub. “I thought I was broken, so broken. But people can change.”

Gibson went on to Kapiolani Community College, courtesy of a scholarship through Alu Like, became a 4.0 student and got inspired by KCC’s culinary program.

“We Hawaiians, we gotta go to school and stop living as victims and into victory,” she said.

Then, in 2011, River of Life hired Gibson and her confidence grew, she said Friday while stirring ham chowder — part of the Waimanalo hub meals that included chicken stew, macaroni hamburger casserole, salad, doughnuts and rolls.

The meals, Gibson said, are just part of River of Life’s new and broader approach to help Hawaii’s homeless beyond feeding them.

“It’s about giving them back their dignity,” she said. “It’s a ministry, not a job.”

For Gibson, getting a second chance out of homelessness, drugs and jail started with an important step.

“I had to change one thing,” she said, “and that was everything.”

HOW TO HELP

To volunteer or donate food or money, contact River of Life Mission:

>> Call: 808-524-7656

>> Website: riveroflifemission.org