Nareit Hawaiʻi awards $50,000 grant to help provide new homes for Molokaʻi kupuna on DHHL lots

Nareit Hawaiʻi has awarded a $50,000 grant to the nonprofit Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance to help support extremely low-income kupuna with new, affordable tiny homes, while also providing family members with carpentry and homebuilding skills.

The Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance is utilizing a portion of the grant to support the planning, design and obtaining of essential furnishings for six new tiny homes for kupuna in the Nā‘iwa Agricultural Subdivision.

Located near Molokaʻi Airport, the subdivision features 5-7 acre agricultural lots provided to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

A portion of the grant will fund carpentry career training for the Nā‘iwa lessees and family members, a lifelong skill that can be utilized in the building of homes, farm sheds, and other structures needed for kupuna moving into new homes in the subdivision.

Liliana Napoleon is the Volunteer Board President of the Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance and a second-generation lessee of the Nā‘iwa Agricultural Subdivision. She said the Nareit Hawaiʻi grant is supporting a collective charitable effort by several generous organizations and individuals, including Hawaiʻi Community Lending, Young Brothers, and Matson to provide new, affordable homes at lowered costs for Native Hawaiian kupuna and their families that will last for generations.

“This grant helps toward the formation of six homes for our kupuna and provides the training needed for lessee families to be more self-sufficient in building and maintaining homes and other structures on their properties,” said Napoleon. “The acute obstacle we face is the soaring costs of building new homes on remote Molokaʻi. Having the support of numerous caring community partners, like Nareit Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi Community Lending, our Nā‘iwa lessee families can now embrace the vision of building an affordable home and developing a subsistence farm on their agricultural lots.”

Nareit Hawaiʻi Executive Director Gladys Quinto Marrone, said, “The Molokaʻi Affordable Housing Alliance is implementing workable, community-based solutions to lower the cost of affordable housing and strengthen families. We are proud to support a nonprofit that is committed to taking care of those who came before us and building a foundation for young families wanting a better life on Molokaʻi.”