After decades of subpar living conditions, Molokaʻi kūpuna in the Hawaiian homestead community of Nāʻiwa are preparing to move into new, affordable tiny homes on wheels.
The Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance received a $50,000 grant from Nareit Hawaii to plan and design tiny homes in the Nāʻiwa Agricultural Subdivision near the Hoʻolehua Airport.
These Hawaiian homestead lots were awarded in the mid-1980s with very light infrastructure, including a dirt road and limited access to drinking water. But there’s no electricity or other infrastructure.
That has not prevented Hawaiian homes beneficiaries from residing on this land, said Liliana Napoleon, the founder of the Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance.
“So, these families, they actually cleaned their lots by hand and they lived on the lots in tents, sheds, cars for the past 20 something years," Napoleon said.
"When we start to look at, 'What does this mean to these families?' It means the world."
“It’s a change in life. It’s hope. It’s dignity. It’s finally having a place that they can age in peace. They finally can have that as a human being," she said.
Funding will also provide Nāʻiwa homesteaders and members of their ʻohana with training in carpentry and renewable energy.
Napoleon said kūpuna with severe acute needs are on track to transition into their tiny home this summer.
Editor's note: Nareit Hawaii is an underwriter of HPR.
