Thirty-two years after Hurricane Iniki made landfall on Kaua’i in 1992, few physical reminders remain of the storm’s destruction, but there are many reminders of the island’s resilience.

They include 20 homes in the 189-unit Hokulei Estates subdivision in Puhi, over 160 homes built around the island by homeowners in partnership with Kaua‘i Habitat for Humanity, and the Kalepa Village low-income rental project in Hana – mā‘ulu. These residences were part of about 565 new affordable homes built in the decade after Iniki using disaster relief funds.

“In a way, a disaster can have very positive benefits for the community if it’s designed and worked out right,” says Chad Taniguchi about Kaua‘i’s recovery. He served as Kaua‘i’s housing administrator from 1990 to 1995.

He and others familiar with Kaua‘i’s recovery say some of the Garden Isle’s lessons may provide insights for Maui, though they acknowledge the disasters had starkly different impacts. In August 2023, wildfires on Maui destroyed over 2,200 structures, caused $5.5 billion in damage and claimed 101 lives, making it one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in the last century. Hurricane Iniki, in contrast, severely damaged or destroyed over 4,000 Kaua‘i homes, caused over $6 billion in damage in today’s dollars, injured about 100 people and killed seven.

Maui is already implementing some of Kaua‘i’s lessons by building temporary housing projects that can later be used for permanent housing and by establishing an office to expedite rebuilding permits. That office issued its first permit to rebuild in Lahaina in mid-May.

“If you have the concept that you want this disaster to be of benefit for the long term for the people who are already there and who are being displaced, use that as overall value or principle, I think you can find ways to make that come true,” Taniguchi says.

Different Disasters and Impacts

Iniki, a category 4 hurricane, was the strongest recorded hurricane to hit Hawai‘i. JoAnn Yukimura, who served as Kaua‘i’s mayor from 1988 to 1994, recalls sleeping on her office floor the night before Iniki made landfall on Sept. 11, 1992. She and her team watched from her office as Iniki came ashore during the afternoon.

Winds up to 160 mph flattened wooden structures, tore off roofs and knocked out about half of the island’s power lines, leaving many communities without electricity for weeks. Thousands of residents were displaced and found shelter with family or friends, at hotels or on the beach.

Most hotels were so damaged they closed; those still operating housed relief workers and displaced residents. But the island’s tourism industry, which comprised between 65% and 70% of Kaua‘i’s economy, came to a standstill.

Yukimura recalls viewing the island from a helicopter the day after Iniki. While flying over Kekaha on the island’s west side, she saw residents checking on neighbors, fixing their roofs and waving to her. “There was already such a community spirit,” she says.

Within a month, the Kaua‘i County Council and Yukimura approved the creation of an Office of Emergency Permitting to process rebuilding permits and waive permit fees. The Federal Emergency Management Agency funded the OEP.

Several repairs and replacements were exempted from permit requirements. Among them were repairing or replacing non-retaining walls and fences, and non-bearing walls, ceilings, floors and windows.

Kaua‘i also required that structures be rebuilt with hurricane connectors and other requirements to better withstand future hurricanes. Yukimura says among the lessons learned from Hurricane Iwa, which struck the island in 1982, was adopting stronger hurricane requirements and requiring permits for major repairs and rebuilds of existing structures. If Kaua‘i had done both after Iwa, it may not have sustained as much damage from Iniki, she says.

“Hurricane Iniki created the urgency to get things done,” she says. “And as long as you could guide it to get it done right – because there’s often the temptation to just do it fast and not do it right – if you can do it right, then it is a long-term foundation.”

Kaua’i habitat for Humanity received Iniki relief funds in 1997 to build 95 for-sale homes in its ‘Ele’ele iluna subdivision. | Photo: courtesy of David Bieker

Separate Permitting Office

Kaua‘i’s Iniki recovery generated a construction boom. The OEP issued nearly 14,300 permits between October 1992 and the end of May 1995. The office was run by Keith Companies, a private engineering and surveying firm.

Reconstruction or repairs of hurricane-impacted structures had to comply with health and building requirements that were in place in 1992.

An owner would have to go through the normal permitting process if he or she wanted to rebuild a hurricane-damaged structure substantially larger, change the structure’s use or density, or rebuild in a high hazard area. The OEP also did not process Special Management Area permits or zoning changes, says Peter Vincent, an O‘ahu architect who helped establish and run the office.

In addition to processing permit applications, the office conducted outreach to help residents understand the new requirements. Staff held seminars, participated in radio programs, distributed flyers and went house to house to hang door hangers. Vincent says the OEP even wrote letters to insurance companies to explain what homeowners needed to do to rebuild.

He adds that the office was meant to be a one-stop. At its peak, it employed 64 plans examiners, inspectors, clerks and administrative staff, but the office also for a time housed representatives from the state Department of Health. That helped expedite decision-making.

The one-stop shop “short circuited a lot of the issues or finger pointing or ‘go see somebody else’ kind of thing. And that was really needed. I think something like that on Maui would be super helpful because permitting is such a hard process,” Vincent says.

He adds: “For people once they finally are able to rebuild, they don’t have to wait two years to get a building permit. It’s just ridiculous. I mean, they’ve been through enough hardship.”

While Kaua‘i’s rebuilding started quickly, Maui’s has taken longer due to the hazardous materials that must be cleared after the fires.

“Many of the Kaua‘i properties were damaged but not burned to the ground,” says Carl Bonham, executive director of UH’s Economic Research Organization. “And there’s a difference between replacing all your windows and roofs and repairing something versus starting from scratch.”

In an email, Maui County’s Communications office wrote that the county learned lessons from all its state and county partners, including Kaua‘i, which was among the first to send its people and other resources to Maui to help with emergency response after the August 2023 fires. The County also received assistance from California’s Sonoma County.

Maui County opened its Recovery Permitting Center at the end of April. The center is run by 4Leaf Inc., a California-based professional services firm that specializes in fire recovery and also helped Sonoma County with its permitting needs after wildfires.

“It’ll be very important for folks who are trying to rebuild once the debris is all removed,” Bonham says. “I think we’ll see that permitting activity in the latter half of this year start to ramp up for folks literally going in and rebuilding their destroyed properties, particularly in Lahaina.”

As of June 21, the Recovery Permit Center had processed about 80 permit applications and issued 15 permits. Applicants can request that their permit fees be deferred if they are rebuilding residential structures. And permit fees may be assessed at half of what they would normally be if residential and commercial structures were built not long before the August wildfires. In an email, Maui County’s Communications team wrote that the county has not deferred permit fees for any single-family houses that are being rebuilt in fire-affected areas.

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii argues that permit fees should be waived instead. Malia Blom Hill, policy director of the nonprofit public policy research organization, says those fees can block residents from rebuilding.

Permit fees are set in Maui’s annual budget ordinance and vary based on the valuation of the construction work. For example, projects valued from $100,001 to $500,000 are charged $880 for the first $100,000, plus $5 for each additional $1,000. Electrical, plumbing, driveway, grading and other permits have additional charges.

Gov. Josh Green joins the April 30 groundbreaking of Ka La’i Ola, which will create 450 housing units for Maui wildfire survivors who aren’t eligible for FEMA assistance. | Photo: courtesy of Ka La‘i

Limited Time Frame

It’s hard to miss the Coco Palms hotel along Kaua‘i’s Kūhiō Highway. Until recently, the Wailua hotel, located on culturally and historically significant land, has sat largely derelict since it was battered by Iniki.

