Tiny home community for the homeless built-in Kalaeloa, Hawaii
Built with donated labor and materials and a state investment of about $1.8-million dollars
By Kristen Consillio
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EWA BEACH, Hawaii (KITV) — It’s described as a labor of love.
After two years, this vacant land that used to be known as the morgue has been transformed into a kauhale, a community of permanent homes for the homeless.
Built with donated labor and materials and a state investment of about $1.8-million dollars, the project known as Kama’oku includes 37 tiny homes costing about $22-thousand dollars each.
Kama’oku was built to not only put a roof over people’s heads but to give them hope for a better future.
“We need to put one like this in everybody’s back yard,” Sen. Kurt Fevella said at a blessing today. “We need to find places like this because we have this houseless issue in every community.”
The kauhale has farming gardens, where they can learn to grow their own food, sell it, and earn a living. The community will be managed by U.S. Vets, but it’s open to all. Residents will receive case management, job assistance, and therapy.
“We are not just giving one-time care, we’re giving a lifetime of hope,” said Darryl Vincent, head of U.S. Vets. “We’re not going to have this kitchen just to give people a job, but to put them on a vocation of a career path. And we’re not just giving someone a house, we’re providing and sharing a home in a community.”
The housing project also includes an outdoor pavilion and barbecue area, a communal kitchen, restroom, and laundry facilities, and a clinic to bring medical care close to home.
“This is a health crisis for so many people. People without a home … they live three decades shorter than the rest of us,” said Lt. Gov. Josh Green. “That is from my perspective as a physician the worst health crisis we could possibly imagine.”
Green estimates more than 12,000 residents are without homes every year in the islands.
Nani Medeiros, head of the nonprofit HomeAid Hawaii, led the project with blood, sweat, and tears and through major obstacles including a shortage of building materials during the pandemic. But she says it was all worth the struggle.
“We really wanted to restore people’s dignity. We wanted to give them a sense of purpose again and belonging,” Medeiros said. “I’ve seen far too many people who’ve experienced homelessness really live in shame and self-loathing, not thinking they deserve anything better than what they have, which is their tent on the street when the truth is that they do.”
The state hopes to use this kauhale as a prototype one of many to be built in the coming years.
So far there are 10 people being screened for a home. Dec. 1 is the targeted move-in date for the first tenants.
The monthly price for a tiny home … $500. The cost of transforming lives … priceless.
Produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
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