By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

A Chinatown homelessness project supported by the Diocese of Honolulu is in danger of falling through without enough community backing, and Bishop Larry Silva is asking for help, especially from Catholics in downtown Honolulu parishes.

The River Street Residences Project would provide 100 permanent rental units for the homeless on land owned by the City and County of Honolulu on River Street where it meets Vineyard Boulevard on the edge of Honolulu’s Chinatown. Funding for the project is also available.

The apartments would be for individuals, couples, possibly small families, and persons with disabilities and special needs.

Some Chinatown business owners and residents are opposed to the housing project, a position the bishop calls “Not-In-My-Back-Yard” syndrome.

The bishop, in a Jan. 15 “white paper” written to explain the project to Catholic parishioners, said, “The project will make a major contribution toward solving many of the problems Chinatown faces with the homeless, but fear and negativity have gained the upper hand.”

Carol Ignacio, the director of the diocese’s Office for Social Ministry and the diocese’s Office of Affordable Housing praised the project.

“It’s very unusual that you have a project ready to go like this,” she said. “It is really a solution to what the whole community has been dealing with, moving [homeless] people from park to park.”

She says the project follows the proven “housing first” model, which gives the homeless housing quickly and follows up with support services. The River Street Residences would be staffed 24 hours a day.

In order to help the project move forward, Bishop Silva and Ignacio met last month with Mayor Mufi Hannemann to express their support and ask what could be done to move the project forward.

Ignacio said Hannemann told them, “the only way to move forward was by getting broader community support” and soon.

To rally that support, Ignacio and others have spoken at weekend Masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. The housing project falls within the parish boundaries of the cathedral which stands several blocks away.

An ecumenical gathering at Harris United Methodist Church in Nuuanu on Jan. 23 brought out 97 people from various churches in support of the River Street Residences.

Over the Jan. 30 and 31 weekend, signatures of supporters were gathered at the cathedral and neighboring Catholic churches — the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Blessed Sacrament and St. Stephen — whose parishioners live, worship and work in and around downtown Honolulu. The diocese is planning to run a full-page ad in the Sunday, Feb. 7, Honolulu Star-Bulletin listing the names.

Ignacio, who is also the chairwoman of the diocese’s Task Force for Homelessness and Affordable Housing, said the River Street project aligns perfectly with one of the top priorities of the diocese’s strategic plan, that of addressing homelessness.

“It’s about helping the least of those among us,” she says.

Cathedral parishioner John Fielding has been speaking at Masses and seeking support for the project for exactly that reason.

“Catholics need to live their church, not just attend their church,” he said.

A St. Damien devotee, Fielding says he sees a parallel between the saint’s work with Hansen’s disease patients and what the church could do for the homeless today.

“People want to push them out to areas where they won’t be bothered anymore,” he said.