New Pūnāwai Rest Stop receives more than 570 visits in first week

This picture shows the hallway at the Pūnāwai Rest Stop that leads to the individual showers and bathrooms.

Honolulu – One week after its debut, the new Pūnāwai Rest Stop in Iwilei has welcomed hundreds of people with a total of 578 visits. All of the clients were greeted with aloha by staff of Mental Health Kokua, the nonprofit contracted by the city to operate this first of its kind facility.



Some of the early success stories at Pūnāwai include connecting a client to drug treatment services, the reunification of a man with his ‘ohana on the U.S. continent, getting a couple into shelter after cleaning all of their laundry, and providing math tutoring to a seventh grader from a local public school. The rest stop opened its doors on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at noon, and the 578 visits took place from Jan. 8 through Jan. 15.



“The success of the Pūnāwai Rest Stop speaks to the need for our unsheltered residents to have a clean, safe, and welcoming place where they can take a hot shower, wash their clothes, and get a fresh start every day,” said Honolulu City Councilman Joey Manahan. “Without the Pūnāwai Rest Stop, people experiencing homelessness would have to resort to getting cleaned up at our beaches, in our parks, in our streams and waterways, not to mention, our places of business.



“Pūnāwai Rest Stop is a tool that takes us beyond just managing our housing crisis with enforcement actions and anti-trespassing laws that prevent people from camping illegally in the City and County of Honolulu. It’s the ‘compassionate’ part of ‘compassionate disruption.’”



Located at 431 Kūwili Street, the Pūnāwai Rest Stop offers restroom, shower and laundry services from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days per week. Mail service is also available to guests, who can utilize the Kūwili Street address to receive their correspondence. Security guards are stationed at the property during all hours of operation for guest safety, and security surveillance cameras are also in use.



“We expect the initial success of the Pūnāwai Rest Stop during its first week of operation to expand, and our goal is to replicate this effort in other City Council districts across O‘ahu,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell. “This rest stop is about giving people back their dignity and allowing them to connect with other services the city and nonprofits have available to help place them into shelter, and eventually, permanent housing.”



The Pūnāwai Rest Stop is the first of its kind in the City and County of Honolulu and follows the successful implementation of a smaller rest stop in the Chinatown area. Eight showers are available at the new rest stop for male and female clients, including a shower for ADA clientele. The intake area allows staff to greet clients in a friendly and non-threatening environment where they will be referred to other services that are available, for example, obtaining official government IDs. The rest stop is also pet friendly, as kennels are available to guests upon registration. Lockers to store personal belongings are also located nearby and the facility includes a machine that kills bed bugs with intense heat.



The Pūnāwai Rest Stop is operated by Mental Health Kōkua, which also operates the rest stop in Chinatown on Pauahi Street. The nonprofit organization secured the bid to operate the new rest stop for one year at a cost of $1 million. The contract allows the city to extend the agreement with Mental Health Kōkua up to four times for one year extensions.



“Special thanks goes to Mayor Caldwell and City Council member Manahan for envisioning the Pūnāwai Rest Stop and making it a reality,” said Mental Health Kokua CEO Greg Payton. “We anticipated serving 100 daily guests within about a month, but surpassed that amount on day six due to the compassionate work of our line staff and management. It's truly a blessing to see the changes in the lives of people who are offered an opportunity to begin again.”



The city’s Department of Community Services and the Department of Design and Construction worked with Paradigm Construction and management company Trinity Management Group LLC to complete construction of the Pūnāwai Rest Stop at a cost of $4.3 million dollars.

—PAU—