Who We Serve

Our services begin when individuals and families they enter the doors at one of our two emergency shelters: one for single women and families with children, and the other for single men. Our guests might be a person simply looking for a hot meal (which we serve three times daily) or a place to take a hot shower. Or, they could be a person or family in crisis who has nowhere to turn for a safe place to sleep and in need of support.

Often, our guests have had life events (e.g. trauma or domestic violence, mental or physical illness, eviction related to a new landlord) or made choices (substance abuse, criminal convictions) that caused them to lose everything they possessed and destroyed their circles of supportive relationships.

Others are migrants from across the seas, from other states or nations, looking for a new start or seeking refuge on Oahu, which is itself facing challenges of sustainability on many fronts.

Those we serve are a part of our community, whether they are cognizant of it or not, or whether our community embraces them. IHS continues to bring together those who come to us in need and those who want to respond to that need with a Spirit of Aloha.

IHS remains the only 24-hour walk-in, emergency shelter on Oahu and continues to provide a full range of services to men, women and families with children who are homeless and in danger of becoming homeless. The agency operates two facilities in Honolulu, one for men at 350 Sumner Street, capable of serving up to 200 men each night and the other, for women and families, at 546 Ka'aahi Street, serving up to 100 single women and 23-27 families with as many as 60 children daily. The agency strives to be ADA compliant and will make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.

In FY2008, IHS provided services to over 2,800 individuals in our community. Our two emergency shelters, one for single women and families with children, and the other for single men provided 113,230 bed nights to a total of 1,538 unique individuals – 93 2 individual adult men, 355 individual women, 251 family individuals, including 150 children – and served 255,703 meals to shelter guests and other individuals in need. Our Housing Placement Program served 761 unduplicated persons in 172 families. This program prevented homelessness by assisting at-risk families with rental assistance and short-term case management.

Stats – Meals & Bed Nights

• Meals: 255,703
• Bed Nights: 113,320
• 932 Single Men
• 355 Single Women
• 251 Family Individuals
• 150 Children

IHS continues to serve a population that reflects the ethnic and culturally diversity of our Islands.