Home Lands are During the years the Simeona family lived in their own townhouse in Kaneohe, home was just a place to sleep and do laundry.
all about family
The Simeonas find their
ideal life in a homesteadNEW NEIGHBORS
Treena Shapiro / tshapiro@starbulletin.com
Ed and Jackie Simeona and their six children never really got to know their neighbors. Work, school, friends and family were all in town. "At home we were all alone," Ed said.
But more than a year ago, the family moved into the new Hawaiian Home Lands subdivision Kalawahine Streamside near Punchbowl, and everything changed. Their new neighbors have become friends to the parents and aunties and uncles to the children: Kuuipo, 20, Kaea, 17, Lokahi, 16, Lahilahi, 13, Kaulana, 11, and Keala, 9. They feel a sense of community in their neighborhood that was lacking before.
"Here, everybody has the same culture. Everybody grew up the same way," Ed said. "The Hawaiian philosophy in the Home Lands was always families. Where we were before, it was always individuals."
"It makes us feel more secure about where we live," said Kaea, a Kamehameha Schools senior. "We know everybody. We're all one big family."
Although Kuuipo now lives with an aunt up the street, the family is still large for their three-bedroom duplex. Then again, large families are not unusual for the area. Census 2000 showed that homestead families tend to be larger than the average Hawaii family. The average family size is 4.85 at the 342 households of the Auwaiolimu-Kalawahine-Kewalo-Papakolea Home Land, compared with the 3.42 average statewide.In addition, census data for Hawaii show that, at almost 93 percent, the area has the seventh-largest percentage of residents who own the homes they occupy.
The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands was established to provide residential, agricultural and pastoral land to native Hawaiian adults. Because the lots are limited, applicants could have a long wait if they want to get into a particular homestead, although they are often offered lots in other areas.
Since applying in 1987, the Simeonas turned down homesteads in Nanakuli and on Maui before they qualified for Kalawahine Streamside, near the Papakolea Home Land where Jackie, 45, grew up.
Their new home is close to her family, work and school. Jackie works for the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Ed, also 45, is a Honolulu Fire Department captain. Their children attend Kapiolani Community College, Roosevelt High School, Stevenson Intermediate School and Lincoln and Manoa elementary schools, as well as Kamehameha.
While Home Land housing is considerably cheaper than homes elsewhere on Oahu, Ed said homesteading is not as affordable as it used to be. The 87 homes in Kalawahine Streamside ranged in price from $180,000 to $235,000.
Ken Toguchi, public information specialist for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said when the department just provided land and infrastructure, some homesteaders had difficulty developing the land, so they have reverted back to contracting developers to build the homes. The Simeonas' subdivision, built into the side of Kalawahine Valley, is more expensive because of the terrain, he said.
The department is looking at more affordable ways to provide homes for their beneficiaries, however, including rentals for seniors in Waimanalo and rent-to-own homes in Kapolei. They are also looking at ways to provide more housing to meet demand, such as duplexes, apartments and condominium units. There are almost 32,000 applications on file.
For the Simeonas, location and convenience were the main reasons the family made the move, Ed said.
As a planned community, Jackie said that the new neighborhood is different from Papakolea, particularly because there were few options in the type of house.
But the lifestyle is similar. "When I was growing up, it was just like over here: We knew all of the neighbors, and we would get together sometimes and go to the community park," she said. "But when I got married and the different places where we lived, we kept to ourselves."
In Kalawahine Streamside, however, her husband pointed out, "everybody knows everything about everybody else."