Now, construction activity abounds under the latest rebuilding effort. Developers are rebuilding under a so-called “Iniki ordinance” that allows non-conforming structures to be rebuilt to their pre-hurricane conditions. Coco Palms’ previous owners received permits to rebuild prior to the now-repealed ordinance’s 2015 expiration.

Gary Hooser, a former Kaua‘i councilmember and state senator, says the hotel should not be allowed to be rebuilt under decades-old standards. He voted in 2013 against the county bill that extended the ordinance’s expiration to 2015. He says that the ordinance had a valid purpose after the storm – to allow people to rebuild – but “it should be limited to that purpose and not held out forever.”

Maui County is now considering a proposal that would allow nonconforming structures impacted by natural disasters, such as the August wildfires, to be repaired or rebuilt in a similar fashion while complying with existing building and fire safety requirements. Building owners would need to have their final inspections done within four years of the governor’s original state of disaster.

Jonathan Helton, policy researcher for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, says he questions whether four years is long enough, especially for Lahaina structures located in the special management area and historic districts. Structures in those areas require additional approvals.

One option, he says, is for Maui to provide flexibility to building owners by including language in the proposal to allow the mayor to extend its time frame.

Maui’s nonconforming structure proposal passed its Planning Commission in late February, with an amendment to allow the structures five years to rebuild, with an option for a two-year extension; at press time, the Maui County Council had yet to introduce the bill.

Build Lots of Homes

Taniguchi recalls a meeting he had with a representative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after Hurricane Iniki. The Kaua‘i Housing Agency had just built 35 simple cottages around the island on lots where homes were destroyed. The first cottages were mostly built by volunteers, but the project was considered a failure for costing twice its budget after volunteer labor couldn’t be sustained.

However, HUD was blown away by the county government’s efforts to meet its residents’ needs, Taniguchi says. In 1994, the department gave the Kaua‘i Housing Agency $41 million in disaster funds. Prior to Iniki, the agency received about $700,000 to $1.2 million in federal monies each year.

According to a September 1993 article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the island then needed about 6,000 new homes to meet housing demand. Monthly rents for a two-bedroom apartment averaged $1,100 compared with about $900 pre-Iniki; for a three-bedroom, rents averaged about $1,400 compared with $1,000 prior.

Insurance covered most of the rebuilding for existing homes and commercial buildings, so the $41 million was largely used to build 563 affordable homes under the agency’s Pāku‘i Housing Program over 10 years.

The agency held a series of community meetings to get feedback on the affordable housing projects that developers proposed. Ken Rainforth, who worked for the Kaua‘i Housing Agency in various roles between 1979 and 2009, says that helped projects get approved without opposition. Projects were given grants and no-interest loans; the paybacks went into a revolving fund to fund other affordable housing projects.

Disaster funds also helped the county to rebuild 10 homes damaged by Iniki, establish a homebuyer loan program that funded eight homes, construct two water wells in Kekahā and Hanamā‘ulu, and hardened existing infrastructure in other areas.

“If you look at it from afar, you don’t want anything to be left after you spend all this money for short term efforts,” Taniguchi says, adding that he doesn’t know the specifics of Maui’s recovery. “If you can minimize the amount of money going out for the short term and invest in things that will be a benefit to the people and the island for the long term, then that’s the best way. That’s how you use a disaster for positive things.”

Several interim housing projects are underway to house displaced Maui residents and will have longer-term benefits after those initial uses.

One is the 450-unit Ka La‘i Ola being built in Lahaina. The project will house survivors ineligible for federal aid for up to five years, after which the state will commit the land and permanent infrastructure to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. And the 175-unit Hale ‘O Lā‘ie, the former Maui Sun Hotel in Kīhei, will transition to teacher and workforce rentals with public kindergarten space after it is initially used to house survivors.

An artist’s rendering of the Ka La’i Ola temporary housing project for wildfire survivors in Lahaina. | Rendering: Courtesy Ka La’i

Challenging Recovery

It took Kaua‘i’s economy eight years to recover after Iniki, according to a 2009 working paper by the UH Economic Research Organization. Unemployment rose to 19.1% immediately after the hurricane, compared with 6.8% just before. The island lost about 3,000 private sector jobs – about 12% of the island’s employment – amounting to $225 million in 2008 dollars in annual lost income.

Kaua‘i’s unemployment rate did not return to pre-Iniki levels until 1999, and the number of private jobs available didn’t return until 2002. While visitor arrivals to the island stabilized in 1995, they didn’t reach pre-Iniki levels until 2008.

Bonham, the UHERO executive director, says Maui has a challenging recovery period ahead. Maui was already suffering from a severe housing shortage, and in the immediate days after the fires, nearly 8,000 Lahaina residents were sheltered in 40 hotels. His organization estimates that 3,500 people have left the island and that the labor force is down about 5,000 people.

The Maui wildfires led to the loss of 7,000 jobs in September 2023 compared with pre-wildfires, so there has been some recovery, he says. Many employers in industries heavily impacted by the pandemic struggled to find workers even before the fires. But he expects the jobs recovery will slow moving forward, especially for the food service and retail sectors.

About 60,000 visitors spent about $250 to $300 each day on Maui before the fires. Bonham says that number is down by 15,000 people as of the first quarter of this year. The daily visitor count isn’t expected to return to 60,000 people until the end of 2025.

“It’s going to get harder for that recovery going forward to the extent that we don’t add housing quickly,” he says. “As long as we add 2,000 to 3,000 housing units and free up some of the visitor plant over the next year, then I think our visitor forecast has a chance of coming true and will continue to see some growth, but we will still see average daily census on Maui that’s well below pre-wildfire.”

The Hawai’i Community Foundation’s Maui strong fund raised $194 million by June 28 and has already allocated $107 million for relief efforts on the Valley Isle. Of that allocated, 52% has gone to housing; $27% to health and social services; 20% to economic resilience and 1% for natural, historical and cultural projects.

HCF says that so far, 583 grant applications have been received and 234 approved. Examples of approved grants are all over the map. Some $55 million from the Maui Strong Fund has covered rental assistance, payments to host families and interim housing, including $40 million for the 450-unit Ka La‘i Ola temporary housing project that broke ground April 30.

Another $1.9 million is helping to build a Maui Fire Department station in Olowalu, south of Lahaina, plus $2 million for specialized fire trucks. Additionally, $20 million goes toward emergency response, mobile services, distribution of relief and grief counseling; $21 million for cash assistance and workforce development; and $2 million to make the watershed more resilient, remove contaminants and improve coastal water quality. You can read specifics about the grants at tinyurl.com/mauigrants.

How Decisions Are Made

HCF CEO Micah Kāne and Lauren Nahme, senior VP of Maui Recovery Effort, answered dozens of my questions in three recent interviews, including how HCF’s spending decisions are made, how the foundation is facilitating further donations for Maui and the biggest question of all: how to make future housing affordable to people on Maui and across Hawai‘i.

Kāne says HCF’s Maui relief spending follows the foundation’s overall model. “We spend a lot of resources trying to make people comfortable for today. Most of our transactional grants to food banks, homeless shelters and other providers are serving immediate needs,” he says.

