Local Churches Are Addressing Hawai‘i’s Housing Shortage

Members of the Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene in Upcountry Maui often describe the house of worship as unconventional, but deciding to build four two-bedroom homes on its property to house residents displaced by the August 2023 wildfires was a radical change.

Church members spent eight months constructing the 576-square-foot units, which have full kitchens, energy-efficient appliances, solar panels, covered lānai and raised garden beds. The homes sit on the same two-acre parcel as the church’s sanctuary, playground, community garden and chicken coop—all nestled amid a residential subdivision on the western slope of Halekalā.

Residents living at the Pukalani Nazarene Compassion Village pay affordable rents, choose the duration of their stay and receive additional support services. The church also has a satellite homes program, where it leases two off-site homes for residents in need, and hopes to expand its housing offerings.

“It was never in our grand plan to do housing, but God’s been able to bless us through it,” said Dylan Nails, executive director of the Pukalani Nazarene Compassion Village. “I never thought I was going to be a part of handing a family who thought they were going to be houseless keys to a house. That’s an absolute privilege to be a part of something like that.”

It’s far from the first time that local congregations have provided shelter and support to residents in need, but the Pukalani church’s efforts are one of several examples of churches—locally and nationally—addressing their communities’ needs by repurposing their lands to provide housing.

Nadia Mian, senior program director at Rutgers University’s Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement, has studied faith-based property development for about 20 years and is building a national database of those projects. She said these efforts are a form of community-based development that helps houses of worship connect their missions to community needs and better withstand declining memberships and rising church operating costs.

“What makes this development a little different than other types of affordable housing development is it’s not speculative,” she said.

“The churches aren’t looking to make a profit or gain millions of dollars off of their land or even recreate that model over and over again. These are generally one-off developments, and a lot of them are rooted in faith. They do the work because they feel this is what they’ve been called to do.”

Members of the Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene  spent eight months building four homes for residents displaced by the August 2023 wildfires. | Courtesy: Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene

A Form of Community Development

Historically, many churches around the country have built housing, though those projects typically occurred on land separate from their sanctuaries, Mian said. In the 1960s and ‘70s, for example, some churches created community development organizations that built housing to help community members stay in cities amid urban renewal projects that disproportionately displaced people of color.

Hawai‘i also saw some faith-based housing development in the ‘70s. The Hawai‘i Baptist Convention built the Mott-Smith Laniloa condominium in Makiki to help fund the Pali Highway location of its Hawai‘i Baptist Academy. And First United Methodist Church built the Admiral Thomas condominium next to its Honolulu sanctuary to help generate income to offset the church’s heavy mortgage and large maintenance costs.

Some churches sponsored federally subsidized apartments for low- to moderate-income residents. For example, Hawaii Methodist Union and Pearl Harbor Memorial Community Church helped sponsor the Makalapa Manor cooperative in ‘Aiea, and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, First United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ sponsored the Keola Hoonanea rental building in Liliha. Both projects sought to fill gaps for lower-income housing in the ‘70s.

It’s only been over the last couple of decades that more religious organizations have been transforming their sanctuaries’ properties into affordable housing, Mian said. Constructing affordable housing is a way for many churches to keep their sanctuaries and continue to serve their communities.

“They’re building it for the community, so I think this is another form of community development,” she said.

The Rev. Joshua Hayashi, CEO and co-founder of Mission Management Company, said, nationally, up to 100,000 Protestant church properties are expected to close by 2030. He doesn’t want to see churches sell their lands because that leads to a loss of public space and increases inequity by boosting the property values in the surrounding neighborhood.

He said real estate is often measured by its highest and best use, but houses of worship don’t operate off that value, so his Mission Management Company helps faith-based organizations figure out how they can repurpose their underused lands to meet community needs in a way that aligns with their missions and helps them be financially sustainable.

“Having an equitable way to think about these properties that’s not just cash, but what does it mean to for the neighborhood to do well and be sustainable, of course, that’s what real estate should be,” he said. “It should be looked at as a community benefit, not a not a cash benefit.”

He added: “Our work specifically is getting (churches) to think, ‘our mission is not just Sunday morning.’ That’s hard, but I think the potential is there and I think we’re getting closer to those discussions.”

