Despite its image as a vacation paradise, Hawaii has the highest homelessness rate in the United States, and the figure doubled between 2019 and 2024, rising from 40 to 80 per 10,000 residents.
“Is homelessness a significant issue in Hawaii? Yes, it has been,” Dr. Sara Yuan, a specialist at the Center for Family Life at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, told The Living Church. The islands’ favorable weather—attractive to tourists—also contributes to homelessness. Unlike in colder regions, where people are forced to seek shelter during harsh winters, Hawaii’s warm climate allows people to remain outdoors and “live without seeking formal help.”
St. Elizabeth’s Church in Honolulu, founded as a mission to serve Chinese migrant workers displaced by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, continues to serve those on the margins. According to Senior Warden Cathy Malia Lowenberg, the parish was one of the first public-housing sites in the state.
Located in Kalihi-Palama—an area encompassing the neighborhood of Kalihi and the historic district of Palama near Chinatown—St. Elizabeth’s sits near downtown Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. A 2016 report by the Honolulu Civil Beat described the area as the “last working-class neighborhood in Central Honolulu” where residents, many of whom are Native Hawaiians and Asians, “work two or three jobs to make ends meet.”
The district has the most number of public housing complexes in the state and up to 8 out of 10 students attending its public schools are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Oahu Community Correctional Center, Hawaii’s largest jail, is just an eight-minute drive from St. Elizabeth’s.
For Lowenberg, the church being in a neighborhood with high levels of poverty and homelessness is a blessing. “I think it’s what makes our parish so dynamic and exciting,” she told TLC. “We have the opportunity to serve as Jesus would have.” In a bulletin, the civil rights attorney said that up to 30 percent of the congregation is unsheltered, some of whom live around church property.
“They are integral members of our parish, but they are always overlooked and never seen as true members,” she told TLC.
St. Elizabeth’s runs numerous programs for the unsheltered and food insecure. The church serves 700 hot meals a week to about 200 people. On Fridays, a medical team visits the property to treat wounds among those who “take refuge at our church,” many of whom are, Lowenberg said, “the sickest and most vulnerable.”
The church’s rectory is a Wallyhouse, a ministry affiliated with the Catholic Worker movement founded by Dorothy Day. Jeremy Castro manages the ministry which provides food bags, hygiene kits, clothing, and charging stations. “Last year we moved 200,000 lbs. just through Hawaii Foodbank,” he said. Stories of families in tents receiving services and eventually securing housing are among his most meaningful memories.
A number of reasons have caused Kalihi-Palama to struggle with public safety, including ethnic tensions leading to gang violence. In early 2024, a man disrupted a neighborhood board meeting by throwing a glass object at a window. In late February, a man was hospitalized after a stabbing nearby. A tent city that formed in the church’s backyard last year has sparked safety concerns and criticisms from members of the community, with some claiming those unsheltered are dealing with drugs.
Kahu Kaleo Patterson, a former United Church of Christ (UCC) pastor who was ordained an Episcopal priest in 2014, learned of the issue. In Hawaiian, kahu can mean priest, guardian, or administrator. Patterson is familiar with the area: in the 1990s, he ministered at the 186-year-old Kaumakapili Church, a UCC congregation that shares a property line with St. Elizabeth’s. At the time the conflict with the community arose, the latter did not have a rector.
“It would be good for St. Elizabeth as they prepare to hire a new rector to begin developing partnerships in the community to help manage the ministries,” he remembers telling some leaders of St. Elizabeth’s and Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick of Hawaii, who endorsed the idea. The Hawaii bishop asked him to write a memo on how to handle the issue between the parish and the community.
“I don’t think you have a grasp of the violence in Kalihi-Palama,” Patterson wrote to Fitzpatrick. “The two churches are being impacted by homelessness attracting violence in many forms: drugs, gangs, sex assaults, trafficking, sheltering on sidewalks and on church property.”
Patterson told TLC the parish has been regarded by the community as a “popular place in Honolulu to get drugs.” There were also other concerns, including theft and robberies.