“But at the same time, we’re trying to get far upstream to mitigate the challenges we face and reduce that problem pipeline substantially. The Maui experience has been that, times 200.”

Left: Micah Kāne, Right: Lauren Nahme | Photos courtesy: Hawai’i Community Foundation

Both Kāne and Nahme agree that as many as 10 years of hard work, rebuilding and pain lie ahead, but they also express optimism, both for the work already accomplished by government, relief organizations and people on Maui, and in the hope for a better future.

“As challenging as the last 10 months have been,” Kāne says, “I’m more inspired today than at any time in my career by the possibilities for the future of Maui and the role it can play to prove we can make Hawai‘i affordable – especially around housing.”

Under current conditions, affordable housing is virtually impossible to build on Maui or anywhere in Hawai‘i, so we have to change the system, Kāne says. For how he proposes we do that, read further in this story, where we dive into the costs of building even simple homes and the solution he sees. But for now, I will keep this story’s focus on the bigger picture of relief for Maui.

The needs in West Maui are enormous and matched by countless requests for funding plus tension, clamor and anger – in meetings, on social media and elsewhere – with accusations about unmet needs, ignored people and misspent money. These actions are not unique to Maui; they happen after every disaster.

“Didn’t Reinvent the Wheel”

In the aftermath of the Lahaina disaster, Nahme says, “We didn’t reinvent the wheel.

FEMA has a framework that has guided us” in allocating resources on immediate needs and long-term spending. FEMA’s framework includes eight principles:

• Individual and family empowerment
• Leadership and local primacy
• Pre-disaster recovery planning
• Engaged partnerships and inclusiveness
• Unity of effort
• Timeliness and flexibility
• Resilience and sustainability
• Psychological and emotional recovery

For HCF, the principle of “engaged partnerships” means coordinating with everyone else on the ground, including three levels of government, myriad nonprofits and community organizations, companies and other stakeholders. “The more that we align with others, the better it can be coordinated with less waste and better strategy,” Nahme says.

She gives an example. “In the week after the fire, we met with the mayor and have met with him basically every week since. That’s because every disaster starts and ends locally. Maui could not manage the disaster on their own, but they have to be in the driver position … especially over the long term.”

In October, Maui County created its Office of Recovery and set six areas that would shape the effort. Nahme says HCF’s spending tracks with those six categories:

• Community planning
• Housing, both interim and permanent
• Infrastructure
• Natural and cultural resources
• Health and social services
• Economic recovery

“Spent the Time Listening”

Many people talk about “the community” driving short-term and long-term relief decisions on Maui, but finding consensus among something as amorphous as “the community” is difficult. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen and the Maui County Council are obvious choices to consult, since the voters of Maui elected them. Beyond them, relief organizers and leaders are turning to trusted relationships and then branching out from there, Kāne and Nahme say.

Right after the fire, the first organizations HCF consulted about spending decisions on Maui were nonprofits that the foundation had worked with for a long time: Maui Economic Opportunity, Maui United Way, Catholic Charities and Maui Food Bank. “Those relationships are built up over decades and they’re trusted opinions,” Kāne says.

“Later, you go broader in where you get your intel because you’re making bigger investments with more people in the decision-making process, whether it’s the County Council, mayor, governor, a government department, another benefactor or philanthropic organization, a corporate entity that wants to make a major contribution, a landowner.”

At the same time, you’re listening to ordinary people on a very local level, Nahme says. “Just within the Lahaina community, there’s neighborhoods, there’s streets. We’ve definitely spent the time listening … and we also lean on nonprofits that are directly serving on the ground.”

She adds: “We know HCF is not going to set the overall vision and strategy. We have to be very responsive to the actual disaster and then get the community and those directly affected to be in the lead position, deciding what happens, especially over the long term.”

Kāne says HCF looks at what government and other nonprofits are already doing, and then tries to tackle the unmet needs – immediate and long-term.

How to Make Housing Affordable

Kāne says Hawai‘i needs to disrupt the financial model of affordable home construction. First, he acknowledges that overregulation, financing and uncertainty drive up the cost of housing, but before addressing those things, he wants to focus on five main drivers of housing costs in Hawai‘i: land; off-site infrastructure; on-site infrastructure; the actual building of the home, which is often called vertical construction; and the fifth driver, the relatively modest “soft” costs such as design and project management.

In the chart below we do the math on those five costs, using numbers for building simple homes – “carport, no enclosed garage, no PV or any fancy stuff,” Kāne says – that are common back-of-the-envelope calculations used by some members of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.

A Blueprint for Affordable Housing

None of those totals match anyone’s definition of “affordable.” For single-family homes and duplexes, your costs total hundreds of thousands of dollars before you actually build the house.

“We can talk about regulation until we’re blue in the face but we will never meet affordability unless we eliminate land costs, eliminate off-site infrastructure costs, and probably in some cases eliminate some on-site infrastructure costs, such as some of the interior roads,” Kāne says.

“You want to get a market unit at about $500,000, so families can actually start saving money (after buying a home). A small subdivision lot where it’s in the high threes, low fours. And a duplex where somebody can enter the market at about $200,000. That’s the ideal state.”

That can only happen if the land comes at no cost and government pays for the off-site infrastructure, he says. “That’s what taxpayer dollars are supposed to be for: major roads, water, sewer and public facilities. That’s not really the responsibility of the private sector. The handoff on infrastructure should happen at the housing site.”

Kāne says public leaders are having conversations within those parameters now: How to eliminate land and off-site infrastructure costs, plus reduce the costs of regulation and capital to bring down the cost of building housing on Maui and throughout Hawai‘i.

The Ka La‘i Ola temporary housing project has elements of that business model. HCF’s Maui Strong Fund contributed $40 million to the project. The 450 studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are designed to be occupied for up to five years. But the project is also a long-term investment in off-site and on-site infrastructure.

Still Asking for Donations

HCF is still asking for Maui donations, almost a year after the fire, including both general donations and more targeted donations from big donors.

“We set up a funders’ collaborative with other philanthropic organizations that want to support Maui but are not tapped in. We’re collaborating with them on a process to make it easy for say, an entity with a proposal for an interim housing project or a mental health hub or whatever, that entity can go to this group and pitch one time. All the philanthropic organizations will hear it. If it’s aligned with someone’s board and mission, they can support it, and we can coordinate among the funders to have shared reporting and monitoring so that the grantee doesn’t have to do it separately for five or six funders.”

One group receiving support comprises homeowners who lost their homes in the fire and need a bridge until they can move back into their rebuilt homes. HCF coordinated a $7 million grant funded by banks, their foundations and the Federal Home Loan Banks that is going to Hawai‘i Community Lending, a nonprofit mortgage lender.

“That money is going to be used household by household for homeowners struggling to get their full insurance proceeds, because they don’t know how to advocate for themselves or whatever reason, working with the bank or mortgage holder, figuring what the rebuild cost is, and what government programs are there to fill that gap,” Nahme says.

“The goal is to ensure that anybody who owns a home and is an owner occupant will be able to keep it and stay there.”

Nahme says the future is daunting “but there are bright spots. The remediation and clearing of lots and allowing folks to go back to their places and start rebuilding is happening at least a year earlier than the earliest projection. They’ve cleared over 1,000 lots already.”

