Page 4 - MidWeek Kauai - June 8, 2022

4 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK JUNE 8, 2022
Members of the CORE team is available to serve O‘ahu communities seven days a week.
At the heart of Honolulu Emergency Services Department’s newest program is a hardworking team looking out for and taking care of the city’s houseless population, with director Dr. James Ireland leading the way.
Tonight, there are nearly 4,000 people on O‘ahu who don’t have a bed to sleep in. They don’t know when their next bite of food or sip of water will be, nor do they have access to medical care or transportation to get from A to B.
and one goal only: Find ways in which the city can better serve the island’s houseless population.
One of the many reasons why CORE was established was to provide relief for Honolulu’s EMS and police departments, which have become inundated in the last few years. Dr. James Ireland — the director of Honolulu Emergency Services Department who served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a combat medic and later for the city as an EMT — recalls his time in the back of an ambulance. Around 30 years ago, he says, people would generally only dial 911 for critical emergencies like a heart attack or stroke, but in the time since, there’s been a culture shift. Today, 911 dispatchers have never been busier.
It’s no secret that homelessness is prevalent on Hono- lulu’s streets. But here to do something about it is a small but mighty team of 30 individuals, who — with dignity, re- spect and compassion — are putting in the groundwork to get O‘ahu’s homeless taken care of, one person at a time.
What came out of those discussions was CORE (Crisis, Outreach, Response and Engagement), a mostly federal- ly funded program within the city’s Emergency Services Department.
Last year, a task force featuring officials from the May- or’s Office of Housing and Homelessness, the nonprofit sector, Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Emergen- cy Services Department as well as homeless individuals, among others, met for six weeks. The group had one goal
Composed of emergency medical technicians, communi- ty health personnel, social workers and supervisors, CORE takes to the streets seven days a week, and just like its acro- nym suggests, the team frequents heavily populated areas — like Chinatown, Downtown Honolulu and Waikīkī — to not only meet the immediate needs of houseless individuals, such as treating wounds and changing bandages, but also get to know them on a first-name basis and listen to what other ways it can help.
“People still need care, but they don’t necessarily need a 911 ambulance with highly trained medics,” Ireland says. “The things I’m referring to are people calling about gout pain in their ankle, the sniffles or because they ran out of
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