A Zone of Peace and Nonviolence
Kahu Heather Barfield the current lead pastor of Kaumakapili Church said the violence is not fueled purely by homelessness, but may also be related to gang activity. Her congregation is working with city council members, police, and service agencies to assist those in need.
She has interacted with Patterson and Kahu Haaheo Guanson, executive director of the Pacific Justice and Reconciliation Center (PJRC), which Patterson founded in 1989. Guanson has been a supply priest to St. Elizabeth’s for several months now.
As peace advocates they encouraged members of the community and the two churches to come together and create a Zone of Peace and Nonviolence. Patterson also suggested the food outreach ministries be paused and “reorganize a little bit.”
On Palm Sunday 2024, Patterson, Barfield, some community members, and 20 members of St. Elizabeth’s walked around the block and declared it as a Zone of Peace and Nonviolence.
Both churches display signs on their fences marking the zone, which Barfield said shows “we are all trying to work together to try and help the situation.” Patterson acknowledged that developing “intentional collaboration and community partnerships to address the historical violence in the area” will take years.
Patterson, Guanson, Barfield, and other community members have also distributed food and necessities along the street and have participated in clearing tents, including those in front of the church property.
But Lowenberg said the zone “has nothing to do with us.” While she confirmed that members participated in the march, she said the vestry did not approve Patterson’s tent-clearing efforts (Patterson told TLC their approval wasn’t necessary as it occurred outside church property and they had a permit). She also takes issue with the semantics of “peace and nonviolence,” as it could deter unsheltered people from coming to church.
“For many of us—the vestry, the congregation, and me—the senior warden—we feel when you say peace and nonviolence, when you say justice, my next question is: for whom?”
In a church bulletin, Lowenberg wrote: “Who is the ‘congregation’ in a diverse urban parish such as St. Elizabeth’s? It seems our unsheltered parishioners—no matter what they do or how much they contribute—remain invisible.”
Lowenberg acknowledges she and Patterson have “two different philosophies.” The PJRC founder who serves as vicar of St. Stephen’s in Wahiawa, 20 miles away from Kalihi-Palama, described the issue with St. Elizabeth’s as “very delicate.”
Layers of Complexity
A couple of weeks ago, Barfield realized she spends no less than 10 hours of her time every week out on the sidewalk, “trying to talk to people, get to know them, and understand their needs better.” For her, ministry starts with relationships. She began serving as lead pastor at Kalihi-Palama in December 2023 and during that time, learned that you can’t help everyone and that communication is paramount in all her endeavors.
Canon Sandy Graham, the diocese’s canon to the bishop, visited St. Elizabeth’s recently to speak with unsheltered parishioners affected by the recent tent clearings done in part by Patterson.
“Usually no one confers with them or wants to seriously include them in collaboration,” wrote Fran Kramer, a vestry member. “I’ve been attending church services for over half a century, but I’ve never seen or heard a meeting quite like the one after last week’s Sunday service, where Canon Sandy was invited to hear the voices of our houseless members.”
In a statement to TLC, Graham praised Patterson, Guanson, and St. Elizabeth’s for “making their neighborhood responsive to all of those needs while attempting to remain respectful to all in as safe an environment as possible.” He alludes to the “massive needs of the community,” including those experiencing homelessness, running businesses, attending school and worship services, and providing healthcare.
Both Patterson and Lowenberg agree that homelessness in Hawaii is a historical issue tied to systemic neglect.
“If you look at the people who live on the street and the people who are using drugs, it all comes hand in hand—violence, drugs, houselessness, mental illness,” Lowenberg said. “They are disproportionately Hawaiian, disproportionately Micronesian, disproportionately elderly, disproportionately veterans. Wherever you have a community of vulnerable houseless people, you’re also gonna have predators who come and prey on them.”
Patterson, an Indigenous Hawaiian, has long raised awareness about historical injustices, including the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. He was instrumental in obtaining formal apologies from the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. He believes Hawaii remains in a post-colonial state that “still suffers from the failure of the systems to support the people.”
While Lowenberg said her views reflect a majority of the congregation, she acknowledged a vocal minority that disagrees. At the vestry’s next meeting on May 25, members plan to discuss what role the church should play in addressing poverty.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
