Two Garden Isle nonprofits are working together to bring affordable housing to Līhu‘e.
The development — a collaboration between Kaua‘i Housing Development Corp. (KHDC) and Kaua‘i Habitat for Humanity (KHFH) — is possible through a land grant from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which transferred about 5.14 acres on Ahukini Road to the two organizations.
According to a Feb. 2 announcement, KHDC will be the lead developer of the project, which will create 111 housing units, with KHFH serving as a development partner. They'll share pre-development responsibilities and selected development work, the announcement notes.
Xan Avendaño, program director, Hawai‘i grant making for The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, told Aloha State Daily Wednesday that the foundation has an “overall mission to fight poverty and support thriving communities.”
After the foundation’s own community listening sessions, and looking at other listening sessions that have gauged the needs and opportunities around housing on Kaua‘i, he says the foundation knows that thousands of units for households earning 120% of the area median income are needed on the island by 2027.
But one of the biggest gaps to addressing that need is access to land that’s zoned for housing, Avendaño says.
“The foundation, as both a philanthropic entity that’s committed to addressing poverty and also as an organization that has held real estate assets, we took this opportunity to merge those two areas of work and support the community in a way that lifts up both of those strengths and can address that challenge.”
Avendaño says the foundation has worked on the land grant opportunity over the last 18 to 24 months, “with a focus on how do we keep this land out of the speculative real estate market and preserve it for affordable housing for forever, for multiple generations.”
In doing that, he says that the “obvious partners” became nonprofit developer partners whose missions are to "preserve housing affordability for as long as possible, and it's also their mission to think through what [does] a healthy community look like and how do we support people of multiple incomes and backgrounds who all call Hawai‘i home to be able to stay home."
KHDC Executive Director Andy Friend told ASD in an emailed response to questions that there have been multiple market studies over the last few years “that identify the pent-up demand for housing.”
KHFH Executive Director Milani Pimental told ASD in the same emailed response that the need for affordable housing on Kaua‘i “continues to grow exponentially year-over-year.”
“For example, in December 2025, the median sales price for homes was $1.2 [million]. Minimum wage is $16 per hour, making homeownership out of reach for many households on the island.”
According to statistics from Hawai‘i Information Services, the median sales price for a single-family home on Kaua‘i was $1.25 million in December 2025, while the median sale price for a condo was $720,000.
Statewide, Hawai‘i will need an estimated 64,490 additional housing units by 2027 to meet demand, according to the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corp.'s 2024 Hawai‘i Housing Planning study, which was published last year.
That same study notes that Kaua‘i County needs a total of housing 4,914 units by 2027 — 2,156 for ownership and 2,758 rental units. Of those, 3,258 units are needed for those making 80% or below of the area median income.
Project plans
As for the proposed project itself, plans call for a mix of both rental and ownership opportunities.
KHDC-led rental housing will include 48 rental units for kūpuna and 33 multi-family rentals for individuals and families, Monday’s announcement noted. The multi-family rental units will target households at 60% of the area median income or below, the nonprofits told ASD.
Meanwhile, KHFH will develop a designated portion of the site for homeownership.
According to the announcement, 15 two-story duplex buildings will create 30 for-sale homes which will largely be available for households earning up to 80% of the AMI, but KHFH will partner with Permanently Affordable Living Hawai‘i “to explore ways to make a portion of homes available to local working households” that earn 80% to 120% AMI.
Income limits are determined by household size. You can find Kaua‘i County’s 2025 income limits here.
The announcement says, too, that KHFH also is exploring the option of placing some or all of the homes into a community land trust “to ensure long-term, permanent affordability.”
Pimental told ASD that a community land trust, or CTL, is a private, nonprofit organization that acquires and holds land as a community asset.
“CLTs are increasingly being considered by Habitat affiliates across the nation,” Pimental explains. “They are governed by a board of housing residents, community members and external stakeholders. Essentially, CLTs create entry-level homeownership opportunities that are truly affordable, on a long-term or permanent basis. Income-eligible homebuyers will lease the land from the CLT using a long-term ground lease with affordable monthly ground rents.”
The organizations told ASD that a timeline for construction to begin and end is not yet in place, and that it’s too early in the process to determine how much the project to develop and how that will be funded.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
