Father Du Teil would be proud

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FATHER CLAUDE DU TEIL CHANGED THE WAY HAWAII DEALT WITH THEHOMELESS, AND 30 YEARS LATER THE INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SERVICESCARRIES ON HIS LEGACY
“Well, I’m a Kailua person ‘cause I live inKailua; a street person is a street person ‘cause he lives onthe street.” - Claude Du Teil, founder of IHS, in a 1983television interview
It was this type of pragmatic thinking in 1978 that allowed FatherDu Teil to tackle a problem that no else in Hawaii wanted to touch:homelessness.
He did not see them as sots, hobos, streeties, bums or winos. Theywere just people, and no one was giving them a hand.
He tried to help them through the Salvation Army’s AlcoholServices Center; it seemed a logical choice, as he was a recoveringalcoholic himself. Unfortunately, it was funded by the federalgovernment and thereby had mandates to only help those afflictedwith alcoholism.
“He was really frustrated, because most of the people had somany problems other than alcoholism, but helping with their alcoholproblem was all he was supposed to do,” remembers Roberta“Bert” Du Teil, his wife of 50 years.

Though an Episcopal priest, he lived by a different sort of GoldenRule, the Golden Rule of Arts and Sciences: He who has the goldmakes the rules.
So he struck out on his own, beholden to no one but his God andtook up what became known as the Peanut Butter Ministry. He set upshop in a rundown building at 1128 Smith St.
It was in an area of Chinatown where the homeless had beensquatting for years in abandoned buildings. The city had recentlyrousted them at the owners’ behest and they now were sleepingin the alleyways and storefronts of Chinatown and beneath the treesin A’ala Park.