And there is energy about building the future. “There’s always going to be tensions, but I really believe in this community. They’re going to fight through those challenges. So pre-fire issues they had, they got worse during the disaster, like housing, energy costs, education and prospects for economic development and diversification. I think that changes will happen with all of those things and people are ready to talk about it.”

Safety innovations – like artificial intelligence software, better designs, better brakes and driver-assistance systems – should make it safer for people inside and outside vehicles.

Instead, in many ways, America’s roads seem to be getting deadlier, especially for pedestrians. Consider these numbers:

• 7,508 pedestrians in the U.S. were struck and killed by vehicles in 2022 – the highest total since 1981, according to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 42,939 people died in traffic crashes in 2021 – the most in a decade and a half. The death toll fell only slightly in 2022, to 42,514, and the fatality estimate for 2023 is 40,990.

State Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen says Hawai‘i is doing better than the nation as a whole. For example, in 2021 there were 1.37 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled across America, according to the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Those deaths include people riding in all vehicles, including bicycles, as well as pedestrians. In comparison, Hawai‘i recorded 0.94 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled – 31% fewer than the national average.

The state’s five-year rolling average of traffic fatalities dropped from 106 in 2018 to 99 in 2023. The five-year rolling average is a better gauge of trends than annual traffic fatalities, because the annual number fluctuates from year to year.

Speed Continues to Kill

But that’s not to say Hawai‘i’s traffic numbers are good. Speeding has been a major contributing factor in almost half of Hawai‘i’s traffic deaths in recent years, with the actual percentage fluctuating from year to year. For example, in 2020, speed was a major factor in 44% of Hawai‘i’s traffic crashes involving fatalities. That was tied for the third-highest percentage among the states; South Carolina and Colorado had the highest rates at 46%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Speeding Traffic Safety Facts.

A few local fatalities have drawn special attention.

Last year, 16-year-old McKinley High School student Sara Yara was killed and another student injured by a hit-and-run driver while crossing with the light in a marked crosswalk along Kapi‘olani Boulevard. Mitchel Miyashiro, a 46-year-old driver with 164 prior traffic citations, allegedly sped away from the scene, but he later turned himself in to police. He has been charged with negligent homicide in the first degree and other offenses.

This speed hump on Kapi‘olani Boulevard – built after a student at nearby McKinley High School was killed by a hit-and-run driver – is one of 203 raised pedestrian crosswalks and speed humps in the state. Another 28 are currently being built. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

In 2016, 19-year-old Kaulana Werner was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Nānākuli; the driver was accused of speeding and intoxication. It took a jury less than two hours to find Myisha Armitage, then 26, criminally responsible for Werner’s death.

Werner’s family was instrumental in advocating for the successful passage in 2018 of a state law called “Kaulana’s Bill” that allows courts to extend prison time for offenders convicted of first-degree negligent homicide who fail to render aid at the scene of an accident.

Sniffen says the state and counties try many things to reduce speeding and drunken driving, including campaigns that implore people “to take care of neighbors, families, friends and themselves.”

But the enforcement of laws is the most important motivator, he says. “I would say 80% of the people will follow the law or be pretty close to it,” says Sniffen. “There’s a 20% outlier that are just not, and they’re not going to do it unless there’s enforcement.”

Hawai‘i law describes excessive speeding as exceeding the speed limit by 30 mph or more, or going 80 mph or more regardless of the speed limit. Excessive speeding citations issued by law enforcement in Hawai‘i are totaled by fiscal year, which runs from each July 1 to June 30. Here are some recent totals:

• 2019: 357 citations
• 2020: 915
• 2021: 685
• 2022: 1,194

Distracted Driving Also Kills

Distracted driving is another top concern for DOT. The number of fatalities it causes is likely underreported, Sniffen says, because “we don’t know sometimes when a person died, whether or not they were distracted with the telephone.” From 2018 to 2022, 111 of the 520 traffic fatalities were known to be related to distracted driving. That’s 21.3% of the total.

In addition to using cell phones, distracted driving also involves things such as grooming, eating and drinking while driving.

Hawai‘i has state laws intended to reduce distracted driving, including a mobile electronic device law, implemented in 2013. In 2009, Honolulu was the first county in the state to pass an ordinance prohibiting people from using cell phones while driving. Using one while driving in Hawai‘i could result in a $297 citation; if a driver is caught using a mobile device in a school or construction zone, the citation is $347. Here are the number of recent statewide citations for distracted driving, which show a big decrease in recent years:

Sniffen says the state DOT places raised pedestrian crosswalks and roundabouts on certain roads to reduce speeding. For example, in the weeks after Sara Yara was killed, the DOT and Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services installed two raised pedestrian crosswalks on Pensacola Street plus speed humps on Kapi‘olani Boulevard and a red-light camera – all near McKinley High School.

“These are reminders in different spots where I know there’s going to be conflicts between bicyclists, pedestrians and vehicles where I can slow you down,” says Sniffen, “so that if you do crash at a lower speed, the chances of everybody surviving … goes up.”

As of March, there are 203 raised pedestrian crosswalks and speed humps in the state, with another 28 currently being built, according to Sniffen. He says raised pedestrian crosswalks can cost between $50,000 and $150,000.

Red-Light Cameras

From 2015 to 2020, 1,879 crashes statewide were attributed to red-light and other traffic signal violations, according to the DOT. The state began installing red-light cameras in 2022.

The cameras are part of a two-year pilot project at 10 intersections on O‘ahu. Initially, they were only used to issue warnings to violators; since then, they’ve resulted in about 13,500 citations.

Today, the number of drivers running red lights at those 10 intersections is down 25% to 65%, depending on the intersection, according to Sniffen. The pilot project is expected to end in 2025 and he hopes to expand the use of cameras statewide.

The red-light cameras can also monitor speed. A similar speed enforcement bill has been proposed at the state Legislature and, if passed, would give DOT the power to cite people who speed past the cameras.

DOT is also launching a project this summer to upgrade 250 of O‘ahu’s state-owned traffic controllers to an automated system, says Sniffen. The current controllers have two base timings that gives drivers equal crossing time in each of the mainline directions. Sniffen says the controllers prioritizes “the mainline over the side streets,” but the upgraded ones will have sensors to measure the flow of drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. That data can help determine how DOT can improve corridors where drivers are speeding and “get those speeds back down to what the safe speed should be in that area,” he says.

The new data will streamline analysis of heavy traffic and make it easier to identify mistimed lights. Sniffen says corridor studies usually take two weeks to three months, but the new system could bring it down to 20 minutes.

“We’re going in the right direction,” he says. “We think our speed mitigation is working really well, and we’re going to continue that and keep partnering with our education programs and enforcement.”

Bigger Vehicles Are Deadlier

It’s obvious that bigger vehicles are more dangerous to pedestrians, but what’s surprising is how much more deadly a small difference in size can make, according to several studies.

“Small increases in (weight in) the front end of vehicles dramatically increases the probability that a pedestrian dies,” says Justin Tyndall, an assistant professor of economics at UH Mānoa and part of the UH Economic Research Organization.

Tyndall has worked on numerous transportation studies about pedestrians and transit communities. A study released this year looked at how front-end vehicle heights relate to pedestrian deaths. Tyndall analyzed national data on 3,400 vehicle crashes in which pedestrians were struck and estimated the partial effects that front-end vehicle height had on the pedestrians’ survival rates.

