A VILLAGE of tiny homes has just been built to give formerly homeless people a place to stay for $500 a month.
The Alana Ola Pono tiny home village project in Honolulu, Hawaii has been dubbed “a community of hope and support” by Governor Josh Green.
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Residents in the new Middle Street community are treated to large bathrooms and communal areas – but emerging complaints have tarnished the project.
Less than two months after its opening, neighbors in Iwilei are complaining about noise and fumes from the village’s electricity generator.
There have been various reasons put forward as to why, with main ones including high operating expenses in the kauhale, which means village community.
It is also not connected to any utilities like water or a sewage system, making costs even higher.
A report published investigating the villages found that the operating cost there per bed was $8,629.
In comparison, another kauhale has a monthly per-person cost of $6,165.
BILL TROUBLE
Monthly energy bills for one 100-square-foot, off-the-grid home can be four to five times the average cost of powering a full-size house on Oʻahu.
On top of this, the total monthly bill for another 20-home village in Honolulu came out to more than $21,000.
It was found that Middle Street’s diesel fuel and equipment cost $21,032 just for April — which comes out to more than $1,000 a month per tiny home.
In contrast, the average monthly bill for a full-sized residential home on Oahu is $202, according to Hawaiian Electric Co.
Invoices also reveal that Middle Street has paid K-Five Pumping Services approximately $275 per week to pump wastewater from 1,000-gallon storage tanks.
There is another $200 to $300 a week spent for drinking water from Aloha Water Co. Inc., at $1.80 per gallon.
The village’s shared bathrooms and showers have limited capacity because the electric system can only pump so much water.
Overall, it was estimated that it would cost the state $250,000 to $300,000 less per year to operate the Middle Street kauhale if it were attached to sewer, water and electric systems.
POSTIVE PERSPECTIVE
Green built the villages in response to Hawaii’s housing crisis, and even declared a state of emergency for homelessness in 2023.
In a statement he said that opening villages is “merely a bridge to the larger goal of providing housing to get our homeless neighbors off the street, into stability and embraced with wrap-around services.”
The state’s homelessness coordinator, John Mizuno, has described Alana Ola Pono as an example of what not to do when building the tiny home villages.
Mizuno also cited the added cost of fuel and generators, and the fact that is isn’t connected to any utilities like water or sewage.
But HomeAid Hawaii’s executive director, Kimo Carvalho, offered a different perspective, commenting: “Our governor has stated many times that the cost to live unsheltered on our streets far outweighs the cost to house them, even with interim infrastructure solutions.
“That’s a critical fact that anyone in a leadership role addressing homelessness should really understand before criticizing the effectiveness of the work being done to provide real housing solutions.”
What is a tiny home?
Technically, a tiny home is any house measuring under 400 square feet.
Many tiny homes are built on trailers so they can be towed anywhere, and some are converted from old school buses or vans.
Each state has its own rules about tiny homes, but, generally, they are not subject to the same taxes as regular homes.
However, Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin, and West Virginia have made tiny homes illegal as permanent dwellings.
Currently, Alana Ola Pono has only 18 tenants in the 43-unit Middle Street property.
There is an ongoing hold on bringing in new people whilst the project stabilizes itself, and due to limited capacity.
Moe Atuatasi with the Institute for Human Services, partnered with Alana Ola Pono, said: Those people were off the streets during a major rainstorm.
“I’d say thank goodness that we had a kauhale that was able to house them during a critical period.”
During a speech in January 2023, Green said that he wants his movement to create “low-footprint, low-cost housing, with a village environment designed for common support, healing, and progress.”
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