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Theft leaves mobile hygiene unit for homeless ‘inoperable’

By Colleen Uechi 4 min read

A toilet, water heaters and other supplies were stolen from a mobile hygiene unit that offers hot showers to South Maui's homeless, leaving the trailer inoperable a week before Thanksgiving.

"We do this really hard work and we really want to help the unsheltered, and then somebody comes and does something like this," said Monique Ibarra, executive director of Ka Hale A Ke Ola, which operates the unit. "It just doesn't make sense, and right before the holidays."

Ibarra said that staff had locked up the trailer at the wastewater treatment plant in Kihei on Friday and planned to return on Monday to take the unit to St. Theresa Church. But when a staff member arrived in the morning, "he noticed that something wasn't right."

"The locks on the doors had been drilled," Ibarra said. "He opened it up and discovered that it was pretty much gutted. They took so much stuff."

The stolen items included two water heating tanks, a toilet, copper pipes, the unit's battery and an air conditioning unit in the ceiling of the shower room. The thief or thieves even went so far as to steal the bracket that held up the shower head, Ibarra said. She added that there was no surveillance in the locked area where the unit was stored, and that staff at the county-run facility said they didn't see anything unusual.

Police could not be reached for comment on Monday afternoon, and Maui County spokesman Brian Perry said he did not have information on the incident.

Ka Hale A Ke Ola has two mobile hygiene units -- a larger one that includes three showers, one bathroom, a washer, dryer, charging station and a private meeting space for case management services, and a smaller unit with one shower and one toilet.

The nonprofit has been taking the smaller unit to St. Theresa since September and has been seeing about six individuals who regularly use the shower and bathroom services. In compliance with COVID-19 restrictions, anyone who uses the unit must get their temperature taken, answer health questions and wear a mask. The shower and bathroom is cleaned after every use.

Ibarra said they had plans to partner up with different agencies to do more outreach and add on services like first aid or wound care, health referrals, haircuts and meals.

But now, with no battery to run the unit and no water heaters to warm the showers, it's "absolutely inoperable."

"We can't double the services like we were hoping to do," she said.

Ibarra explained that she has to find out the extent of the damage and see if the unit can even be repaired. It cost a little over $34,000 in county funds, not including shipping, and came from a company in the Midwest that manufactures those types of trailers.

The county is currently using Ka Hale A Ke Ola's other mobile unit at Waiale Park, where temporary shelters are housing people displaced by COVID-19.

In the meantime, Ka Hale A Ke Ola staff will continue to visit St. Theresa's to provide case management and other services like mail and coupons for the laundromat, said Ibarra, though she was disappointed they wouldn't have the mobile unit.

"I'm just hoping I can get the word out into the community so that if anybody knows, they can help us to know who took our stuff," Ibarra said. "I don't think we'll get it back, but I also don't think that somebody should get away with stealing our unit's things that were used for such a vital service for our unsheltered in Kihei."

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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