The Aloha Chapter met for its quarterly luncheon meeting on Friday, September 07, 2018, at the Oahu Country Club to hear a presentation by Mel Kaneshige and Duane Kirisu describing their innovative and successful low-income-homeless residential project, Kahauiki Village. Located on state property at Sand Island, on a vacant 11.3 acre commercial-industrial parcel near Honolulu’s commeercial waterfront, the project presently houses 30 families in 18 2-bedroom 540 sq. ft. and 12 1 -bedroom 324 sq. ft. units consisting of reassembled and refurbished units which formerly held evacuees from Japan’s earthquake in 2008. To qualify for occupancy, a family must be coming from a transitional residential facility for the homeless – mainly from the Institute for Human Services which also manages the Village- and have access to employment income sufficient to cover the rent of $900 a month for the 2-bedroom units and $725 a month for the one-bedroom units. The housing is not transitional: residents may stay as long as the rent is paid; the state has leased the land (for one dollar) for an initial 10-year period, renewable for an additional 10 years. The first phase took only 6 months to complete - housing units, laundry, recreational center and day-care center – and when fully built out in 2020 the Village will have a total of 144 units, at a cost of $115,000 per unit. Including all utility costs pro rated., housing over 600 formerly homeless people. The Village is within walking distance of a public elementary school. Several local businesses contributed furniture and appliances. The Village and its purpose appears to be a rousing success, and the two presenters – one a retired executive with a major hotel management and construction corporation – received a rousing round of applause.
David Callies
Scribe-Historian
Aloha Chapter
