What is Kauhale?
The Kauhale Initiative represents a deeply affordable housing model – built faster at lower cost – to stabilize residents, communities and public systems. Kauhale villages create a more cost-effective model that reduces system costs and improves long-term health and economic outcomes.
Rooted in a traditional Hawaiian concept of village style living, kauhale communities combine modest private homes with shared spaces that foster stability, connection and well-being – improving social determinants of health while reducing the need for repeated, high-cost crisis response across healthcare, justice and emergency systems.
Serving households earning 30% of Area Median Income (AMI) and below, kauhale address a segment largely excluded from Hawaiʻi’s affordable housing system. By shifting the focus from crisis management to long-term stability, kauhale fill a critical housing gap.
What Makes Kauhale Different:
Deeply Affordable: Housing priced for Hawaiʻi’s lowest-income households.
Community Centered: Village-style design with shared common spaces that foster connection, stability and improved social determinants of health.
Cost Effective: Faster delivery and lower costs than traditional crisis response systems.
Built for Hawaiʻi: Rooted in culture, history and local solutions.
Today, 25 kauhale projects built under the Green Administration consist of 896 active beds that have served more than 2,100 formerly homeless individuals, saving taxpayers more than $26 million annually in system costs. These sites vary in the subpopulations serving individuals, couples, families with children, young adults or youth, survivors of domestic violence and people with acute medical needs.
List of Kauhale Initiative Projects
As of June 30, 2026
(Subject to change as Kauhale sites are built, expanded, or decommissioned)
| Count | Name | Island | No. of Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kamaʻoku Kauhale | Oʻahu | 36 |
| 2 | Ka Malu Koʻolau | Oʻahu | 33 |
| 3 | Ho‘okahi Leo | Oʻahu | 50 |
| 4 | Pae Pae Hou | Oʻahu | 12 |
| 5 | Hale Imi Ola (Waikiki Vista) | Oʻahu | 120 |
| 6 | Village of Redemption 1 & 2 | Oʻahu | 47 |
| 7 | Fernhurst | Oʻahu | 32 |
| 8 | A‘ala Medical Respite | Oʻahu | 62 |
| 9 | Hilo Overnight Cot Sleeping Program | Hawaiʻi Island | 50 |
| 10 | Alana Ola Pono | Oʻahu | 45 |
| 11 | Kulia I Ka Nuʻu | Oʻahu | 19 |
| 12 | Wiwoʻole Bridge Program | Kauaʻi | 18 |
| 13 | Kumu Ola Hou | Oʻahu | 50 |
| 14 | Maui Central – Kupuna | Maui | 10 |
| 15 | Maui Vineyard – Kupuna | Maui | 16 |
| 16 | Kauhale Opio | Oʻahu | 16 |
| 17 | Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina | Oʻahu | 57 |
| 18 | Kinoʻole Youth Kauhale | Hawaiʻi Island | 22 |
| 19 | Hale Ulu Lehua (Our Lady of Lourdes Kupuna Kauhale) | Hawaiʻi Island | 10 |
| 20 | Iwilei Center – Behavioral Health | Oʻahu | 50 |
| 21 | Kīpuola Kauhale | Maui | 64 |
| 22 | Pūnāwai Medical Respite | Oʻahu | 20 |
| 23 | Leahi Behavioral Health | Oʻahu | 19 |
| 24 | Hale o Kumumamo | Oʻahu | 18 |
| 25 | Ke Kauhale o Luhia | Oʻahu | 20 |
| Total Count: | 896 |
Decommissioned
| Name | Island |
|---|---|
| Pulama Ola | Oahu |
| Pu‘u Honua O Nene | Maui |
Under Development
| Name | Island | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Hui Mahi‘ai ‘Āina (Expansion) | Oahu | 180 |
| Total | 180 |