ANAHOLA — Robin Danner stands in the side yard of a modest house in Anahola that has been transformed by construction of a prototype for a small shed intended to shelter kupuna or members of large families if they have to self-quarantine to protect against COVID-19.
It’s intended as an easily constructed, inexpensive remedy to what Danner sees as a looming problem as Native Hawaiian families confront a virus that disproportionately strikes older people at a time that many already crowded households may be joined by still more residents who are economic victims of the virus.
The prototype, said Danner, who heads the Homestead Community Development Corp., was built in less than four days by a crew of three. It uses materials easily procured at places like the Home Depot or Honsador Lumber.
The organization has offices in Anahola and Honolulu. Its website is hawaiianhomsteads.org.
The construction cost depends on the degree to which the quarantine shed is tricked out. For the prototype, Danner splurged on French doors from The Home Depot that have built-in blinds. She said typical examples of the shed could be built for between $2,500 and $7,500.
Danner’s organization is a Native Hawaiian nonprofit that primarily serves families who live on state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands properties throughout the state. So far, with marketing effectively limited to word of mouth, 39 families have signed up to build sheds. Interest has come from O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i Island and Kaua‘i, she said.
“I haven’t marketed it heavily,” she said. “Given the level of interest, I’m almost scared to.” The development corporation is raising capital, and has about $200,000 ready to commit to loans for the quarantine structures, she said. More money is being sought.
The key element of Danner’s strategy is a loan program that will provide financing with monthly payments of between $90 and $183, with 24- and 48-month term options. Participants can either build the sheds completely on their own or use tool and material lists the organization can supply, as well as an instruction manual.
The sheds lack plumbing or electrical service and are below the size limit that triggers the need for a building permit. “The sheds give us a way to self-quarantine and it’s not a $30,000 project,” she said. “This is not going to break the bank and it’s not going to break your back.”
The program was unveiled last week. By the weekend, however, Danner had already moved onto a second concept for which she thinks there may also be significant demand among DHHL lessee families. It would be a separate structure functioning as what she called “the backyard bathroom.” It would require water and electrical service and connection to a cesspool or septic tank. A building permit would be necessary, Danner said.
Such bathrooms could be another way to ease the burden on extended families crowded into houses that were not designed for the numbers of people occupying them.
“I think COVID-19 has revealed some of our complacency,” she said. “We’re overcrowded. We kind of just accept it, but COVID-19 has made it unacceptable now because it’s dangerous. We could be hurting our kupuna and our own family members. It’s unacceptable and it’s not insurmountable.
“The solution is less than $5,000, but that’s at a time when even $1,000 would be a lot for any family in Hawai‘i to have lying around. That’s why we are creating a loan product.”
She said the quarantine shed idea surfaced initially during a conference call among leaders of Hawaiian homestead organizations. “One of the top priorities brought to our attention was that we need to protect our kupuna,” she said. “We need an elder defense line. The solution is so simple.
“We sometimes reach for harder solutions not just to address COVID-19, but overcrowding in which family members are in a tent in the yard or family members are homeless in a tent.
“I would say to our Native Hawaiian families this is not the time to question what you assume your credit score to be. Let us worry about that. This is not the time to deny your elders a quarantine unit.”
County Councilmember Kipukai Kualii, who lives on DHHL land near where Danner’s crew has erected the shed, said the quarantine unit definitely is “another solution, though not necessarily a long-term housing solution.
“Many of our families live in overcrowded homes and, in the sense that people are trying to do quarantine and social distancing, it’s hard. It’s another small solution to give people options.”
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Allan Parachini is a Kilauea resident, furniture-maker, journalist and retired public relations executive who writes periodically for The Garden Island.