Another Way for Churches to Fulfill Their Missions

The Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene immediately operated as an emergency shelter and then a distribution hub after wildfires devastated the town of Lahaina and parts of Upcountry Maui. Nails, the church’s associate pastor, said the decision to provide longer-term housing for displaced residents felt like a natural next step.

The church, which has about 70 members, has a mission to have hearts of service. And the Church of the Nazarene denomination has a long tradition of assisting those experiencing hunger, poverty, injustice, violence, disease and oppression.

“We were just so entrenched in the community, and we were wanting to just see which ways God wanted to use us next,” Nails said.

It also made sense because the church grounds had empty space and unused water meters. The wait for a county water meter in Upcountry Maui can take years or even decades, according to an article in Honolulu Civil Beat.

Church members provided all the labor, except for the plumbing, electric and solar installation. The church’s land is zoned as public/quasi-public, which normally doesn’t allow for housing development, but the four homes were able to be built under the Maui mayor’s emergency proclamation relating to the wildfires, Nails said.

On Hawai‘i Island, Hope Services built a 20-unit shelter in Pāhoa on the grounds of Sacred Heart Church. Hope Services is the largest homeless service provider on Hawai‘i Island and an affiliate nonprofit of the Roman Catholic Church of Hawai‘i. That project was built under the 2018 emergency proclamation relating to the Kīlauea eruptionthat destroyed more than 600 homes and provided free, temporary housing to displaced seniors and families.

Brandee Menino, CEO of Hope Services, said her nonprofit has since acquired the 14.5 acre parcel the 20-unit shelter sits on and built an additional 12 affordable rental units for seniors. The two projects  collectively make up Sacred Heart Community, and Hope Services is planning a third phase with 45 additional, affordable units for families.

Hope Services has long worked with the Roman Catholic Church to provide housing. The nonprofit’s 26-bed women’s shelter and medical respite has operated out of a Hilo apartment building leased from the St. Joseph parish since about 2007, Menino said. But the Sacred Heart Community has sparked additional conversations within the diocese about how parishes can partner with the nonprofit to address housing needs.

Its next project is with Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Honoka‘a to convert an L-shaped building that was once a nuns’ convent into housing for kūpuna over 60 years old. Brenda De Luz-Campbell, the church’s finance chair, said some of the rooms had been used for religious education classes after Sunday Mass, but the building was largely underutilized.

The building is currently being renovated to update the two bathrooms and kitchen facility, add a handicap ramp at the entrance, and turn the existing rooms into 10 single-room occupancy units.

There’s very little housing on the Hāmākua Coast, and what little is available is costly, De Luz-Campbell said. Rent for a three-bedroom home can go for $2,500 or $3,000 per month.

John Andrade, chair of Our Lady of Lourdes’ pastoral council, said it’s been a blessing to work with Hope Services to fill a community need and generate needed income for the church. About 160 to 175 parishioners attend its three masses each week.

“Our church is 100 years old (next year), so, as you know, as it gets old, it requires a lot of new maintenance, and its expense keeps growing,” he said. “Something like this is a win-win situation.”

Rent for a three-bedroom home on the Hamakua Coast can go for $2,500 or $3,000 per month. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Honoka‘a is converting its religious education building, which once was a nuns’ convent, into 10 single-room occupancy units for seniors over 60. | Courtesy: Brenda De Luz-Campbell

Potential in Hawai‘i

Locally, churches could make a significant dent in Hawai‘i’s housing shortage given the amount of land they own, Hayashi said. According to the state Department of Business and Economic Development, churches own at least 7,000 acres of land in Hawai‘i.

Not all that land is suitable for development, but housing could be built on underused portions of sanctuary grounds, he said. Those sites are often in town centers and surrounded by eateries, jobs and essential services.

He cites Wailuku Union Church’s project to build 84 affordable rental units and a community resource center on its original mission grounds near the mouth of Iao Valley. The site is within walking distance to public transportation, medical facilities, schools, the library, stores and social service agencies.

He said more local houses of worship are interested in building housing on their lands, but neighborhood opposition to affordable housing development and Hawai‘i’s long entitlement process pose challenges.

These houses of worship are often major, historical landmarks, and many people don’t want to see their communities change, he said. Yet many locals and Native Hawaiians have been leaving Hawai‘i because the housing prices are so out of reach.

