FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM The Leeward District Habitat for Humanity dedicated a finished home yesterday in Nanakuli and turned over the keys to the owner, Cynthia Keaulana, left, who held hands with Leeward Habitat president John Hansen prior to the ceremony. Keaulana's new home, which her family helped build themselves, has three bedrooms and two baths.

Group helps build
homes of hope

Habitat for Humanity aids
a Nanakuli family and plans
to assist Hawaiian Home Lands

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By Leila Fujimori and Craig Gima
lfujimori@starbulletin.com cgima@starbulletin.com

A Nanakuli family whose sagging house lacked indoor plumbing showered with a garden hose and crossed Farrington Highway to use park facilities.

But no more.

Yesterday, the Keaulanas moved into a brand new house they helped build themselves with support from Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

"When we heard we were getting a bathroom, we were happy. But when we heard there were two, we almost fell down," said homeowner Cynthia Keaulana, 52.

"The simple things that people take for granted, like running water, are luxuries to us," said Keaulana.

She, husband Michael, 53, daughter Deedee, 24, and sister Millie Halemano, 46, had lived in a family home left by Cynthia and Millie's mother. They moved out and into a new three-bedroom, two-bath house, complete with a range and water heater.

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity has helped families like the Keaulanas build and move into 42 new homes over the last 14 years.

Families provide "sweat equity" -- the labor -- into building a home they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Jose Villa, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity's executive director, said the organization has set a goal of building about 60 homes a year over a five-year period.

The group's board of directors decided three houses a year just weren't enough to make an impact on the problem of substandard housing in Hawaii, Villa said.

So this fall, Habitat for Humanity hopes to start its biggest project yet -- a 45-home subdivision on Hawaiian Home Lands in the Malu'ohai subdivision in Kapolei.

The three-bedroom, two-bath homes with two-car enclosed garage, perimeter fencing, in-ground sprinkler system and landscaping will be built with "sweat equity" and will cost the families just $70,000. The lease on the land is $1 a year.

The subdivision will be divided into four huis of 11 families who will help one another build all the homes in the subdivision.

"Family No. 1 can't move in until family 11 is finished," Villa said.

He said the experience of building the homes will bond the neighborhood. "They're going to build their homes together, they're going to be friends and they're all going to live together there for the next 20 years."

The Habitat development is just part of the 226 homes the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands hopes to build on land in Kapolei it purchased from the state. The other developments include turn-key homes and rent-to-own projects.

If the Habitat project works out, the DHHL may look to it as a model to build other homes in areas where they have land and infrastructure but qualified buyers do not make enough income to qualify for loans.

Villa said going from three homes a year to a 45-unit subdivision required Habitat to find partners to help with the project. Menehune Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies, DHHL, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Case Foundation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle helped put the deal together and offered low-interest or no-interest loans for the project.

Families making 80 percent or less of the median income in Hawaii can qualify for the subdivision. Habitat for Humanity can provide low-interest loans for families who make less than 50 percent of the state's median income and who cannot get loans any other way.

To find families for the project, Habitat sent mailers to 7,200 families on the waiting list for Hawaiian Home Lands. About 850 families responded; 500 attended meetings; about 350 completed the paperwork and 77 families are still in the running for the homes.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for September.