He found that an increase of 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) in the front-end height of a vehicle contributes to a 22% increase in the chances that a pedestrian will die when hit by that vehicle.

“Larger vehicles are much more likely to hit the pedestrian in the head or the body rather than the legs and more likely to force them under the vehicle in a collision,” says Tyndall.

On average, according to Tyndall’s research, a pedestrian has a 9.1% chance of dying after being hit by a vehicle. But when the vehicle is a pickup truck or a full-size SUV, the rates climb to 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively.

Tyndall says past research also shows that larger vehicles create more blind spots for drivers.

Larger vehicles have surged in popularity. In 2021, 78% of new vehicles sold or leased in the U.S. were light trucks, a category that includes SUVs, pickups and vans, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Tyndall says pedestrians would be safer if taxes or regulations were in place to discourage people from driving those kinds of larger vehicles.

“We could save a lot of pedestrian lives if we had some pretty modest regulations around vehicle designs that could protect pedestrians.”

Of course, a vehicle’s speed also plays a role in pedestrian fatalities. According to a 2011 study by the American Automobile Association, a pedestrian has a 10% chance of dying if struck by a car going 23 mph. That rises to 50% if the car is going 42 mph, and 75% at 50 mph.

Deadly to Walk

The number of pedestrians in the U.S. who were struck and killed by cars in 2022 was the highest in over 40 years, according to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit that represents states’ safety offices. About 7,508 people were killed while walking along U.S. roads that year; Hawai‘i accounted for 28 of those fatalities.

In Hawai‘i from 2010 to 2021, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths per year increased by an average of 9.5% and 0.6%, respectively, and overall traffic fatalities saw an average annual decrease of 0.4%, according to the DOT.

DOT data shows that a total of 36,564 traffic crashes occurred in Hawai‘i from 2017 to 2021. Of those, 2,736, or 7.5%, involved pedestrians and 137 resulted in deaths. Another 336 resulted in serious injuries.

In those five years, the number of crashes involving pedestrians declined, but the average severity of pedestrian injuries increased. Pedestrian deaths increased by 21% in that time and crashes leading to serious injuries among pedestrians rose by 11% on an average annual basis, according to the DOT.

On O‘ahu, the city’s Department of Transportation Services says that pedestrian deaths account for about a third of all traffic fatalities on the island.

Daniel Alexander, a transportation planner for DTS, says crashes involving pedestrians most commonly happen at uncontrolled crossings and intersections with traffic lights that allow left turns.

According to the O‘ahu Pedestrian Plan, 38 road corridors and 107 intersections/ crossings account for a disproportionate share of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Alexander says 2% of city roads accounted for 60% of pedestrian deaths on O‘ahu.

A few of the areas receiving improvements that enhance pedestrian safety are Ke‘eaumoku Street between Wilder Avenue and Kapi‘olani Boulevard; North King Street; Dillingham Boulevard; and Kamehameha Highway in Kāne‘ohe between Ha‘ikū Road and Waikalua Road. The plan is available at tinyurl.com/PedestrianPlan2022.

The rise in total pedestrian deaths in Hawai‘i has disproportionately affected older adults, people of color and people with low incomes, says Keali‘i Lopez, state director for AARP Hawai‘i. Kūpuna 65 and older made up 17% of O‘ahu’s population in 2019. But, from 2015 to 2020, they represented 41% of all pedestrians killed in crashes, and 24% of all people killed while bicycling, according to DTS.

Another vulnerable community is Hawai‘i’s homeless population; the DOT started tracking pedestrian deaths among that group three years ago, according to Sniffen.

“The homeless population has been about a seventh of the fatalities that occur in the system,” he says. “That’s a big number.”

Sniffen says DOT is working with different state and city agencies to “ensure that we can understand the need that (homeless) people have for crossing in different areas.”

One deadly spot for the homeless is where Nimitz Highway connects to the H-1 Freeway.

“People should not be living on the DOT roadways. It’s just flat out dangerous,” says Sniffen. “But instead of just moving them, we’re trying to find different locations that they can go to.”

Bad Trend: More Scooter Deaths

Scooter deaths statewide have gone up in recent years: From 2003 to 2020, there were no more than two a year; some years had none. But there were 10 in 2021, eight in 2022 and five last year.

Scooters refer to various types of vehicles, some motorized and others not, including those with a narrow plank and small wheels front and back, commonly known as kick scooters or push scooters.

However, scooter can also refer to motorized two-wheelers with a step-through frame (think of the traditional frame of a girl’s bike) and other vehicles. All of the state’s legal definitions of scooter can be found at tinyurl.com/scooterrules.

Calls for More Infrastructure

Advocates and nonprofits have called for more infrastructure and facilities to protect pedestrians and bicyclists.

“When people can’t walk, bike and take transit in their communities when it makes sense, and that we force everybody to feel that the only way they can get around is in a car – we’re really doing a big disservice to our communities,” says Katie Rooney, director of transportation policy and programs for the nonprofit Ulupono Initiative.

Motorcycle crashes account for a disproportionate number of traffic fatalities, according to the DOT. In 2023, the 27 motorcycle-related fatalities, which include mopeds and scooters, accounted for 29% of all state traffic-related deaths. The DOT has also reported an increase in DUI and speeding citations issued to motorcycle drivers.

The nine bicyclist fatalities in 2023 were the most ever in Hawai‘i in a single year, the DOT says.

Alexander says the characteristics of bike-vehicle crashes are “kind of all over the place” but often involve bicyclists getting hit from behind, while pulling out of driveways or while making left turns.

“But the biggest trend we saw is that it’s mostly bicyclists not in bikeways, not in dedicated bikeways – so we’re there sharing space,” he says.

Honolulu Department of Transportation Services says the King Street Protected Bike Lane is an example of a successful infrastructure project that makes bicyclists safer. The project reduced the street from six motor-vehicle lanes to five, with a bike lane added on the mauka side.

That bike lane had a significant impact, DTS says. In the four years before the bikeway opened in 2014, 50 bicyclist injuries were reported along the 2-mile stretch from Alapa‘i Street to Isenberg Street. In the four years after the bike lane was set up, only 25 bicyclist injuries were reported.

Alexander says there are plans for the city to install additional protected bike lanes around Kaka‘ako and Waikīkī.

The city’s pedestrian plan notes that out of 1,227 miles of city streets, 57.4% have sidewalks on both sides, but 36.2% do not. Most of the remaining roads have asphalt or concrete walkways on one side or some trees along the way. The city proposes to add 145 miles of sidewalks, at an expected cost of $539 million.

Adding bikeways and walkways is difficult on narrow, older roads that are often in residential areas “where space is a consideration,” Rooney says. But, she adds, plenty of other roads are wide enough to accommodate more than just vehicular traffic.

“We also have a lot of wide, big roads in which it’s just mostly dedicated to vehicle space, and it doesn’t have to be,” she says. Sniffen says the difficulty with upgrading infrastructure is that “our system was built in a landlocked situation with very little room to address additional facilities.” But he says DOT has been partnering with state and city agencies to prioritize areas where critical infrastructure connections are missing, such as “discontinuous” sidewalks and roads.

Sniffen says trying to reduce speeding is DOT’s big focus right now.

“If we can manage everybody’s speed on the system, it’s way safer for everybody,” he says. “Impacts are lower, the potential for stopping to ensure that you avoid an impact is higher – so it’s just much safer altogether.”