“Your children are not coming back,” he said. “I’m sorry, like, but unless we do something radical, and you have to be willing to see Kapa‘a change to make space for your child, who should be making $80,000 a year, but is only making $45,000 to stay close to grandma and grandpa,” he said.

With Hawai‘i having the most restrictive housing regulations in the country, Ted Kefalas, director of strategic campaigns at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, said the Islands can learn from California’s so-called “Yes in God’s Backyard” law. California is one of about a dozen jurisdictions that has passed or is considering policy changes to encourage affordable housing development on church land, Mian said.

The California law allows religious organizations to build affordable, multi-family housing on their land “by right.” A project is automatically allowed so long as it meets certain health, safety and affordability criteria and complies with the area’s building rules. Kefalas said with county entitlement processes taking five to 10 years, this would help give faith-based organizations more certainty about their projects’ timelines and that they’ll be approved.

The California law isn’t perfect though, he said. It requires projects with more than 10 units must pay construction workers prevailing wages, which drive up costs. And rental units are required to remain affordable for 55 years and ownership units for 45 years. Those lengthy affordability periods can deter residents from buying and can make it hard for them to move as their needs change, he said.

Kefalas added that Hawai‘i’s Legislature is looking at revamping the state’s historic preservation rules, which would impact many churches looking to build affordable housing. The current rules require properties 50 years and older to go through the State Historic Preservation Division for review, a process that the Grassroot Institute found can take an average of 94 days. A couple bills (SB 1002, HB 830) seek to speed up that timeline by allowing third parties to review certain projects if SHPD can’t review them within 60 days.

Locally, Hawai‘i’s state Legislature the last couple of years (HB 814 in 2023, HB 2007 in 2024) considered bills to allow religious, medical and educational institutions to build homes on certain parcels smaller than 15 acres and require that the institution retain ownership of those homes for a certain amount of time. The bills didn’t pass, but a set of resolutions (HR 102 / HCR 122), which don’t have the force of law, did.

Kefalas said the resolutions were a step in the right direction, but the Hawai‘i needs to get the counties on board. He said church-built affordable housing “could be gamechanger when it comes to our housing situation.”

Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting testified in opposition to the two Hawai‘i bills, citing concerns about providing certain landowners preference over others. Rep. Luke Evslin, who introduced HB 2007 in 2024, said he thought the department had a decent argument and instead of narrowly targeting certain institutions, Hawai‘i should relax restrictions on allowing housing in the state urban land use district in general.

The Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene’s Compassion Village opened in November 2024. In addition to the four homes in the village, the church also leases two homes off-site for residents displaced by the 2023 Maui wildfires. | Courtesy: Pukalani Community Church of the Nazarene

Built-in Community

Wailuku Union church’s affordable rental project will provide homes for low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. The church and its nonprofit developer partner EAH Housing hope to break ground on the project later this year.

Hayashi said it’s been wonderful to see church members engage their neighbors and hold town hall meetings about the project, which began as an act of compassion as several congregation members wanted to see more housing for adults with disabilities.

“It’s really kind of got the church excited about what this is and their ability to affect their neighbors in a positive way,” Hayashi said.

In Pukalani, Nails said the Compassion Village demonstrates how residents benefit from the built-in community that comes from having housing on church grounds.

“Just walking around campus and seeing, like, the kids playing in the park or running around and, like, seeing the neighbors bring cookies to each other, or just simple things like that, where it doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but people are being housed,” he said. “They’re not on the streets. They’re in safe and stable homes.”

Temporary structures built under Maui’s emergency proclamation must be removed within 180 days of the proclamation ending. Nails said the church will request that the Compassion Village’s homes be allowed to stay permanently because Maui’s housing needs are so great.

The church hopes to expand its housing program further by acquiring a neighboring 1.4-acre parcel. And Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is also considering doing more affordable housing by converting part of its sister church property five miles away.

“It’s something that is special to places of worship—to have that community and to have that built-in love,” Nails said. “So I absolutely say if there’s property, especially if there’s people that are committed to going beyond just building the homes, but actually like investing in the families and being a part of it and doing it well, then I think they absolutely should get involved in this way.”