A long-vacant homeless shelter in Waianae, near several coastal encampments of people living in tents and improvised shelters, was blessed Thursday for a much-needed opening.
Initial residents are expected to start arriving next week at the facility, which will be operated by the nonprofit organization U.S.VETS and includes 19 beds in a dorm building for short-term transitional use.
The project also includes medical services and other staff support as well as a commercial kitchen in a separate building, and 12 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units for permanent use within the existing low-income rental housing complex Kulia i ka Nu‘u on the same property behind Waianae Intermediate School.
In all, 70 to 80 homeless people are expected to be served by the project.
“Every family should have a home,” U.S.VETS President and CEO Darryl Vincent said at the blessing ceremony. “I refuse to believe that we have the technology to put a man on the moon but we do not have the testament and fortitude to solve homelessness. It is a choice of prioritizing.”
The project is a partnership largely between a private affordable-housing developer, the state and U.S.VETS.
Gov. Josh Green described the project as the state’s 18th kauhale community developed for the homeless since he began leading a push for such development in 2018 as lieutenant governor.
The governor has a goal to help produce 30 kauhale statewide by the end of 2026, and is requesting $100 million from the Legislature over the next two fiscal years to reach the mark.
Green, an emergency room physician, said during Thursday’s ceremony that providing a combination of health care and housing for the homeless is a model that puts taxpayer money to better use.
“Housing is health care,” he said.
Green said the average person living on the street visits the hospital nine to 12 times annually at a cost of about $8,000 per month but that this expense drops to a little under $2,000 after being housed.
“That’s the extra $6,000 per month that we can spend on that individual or his daughter, or niece, or nephew, or spouse or whatever, whoever,” he said.
John Mizuno, statewide homelessness and housing solutions coordinator in Green’s office, said the $1.2 million annual cost for the state fund operations at the facility in Waianae is far less than nearly $6.2 million the state would typically spend on annual emergency room visits for 75 people living without housing.
“We’re saving lives but we’re saving taxpayers money,” he said at the ceremony, citing an annual emergency room cost of $82,000 per homeless person.
“This is a model kauhale,” Mizuno added. “This is as efficient as it gets.”
A prior model for the homeless shelter on the property didn’t live up to great expectations that it could be repeated and help drive down homelessness in Hawaii.
The 72-unit Kulia i ka Nu‘u apartment complex was built in 2008 by the nonprofit Hawaii Coalition of Christian Churches on state land within the larger Uluwehi subdivision at a cost of $16.4 million, mainly using local taxpayer revenue.
The complex was originally named Kahikolu Ohana Hale o Waianae and was designed to provide emergency, transitional and permanent housing for the homeless. In addition to 72 rental apartments, Kahikolu included a 40-bed dormitory, a preschool, day care, a commercial kitchen and social services.
Kahikolu was touted as a model that could be repeated, but troubles arose with management and finances. In 2013 a state agency that owns the land took possession of the property and renamed it Kulia i ka Nu‘u.
In 2023 a partnership led by local affordable-housing developer and operator Mark Development Inc. took over operations under a land lease with the state and has since renovated parts of the property, including the homeless dormitory shelter, which had been empty for a decade.
Mark then partnered with the state and U.S.VETS to make new use of the vacant pieces along with 12 apartments.
“It’s amazing what we can do together when we work in partnerships, urgency and purpose,” said U.S.VETS Executive Director Tanya Brown.
Brown also called the name of the community poignant, as it can mean “to strive for the summit.”
Ginger Burch, a Nanakuli Intermediate and High School graduate, also noted that Kulia i ka Nu‘u is the motto of her alma mater, translated as “We seek the highest.”
Burch, who was previously homeless for 10 years and now works as a Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center homeless outreach social worker, presented a kukui nut tree sapling for the ceremony and said she wants it to grow on the property and bless those who will soon begin making a transition to permanent housing like she did.
“And they will be blessed by many more to come,” Burch said.