Says Lopez: “The goal is to have safer streets, more aware and careful pedestrians. We want drivers who drive with aloha and pedestrians who walk with aloha.”

Roland Casamina | Jade Butay | Patricia and Marissa Halagao | Raymart Billote

Sergio Alcubilla | Lalaine Ignao and Eric Ganding | Agnes Malate | Larry Ordonez

Filipinos have been in Hawai‘i since the 1860s, according to naturalization records. Today, 367,525 people in Hawai‘i have Filipino ancestry, in part or entirely. That’s 1 in every 4 residents. Some have local roots that stretch back many generations and others just arrived from the Philippines in the past few years.

I am one of those 367,525 people. My grandparents arrived in the 1970s and I grew up in Waipahu, graduated from Waipahu High and UH Mānoa, and have worked at Hawaii Business Magazine since 2021.

In these pages, I will tell the stories of 10 Filipino Americans in Hawai‘i – including accounts of their successes and resilience, their hard work and pride, but also of the loneliness and shame some of them have felt, and the pain of prejudice and exclusion they’ve endured. Their stories help illuminate Hawai‘i’s past and present, from Filipino perspectives.

In between each personal story, I will include facts that explain some of Filipinos’ shared histories and their current realities.

Being Filipino Helped Him Succeed

Roland Casamina says his recipe for success is simple: “There’s no formula other than eagerness.” Then he adds, “It’s about me being Filipino.”

The company he started in 1995, House of Finance, funded almost $235 million in mortgage loans in Hawai‘i in 2021, Casamina says.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ranked House of Finance as the No. 1 guaranteed rural housing lender in Hawai‘i. (For lending purposes, the USDA considers all of O‘ahu as rural except for Hawai‘i Kai to Pearl City, and Mililani, Kailua and Kāne‘ohe.) House of Finance has also ranked among Hawaii Business Magazine’s Top 250 companies and been on the magazine’s Most Profitable Companies list several times in recent years.

Roland Casamina, president of House of Finance

Though he often faced difficult times when he was young, Casamina says those humble beginnings contributed to his success. He was born in the Philippines and came to Hawai‘i in 1968 at 14. His first job was as a busboy while attending Farrington High School; later, while at UH Mānoa, he worked as a waiter.

“I was not always proud to be a Filipino,” he says, adding that people in other ethnic groups in Hawai‘i looked down on Filipinos and that he often felt overwhelmed. On his first day of college, he looked around the classroom and saw there were no other Filipinos. Casamina felt like “the dumbest guy in this class” and the least qualified. He continued to sometimes feel that way, though he ranked toward the top of the class and landed on the dean’s list.

His outlook changed when he graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration in 1976 and was offered a job as a branch manager at International Savings and Loan. At that time, Casamina says, the bank was looking for a Filipino to help attract more Filipino customers.

He says he felt unqualified because he was 22 and had no banking experience, but “the VP of the bank at that time said, ‘I’ll take a chance on you,’ and after three months of training, he said, ‘You’re ready to go.’ ”

“I was shocked.”

Back then, Casamina says, his “dreams were so small” that he had to keep adjusting them as his career advanced.

“I was happy to just have food on my table,” he says. Eventually, he decided that he would never allow himself to “stoop that low” as to feel shame again about his heritage and culture. Instead, he would embrace both, with confidence and pride.

His hard work paid off: Casamina became VP of International Savings and Loan and only left the company to open House of Finance in 1995 when the bank was bought by a bigger bank.

Casamina and L&L Hawaiian Barbecue founder Eddie Flores Jr. spent much of the 1990s raising money for the future Filipino Community Center in Waipahu, and were driving forces behind its completion in 2002. They served as its founding president and vice president, respectively.

Casamina spearheaded the $14.5 million fundraiser and has personally donated close to $900,000 to the center.

It is described as the largest Filipino community center outside of the Philippines and serves as a hub for educating all of Hawai‘i about the ethnic group’s contributions to the Islands.

Casamina also established a $50,000 endowed scholarship at UH Mānoa’s Shidler College of Business and has a student leadership center there named after him and his wife, Evelyn.

His advice: “Keep working hard and be loyal to the company you work for.”

In 1906, 15 men were brought here from the Philippines to work on sugar plantations and this first group of contract laborers laid the groundwork for the many more “sakadas” who followed. From 1906 to 1946, over 100,000 Filipino men were recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association.

A Filipino Voice in State Government

Jade Butay has over 20 years of experience working in state government and business and is now the state’s director of labor and industrial relations. He says he owes his leadership skills in part to his family’s humble beginnings in the Philippines.

“Growing up in the Philippines instilled hunger and inside of me, a desire to succeed,” says Butay. “It taught me the virtue of hard work, shaped my childhood and built my character.”

As a child in the Philippines, he says, he had lots of friends but left them and everything else behind when his family moved to Hawai‘i in 1983. He was 13.

Butay says his parents moved his family to Hawai‘i in search of a better life. But the working-class family had difficulty assimilating and Butay describes those early days in America as “inauspicious.”

As a middle school student, he had a newspaper route in a hilly part of Salt Lake. “I had a route in my neighborhood and every day after school, I would deliver the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,” Butay recalls. When he would load up his bike on Sundays, the papers were especially thick and heavy, he says.

It was a test of his will and gave him a sense of responsibility and accountability. “When you’re an immigrant, you want to have your own income or resources – you don’t want to be dependent” on your parents.

That same thinking carried over to UH Mānoa, where his business degree included double majors in accounting and finance because, he says, he wanted to be “financially independent.” And through it all, he looked to his parents’ sacrifices and hard work as motivation.

Jade Butay, director of the state Department of
Labor and Industrial Relations

“As an immigrant, you start at the bottom, and you have no place to go but up.”

So that’s where he went: Butay graduated from UH with honors, and eventually got his master’s at Babson College, which calls itself the “best college for entrepreneurship.”

He has 13 years of experience working in the private sector, where he’s secured contracts for housing and commercial projects and created marketing plans to help businesses succeed.

His public service experience started when he was an undergraduate working as a legislative assistant for the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly. Later, he served as a budget analyst and legislative coordinator for the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism and then as a congressional aide to Neil Abercrombie.

Butay has worked in the administrations of Hawai‘i’s three most recent governors, dating back to when he was a deputy director in Abercrombie’s administration, first at the Department of Transportation, and later at the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. He currently heads that department under Gov. Josh Green.

Under Gov. David Ige, he served as director of the Department of Transportation for over five years. During his term, he says, DOT completed four major airport construction projects: the $270 million Mauka Concourse at the Honolulu airport, consolidated car rental facilities at Honolulu and Kahului airports, and a federal inspection services station at Kona airport.

Butay says people sometimes referred to him as a unicorn in state government “and it wasn’t a good thing.” He says it’s because, at one point, he was the only Filipino in the Cabinet. It’s different now: In Green’s administration, he is one of three Filipino Cabinet members.

“We have a long way to go,” Butay says of Filipino representation in state government. “It’s extremely important that the Filipino community is at the table. I need to make sure our voices are heard – ensure we are not out of the picture when critical decisions are being made.”

By 1932, Filipinos made up 70% of the plantation workforce, according to a 1939 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The report says they were paid an average wage of $467 in 1938, compared with $651 for Japanese workers. 

