LIHU‘E — Stakeholders, community members and elected officials are crying out against the re-purposing of the Kaua‘i Adolescent Treatment and Healing Center.
Last month, the county’s administration terminated a contract with Hope Treatment Services, an O‘ahu-based health-care provider set to manage and operate the facility meant to provide mental-health and substance-abuse-related support services to adolescents and their families.
The ATHC, which sits on a 5.8-acre parcel of land gifted by Grove Farm, has eight bedrooms, recreational space, agricultural capacity and a building for support services with attached classrooms. It’d be the first on-island facility of its kind in over two decades.
The facility is now planning to be operated by the county Office of the Prosecuting Attorney as a juvenile-justice-reform center and other support services. In the interim, the facility is being used by the county as a location for potential pandemic response.
President and Chief Executive Officer at Grove Farm Warren H. Haruki wrote to Mayor Derek Kawakami on June 18 about the re-purposing of the facility.
Haruki states that Grove Farm has not been contacted by anyone within the county administration of the proposed change, which goes against a 2015 contract, and requests a plan for review.
The memorandum of agreement between Grove Farm and the county dated August 2015 states the property “shall be utilized in perpetuity solely for adult and adolescent health care use” unless Grove Farm provides prior written consent to the change. The deed in May 2017 reiterates these points.
“We are disappointed that the original vision was not given a chance to succeed,” Haruki said. “We are also disappointed that the terms of the MOA are not being adhered to, and especially the fact that we have never been consulted on this matter.”
In the fiscal year
2020-21 budget submittal in May, the county noted the movement of the Life’s Choices substance-abuse-prevention program and operational control of the facility from the County Housing Agency to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. This move was not in the first budget, submitted in March.
The Kaua‘i County Council was not directly involved in the decision to re-purpose the facility, only in approving the budget.
“The budget had a simple line item and statement that Life’s Choices was being moved from the housing department to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney,” Councilmember Felicia Cowden said Friday. “No narrative was offered that described the outcome would be a re-purposing of the new building or resting the plan to offer residential drug treatment to adolescents.”
Cowden was on the original coalition to help create this center in 2002 and 2003.
“My main concern with the re-purposing of the building is that we will have a difficult time reclaiming the residential purpose,” she said. “Given how much coordinated effort came in the 17 years from so many partners, I worry that the county will lose credibility with the public and land owners. The next community project will likely find closed doors when we gave up so easily on this desperately-needed, essential service.”
Prior to meeting on Wednesday, councilmembers received at least 10 pieces of written public testimony from constituents and calls urging them to reconsider this change. Councilmember KipuKai Kuali‘i said he’s heard from at least 30 community members, urging the county to change course.
“People are pleading for the county to reconsider, to not change course because of the desperate need on our island,” Kuali‘i said. “We cannot wait another year or another six months. If we need to invest time and money, then we should do that. It’s unfair to not go back to the council or the community to ask for help.”
In written testimony to the council, Maile Murray, who previously served on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Treatment and Integration, Prevention and Drug Action and is a certified substance-abuse counselor, notes the years-long struggle to find funding and get the building up and running.
“For years our island has been without a facility to help our keiki,” Murray wrote. “Our community fought a battle to build a place where they could send their child to heal, a place where families could be repaired and reunited. This place was meant to be.”
Sandy Howatt expressed her dismay to the council.
“It was very disappointing to hear that the building may be ‘re-purposed’ after the community has waited so long. Also distressing is that this will be in any way affiliated with the prosecutor’s office,” she wrote. Howatt continued: “The stigma associated with the disease is reinforced when it is associated with the prosecutor’s office.”
And Renee To‘oto‘o wrote to the council that re-purposing the center sends a sign to the youth.
“For many years as I grew up as a teen on Kaua‘i, I felt left behind, that I do not matter and my voice does not matter,” To‘oto‘o wrote. “Kaua‘i, I feel, caters more to the elderly, and I normally refer it to a retirement place for the elders.”
The county and Hope Treatment Service disagree on what has led to this point.
The county claims the provider made little progress since it was awarded the contract and given a March 31 deadline for operation.
Hope Treatment said it has been upfront that licensing to be operational could take up to a year, and that since they received the contract it had bought and assembled furniture and received partial licensing.
Because the state Department of Health is currently in the space, the state Department of Education, which is scheduled to use it in July, is also requesting access to the space.
On Friday, Kuali‘i wrote a letter to Kawakami and his administration urging them to stay the course of the ATHC and let the DOE use it.
Kuali‘i has seen firsthand that treatment can change the course for those who need help and their families.
“To change that route right now, it’s not honoring our commitment,” Kuali‘i said. “In many ways, by repurposing it, you’re stealing hope from families.”
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Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
