Affordable, Quick-Build Housing Helps Homeless and Displaced Residents

HomeAid Hawai‘i is a nonprofit that’s been creating affordable, community-centered housing since 2015.

“It’s very black and white,” says HomeAid Executive Director Kimo Carvalho. “You build homes, you reduce the homeless population.”

HomeAid has completed five kauhale projects on O‘ahu and is developing others on Maui and Hawai‘i Island, among other projects. HomeAid expanded into two teams after the Lahaina fires, one focused on kauhale projects statewide, and the other on Maui’s Ka La‘i Ola, a multiphase project housing those affected by the wildfires.

“Kauhale is a Hawaiian village community concept focused on communal living,” explains the HomeAid website. Using “trauma-informed design principles,” it provides affordable housing and community support to assist those transitioning out of homelessness.

Images courtesy: HomeAid Hawai‘i

“You want to create spaces meant to heal people,” Carvalho says. That includes a blend of indoor and outdoor spaces, plus community and private spaces  that allow residents to “live naturally,” as opposed to the strict structure of traditional shelters. Kauhale projects have been built in Honolulu near A‘ala Park and on Middle Street, in Kāne‘ohe and elsewhere on O‘ahu.

HomeAid applied the methods used in its kauhale projects when asked by the state government to be the lead developer of Ka La‘i Ola, a community for those displaced by the Lahaina fires.

The housing project broke ground in April 2024 and its first residents moved in Aug. 9. Today, Ka La‘i Ola houses 140 families across 153 modular units.

The ultimate goal is to build 450 units on the 57-acre site – roughly the size of 43 football fields or about half the size of Ala Moana Beach Park. The modular units can last several decades and can be moved and reused in different housing projects, according to Kalewa Bancaco.

Bancaco, born and raised on Maui, became senior project manager for HomeAid’s Maui Housing Initiative in May 2024.

Images courtesy: HomeAid Hawai‘i

“It meant that I could help my community,” she says. “I can listen to the community directly, my family, and basically just advocate for them, make sure their voices are being heard and implemented.”

Ka La‘i Ola was designed to bring people back home and back together, Bancaco says, and will eventually include playgrounds, a community center, resiliency center and community spaces for barbecues and other gatherings.

HomeAid has partnered with Hui No Ke Ola Pono, a nonprofit health care center, to offer health care to Ka La‘i Ola residents.

HomeAid’s public and private partnerships help keep kauhale housing affordable. “We’re truly talking deep affordability, in the amount of like $350 to $750 a month for rent,” Carvalho says.

“[Residents] need that kind of price point so they can save. The more they earn, the more they save, the more they can actually work toward that next step.”

Images courtesy: HomeAid Hawai‘i

Carvalho describes what HomeAid’s projects mean to its staff, partners and the people it serves.

“Every project that we do is not just a project. There’s a lot more to it that we own and we become connected to, and then we value our approach, because it’s more than just development.”