Filipinos Underrepresented in Higher Education

Patricia Halagao, an educator for more than a decade, has worked on getting more Filipinos into higher education and more educational opportunities for Filipino students.

She remembers asking a Filipino student, “Why do you think you’ve never learned about yourself in school?”

The student replied, “It’s probably because Filipinos haven’t done anything important.”

“That was like a big dagger in my heart,” says Halagao. “As an adult, you don’t really make those kinds of connections later in life. But when you’re a child, that would be kind of your assumption – if you don’t see yourself, you haven’t done anything.”

Patricia Halagao, chair of curriculum studies at UH Mānoa’s College of Education, and daughter Marissa Halagao, founder of the Filipino Curriculum Project

As the chair of curriculum studies at UH Mānoa’s College of Education, she has advocated for equity by increasing the number of Filipinos and other underrepresented groups in college and pursuing careers in higher education. While she was on the state Board of Education, she pushed for the development of policies on multilingualism and for the Seal of Biliteracy, which is now awarded upon graduation to students who demonstrate high proficiency in both of the state’s two official languages (English and Hawaiian), or in either of those two and at least one additional language.

The seal encourages second-generation Americans to take pride in their multilingual abilities.

She and other leaders also successfully encouraged the state Department of Education to move Filipino students out of the Asian category in public schools data. She says it was important “to see the breakdown of the different Asian-Pacific Islander groups because they are very different.”

Filipinos on average perform 15% to 20% lower in proficiency standards in public schools and in college-going rates compared to their East Asian peers, according to a 2022 report from the Tinalak Council, a group that supports Filipinos in education and is based at UH Mānoa’s College of Education.

Filipino Americans comprise the largest ethnic group in Hawai‘i’s public schools, accounting for 24% of the student population, according to the DOE. At Farrington and Waipahu high schools, the student populations are majority Filipino.

For the 2019-2020 school year, Filipinos had a high graduation rate (91%) but low college-going rate (54%), the Tinalak report says, and the number of Filipinos at four-year colleges is disproportionately lower compared to many other ethnic groups in Hawai‘i.

The Pamantasan Council, a UH System organization that seeks to enhance Filipino representation in education, says 14.1% of UH System students are Filipino American. At UH Mānoa, the proportion of Filipino American undergraduate students is 11%. Among graduate students, it’s 5%, and among faculty, it’s 2.5%. Among its 16 deans and interim deans, only one is Filipino American.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey says 69.5% of people with full or partial Filipino ancestry are in the state’s workforce. For the entire Hawai‘i population, the proportion is 66.8%. Of all Filipino workers, 20.3% work in educational services, health care and social assistance; the arts, entertainment and recreation (19.4%); retail trade (14.1%); and construction (7.6%).

Filipino Student-Led Project Makes Breakthrough

When Halagao’s daughter Marissa was a sophomore in Punahou School, she took an Asian history class that only included Chinese and Japanese history. That provoked her to start what would become the Filipino Curriculum Project.

“I felt that there was a very big oversight,” says Marissa Halagao. “The fact that Filipinos weren’t included, it communicated to me as a Filipino student that my history, my culture, was not worthy to be studied.”

She worked with her teachers to develop a Filipino studies curriculum and contacted students from high schools across the state to inspire others to push for courses that focus on Filipino history.

Raymart Billote, UH West O‘ahu student and Filipino Curriculum Project co-director

Raymart Billote, a Waipahu High School graduate and current UH West O‘ahu student, was the first of five students recruited for the project. He immigrated to Hawai‘i in 2017 and says adapting to Hawai‘i was difficult at first.

In his freshman year of high school, he was part of his school’s English language learner program, but transitioned out when he was a sophomore. After that transition, he felt like he did not fit in because he had classes with students who had grown up in Hawai‘i.

“I kind of felt lonely at that time, like I don’t feel like I fit into this group,” says Billote. “That’s when I started to isolate myself because of the language barrier as well.”

It was not until his senior year that Billote was recruited by Marissa Halagao for the Filipino Curriculum Project. Like Halagao, he saw how Filipinos were underrepresented in history books, and he was inspired by her.

Billote says his relatives who were born here don’t speak a Filipino language and don’t know much about their culture.

“Filipino students who were born here, they weren’t given as many opportunities to learn about their heritage,” he says. “In school, they would mention Filipinos, but it’s not as in-depth.”

The Filipino Curriculum Project team has grown to 26 students, spread among eight schools across the state, and includes nine members in college. They spent two years lobbying at the state Legislature and also garnering support for the curriculum from other educators and community members.

Last year, the team hit a milestone: The state Department of Education says Hawai‘i is the first state-wide school district to approve a high school social studies course on Filipino history and culture.

The course, named Filipino History Culture, will be offered at two high schools this fall: Waipahu and Farrington. Billote, who encourages his Filipino classmates to be proud of their heritage, is an education major at UH West O‘ahu and hopes to eventually teach the course.

“I try to bring my culture with me everywhere I go,” says Billote. “In college when I introduce myself as a first-generation immigrant, I’m not ashamed to do that.”

Marissa Halagao, who is now a freshman at Yale University, says it is empowering to learn about people “who look like you” in history books because “how are students supposed to feel validated in themselves if the only people that they learn about, the only role models and people that they look up to have little to no resemblance to them?”

There were 7,065 Filipinos in the UH System in fall 2023, according to the UH Institutional Research, Analysis & Planning Office. Community colleges had 4,370, Mā – noa 1,834, West O‘ahu 668 and Hilo 193.

Advocating for Workers’ Rights

Sergio Alcubilla, executive director of the Hawai‘i Workers Center

Sergio Alcubilla came to Hawai‘i from the mainland because it reminded him of his family’s upbringing and working-class background.

He was born in the Philippines and has five other siblings. His father, who was in the military, was killed during the People Power Revolution in 1986 that ousted Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Alcubilla was only 6 then.

From that point, Alcubilla says his mother, who had been a nurse in the U.S., raised her children on her own.

Alcubilla and his family first emigrated to the mainland from the Philippines but eventually came to Hawai‘i because of its large Filipino community. An early memory of his is of seeing so many working-class Filipinos working in Waikīkī in the hotels and service industry.

Where Filipinos Live in Hawai‘i

Source: US Census 2020

He graduated with a bachelor’s in economics and political science from the University of Florida, and received his law degree from UH Mānoa’s Richardson School of Law.

Alcubilla says he felt “this sense of duty – that if I could give back to the community, this would be the best place for us to settle down.”

He talks about “our kababayans,” which means fellow countrymen in Tagalog, “who are working low-wage jobs and two or three additional jobs.” He himself worked late nights at Macy’s to support himself while going to law school.

Now, as executive director of the Hawai‘i Workers Center, he advocates to ensure workers are paid living wages, have rights and are treated equally.

“From our own personal experiences, we just know how hard it is to try to raise a family, to try to make ends meet and really fulfill that immigrant dream.”

In 2015, then-Gov. David Ige signed legislation declaring Dec. 20 as Sakada Day to honor the more than 100,000 Filipinos who were brought in to work on Hawai‘i’s plantations during the 20th century. The bill recognized the sakadas’ and the overall Filipino community’s contributions to Hawai‘i.

