Despite challenges including higher-than-anticipated cost projections, HOPE Services Hawaii says it’s moving forward with plans to renovate 11 housing units for the island’s low-income kupuna.
Despite challenges including higher-than-anticipated cost projections, HOPE Services Hawaii says it’s moving forward with plans to renovate 11 housing units for the island’s low-income kupuna.
The units originally comprised the Kawaihae Transitional Housing project in West Hawaii. In 2011, when the county built its first phase of the Na Kaulana Kauhale O Ulu Wini — a low-income housing project in Kaloko — the units were slated for demolition. They instead were salvaged.
Later that year, the units were donated to HOPE Services and relocated to East Hawaii behind Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pahoa, where they’ve been awaiting renovation. But plans stalled because of a series of challenges, including the approach of the June 27 lava flow in 2014 and 2015.
The latest challenge is the high price tag to renovate the units, largely attributed to rising construction costs.
Verbal cost projections came in earlier this year between $850,000 and $950,000, HOPE Services CEO Brandee Menino said, which was well more than the project’s $500,000 original budget. The agency raised about $400,000 for the project through a combination of private donations, church funds and grants, among other sources.
HOPE Services plans to put the project back out to bid this month and advertise on a wider scale.
“We’re just going to put it back out and try again,” Menino said. “I think that’s (the) next step. Send it out really wide.
“Raising $600,000 is achievable — that’s possible. But it’s based on whether those verbal estimates are real. So, we want to get it in writing,” she said.
There were 20 units originally, but they since were consolidated to 11 in order to increase square footage, Menino said.
Units are “gutted” and “just shells” and in need of costly underground work to connect the septic tank water lines, she said. Contractors told the agency it would now cost less to build from scratch than salvage the old units, Menino said.
She said HOPE Services is looking at all options, but “would prefer to renovate” rather than build new.
Once open, the units will serve the island’s low-income elderly population, which Menino says is one of the most “vulnerable groups on the streets.”
Statistics from this year’s Hawaii Point In Time Count, an annual survey of the state’s homeless population, revealed 1,394 on Hawaii Island, an increase of 153 people from 1,241 the year prior and accounting for more than 50 percent of the increase statewide.
“We feel that’s an undercount,” Menino said. “It’s just a snapshot.”
Residents would probably pay a small “affordable housing fee” to help offset operational costs, she said. Community members or licensed contractors interested in helping plans move forward should contact HOPE Services.
“We’re certainly interested in continuing the project, and we haven’t stopped working on it,” Menino said. “It’s just trying to work through these new barriers and challenges.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.