With the cost of housing in Kaua‘i among the highest in the nation, resident Claudia Shay is hoping her latest Puhi project will offer some financial relief for local families. The median cost for a new home in Kaua‘i in
With the cost of housing in Kaua‘i among the highest in the nation, resident Claudia Shay is hoping her latest Puhi project will offer some financial relief for local families.
The median cost for a new home in Kaua‘i in August was $740,000, in a county where 31 percent of households bring in under $35,000 a year, according to a Ward Research report produced for the Kaua‘i Housing Coalition.
That’s why its crucial that the Puhi project, for which ground was broken this month, moves forward, Shay said. The keynote speaker for the Sept. 8 groundbreaking event was Mayor Bryan Baptiste.
Shay is the founder of the Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawai‘i, a group that will allow eligible residents to build and finance a home through 36 hours a week of sweat equity for one year.
So far, 500 Kaua‘i residents have applied for the 41 lots available, said Shay, who began SHHCH 22 years ago. Selected applicants also will receive financial counseling and will be required to take a home ownership class.
“The need for affordable housing on this island is phenomenal,” Shay said. “The reason we needed this was to meet an overwhelming community need.”
The latest project for SHHCH, the 41-lot subdivision will be on 7,000-square-foot lots on the six-acre parcel that used to encompass the Grove Farm.
From Kilauea to Kekaha, Shay has overseen the construction of more than 100 similar homes, she said.
The SHHCH program also created 21 similar projects for more than 540 families on O‘ahu, Kaua‘i, Maui and Molokai.
Kaua‘i County will help pay for $964,000 in infrastructure costs, such as roads, scheduled to begin by the beginning of the year, she said.
Residents who qualify for the project will build the homes that will appraise for around $600,000 for less than $200,000, Shay said.
Similar to the idea of Habitat for Humanity, which has built more than 200,000 houses around the world through volunteers and families donating sweat equity, families who qualify for a self-help house also put in labor of their own — 1,300 hours’ worth.
“The emphasis is on the owner putting in most of the labor and working with each other as team members to build the home,” she said.
Such work involves completing more than 65 percent of the labor in the house, including masonry, framing, roofing and carpentry.
Because so many people expressed interest in the project, Shay is looking for more land to continue similar programs, she said, particularly if the County Council decides to approve requiring future developments have a portion of affordable housing.
“What would be ideal is if we partnered with private developers to do their affordable end of their projects,” Shay said. “We’ve done that on other islands and its worked really well.”
• Amanda C. Gregg, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.
com.
