By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Lesley Awana, 23, and sister Malia Awana, 18, at the Waianae
home, which was a project of the state and Self-Help Housing
Corporation in Hawaii.

---

Modules for
homeless put to
good use

They were to be scrapped
but have been rebuilt

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

On the first night in a home he never dreamed he'd own, Les Awana couldn't sleep because the feeling was so new.

"I just tossed and turned," he said.

His wife finally made him sleep on the floor.

Awana had been on the Hawaiian Homelands waiting list for 27 years and had lived with his parents in a homestead house in Nanakuli.

But thanks to the state and the Self-Help Housing Corporation in Hawaii, he moved into his new home at a Hawaiian Homelands development in Waianae early May.

"I'm sleeping pretty good now," he said.

His home is one of 14 constructed out of what were once homes for the homeless in the Weinberg Village in Waianae.

The state was going to scrap the 66 modules, until Hawaiian Homelands Chairman Kali Watson intervened.

Claudia Shay, executive director of the Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawaii, said Watson approached her with the idea of turning the homes for the homeless into homes for homesteaders.

With the help of building suppliers and construction companies that donated materials and labor, "sweat equity" from the homeowners, and inmate labor from the Oahu Community Correctional Facility, the new homes were built for $20,000 a piece.

Awana's mortgage is $92 a month.

Rose Kekino moved into her four-bedroom, two-bath house on May 2.

"I can't believe it was a homeless shelter," she said.

Kekino is a widow who lives on a pension and would not have been able to afford her own home without the program. She had been on the waiting list since 1972.

Shay said the people selected for the 14 homes were at 50 percent below the medium income and would not have been able to qualify for homes without the program.

Habitat for Humanity is also helping six families build their own homes in the development and Self-Help Housing Corporation is helping to construct 16 more homes in the homelands development in Waianae.

Inmate Michael Martindell said helping build the homes is a good deal for the homeowners and for the inmates.

"A lot of people don't leave prison with anything," he said.

"This is giving us something we can take with us."

Among the new homeowners is a family of seven that once lived in a tent and a woman who was raising her grandchildren in a Quonset hut.

At a ceremony to thank those responsible for the homes, Gov. Ben Cayetano said the project has "opened the doors to happiness" for families.

"Now I get something for leave my children," Awana said.

"Anytime another native Hawaiian gets back onto the land that's a form of sovereignty right there," he said.