Young Entrepreneurs Embrace Their Culture

In 2021, Lalaine Ignao and Eric Ganding launched a boba-shop food truck as an homage to their Filipino roots and to honor Ignao’s late grandmother. It is called “Sama Sama,” which translates to “togetherness” in Tagalog.

Lalaine Ignao and Eric Ganding, owners of Sama Sama, a food truck serving drinks inspired by Filipino flavors.

The idea took seed while Ignao was growing up in Washington state: Her family would frequent a Chinese restaurant there and then go to the boba shop next door for dessert.

Sama Sama’s menu has Filipino-inspired drinks flavored by ube, leche flan, buko pandan, sampaguita and turon. Ignao says their food truck appears at various events and locations across O‘ahu, including at UH Mānoa. They opened a physical storefront in Leeward Community College’s library in 2023.

Ignao points to ingredient shortages and increasing costs as some of their early challenges. And Ganding says the pair encountered people who were skeptical of their plan to open a boba shop.

“People thought that we were just going into it as just something on the side,” he says. Instead, they jumped in fully. Today, the couple aims to break the belief that Filipinos need to be in health care or engineering to succeed.

“I think society has made it seem like success is about money and material things,” says Ignao. “But I think at the end of the day, success is what your definition is.”

Filipino Americans make up the third-largest Asian ethnic group in America, following Chinese and Indian Americans, according to the 2020 U.S. census. With a population of more than 4.2 million, Filipino Americans make up about 18% of the total Asian American population in the U.S.

Language Access for All

Agnes Malate couldn’t speak English when she emigrated from the Philippines at age 7. The only words and phrases she knew were yes, no, thank you and what is your name.

Malate grew up in a farming family and remembers living in a bamboo house in the Philippines. Her father worked on a Waipahu sugar plantation when they came to Hawai‘i.

Determined to have a better life, Malate says, she learned English by reading books. She values education because it was “transformative” for her and “provides for more resources and opportunity.” Malate is currently director of the Health Careers Opportunity program at UH Mānoa, which recruits and mentors students in health-related careers.

Agnes Malate, director of UH Mānoa’s Health Careers Opportunity program

Malate is also a language-access advocate and helps her family and others get important information and news in their native language.

During the Covid pandemic, she says, “there wasn’t really a mobile, collaborative, unified response” to help the Filipino community get access to health resources.

Filipinos had the highest Covid mortality rate in the Islands, behind Pacific Islanders, according to the state Department of Health. As of April 18, 2022, Filipinos represented 24% of Covid deaths in Hawai‘i.

The impact of Covid on Filipinos spurred Malate, civil rights activist Amy Agbayani and May Rose Dela Cruz to establish FilCom Cares, a project part of the Filipino Community Center that provides Filipinos in Hawai‘i with outreach, education, and access to resources such as vaccinations and testing.

About 59% of those people in the state with pure Filipino ancestry do not speak English at home, according to a 2016 report on non-English speakers in Hawai‘i by the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

In the U.S., not being proficient in English can lead to miscommunication and hesitancy, Malate says. She describes a time when she had to accompany her parents to their doctors’ appointments to translate because the medical terms often “were too hard for them to understand.”

When she volunteered at vaccination clinics during the Covid pandemic, Malate says, people expressed their thanks. “Just having familiar faces doing the vaccinations gave them confidence and trust,” she says.

Malate is president of Ethnic Education Hawai‘i, a local nonprofit aiming to make “communications accessible for all” through different media.

English Proficiency

Proportion of these ethnic populations in Hawai‘i who say they speak English less than very well:

Home Language

Proportion of these ethnic populations in Hawai‘i who say they speak a language other than English at home:

All groups include people of pure and mixed ancestry. | Source: 2022 American Community Survey

One of those is KNDI 1270 AM Radio, a source of news and entertainment for underserved communities. The station broadcasts in 13 languages: English, Chinese, Chuukese, Laotian, Marshallese, Okinawan, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Spanish, Tongan, Vietnamese, Ilocano and Tagalog.

Longtime KNDI radio host Larry Ordonez, who has spent more than 40 years working in media, says he feels like he “helped elevate ethnic radio broadcasts beyond the norm studio setting.”

In 2017, he became the station’s first on-air host to do remote broadcasts from his home studio. So when the pandemic hit, he was ready to help the Filipino community.

Ordonez does his “Filipino Radio” program on Sundays and Mondays, and broadcasts news in English, Ilocano and Tagalog. During the pandemic he partnered with Filcom Cares to broadcast Covid health information to his listeners.

During 2020 and 2021, each of his programs generated an average of about 3,000 to 4,000 listeners.

“Ethnic radio fills the gap unmet by mainstream media in reaching out to the underserved,” says Ordonez.

Having an outlet to listen to music or news in an individual’s native language is important because people can understand the content and “it gives them that connection to their upbringing,” Ordonez says.

Most of the Filipinos who have come to Hawai‘i are Ilocano, from the northern region of the Philippines, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

A Resilient Community in Time of Need

The fire last year that destroyed Lahaina and killed 100 people heightened the struggles of the Filipino community, which made up about 40% of the town’s population.

Local Filipino leaders and community members sprang into action to aid the population. “We’re working tirelessly to help Maui recover and rebuild,” says Butay, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations director.

Butay says he has been going to Maui at least once a week to meet with staff and help those affected. His department has also been offering unemployment insurance and temporary jobs to affected workers.

The Hawai‘i Workers Center has been pushing for a “just and equitable recovery for all workers” on Maui, says Alcubilla, the executive director. At an outreach event on Maui, he said that a lot of Filipino families he spoke with said they were denied FEMA assistance.

“For a lot of the Filipino community, they just see that letter that says denial and then they just stop it and they don’t push it further,” he says. “We understand that it’s a denial letter, but it doesn’t mean you’re not qualified for it.”

Alcubilla stresses that the community should take advantage of available resources and ask for help when needed.

Malate and the FilCom Cares team arranged for volunteers to assist the public at resource fairs by translating important information like how to apply for unemployment benefits, and where to get replacements for lost documents and find housing assistance.

When radio host Ordonez heard about the fires, he says he was devastated. He grew up in Lahaina after immigrating to Hawai‘i, and two houses that his family once lived in were among those destroyed.

Larry Ordonez, host of the “Filipino Radio” program on KNDI

“A lot of my friends that I went to high school with and friends and neighbors with houses in the area – they’re all gone,” says Ordonez.

He used his radio show to help those affected. “Even though there was no power, phone service or internet at that time, we have radio and people still have some cars,” he says.

“Some of them can listen. We will ask them to tell their friends about resources that they can tap to help them.”

Butay says Filipinos are “just as important as any other ethnicity or race” and will continue to rebuild.

“We play an integral role in the state’s economy, culture and society. We’re symbols of immigrant achievement,” he says. “Without the Filipinos, the hotels, the construction, restaurants, health care and other industries wouldn’t be able to survive.”

Hawai‘i’s life expectancy at birth is the longest in the U.S. – 80.7 years in 2020, a full year and a half longer than the No. 2 state, Washington – according to the latest statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But life expectancy is not equally divided among all Hawai‘i residents. For instance, among males, it is 77.6 years; for females it’s 83.6.

Genetics play a big part, says Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum, interim dean of UH’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. “If you look at which ethnic groups have a longer life expectancy, it tends to be the Asian side, particularly Japanese,” she says.

Buenconsejo-Lum mentions the Honolulu Heart Program initiated in 1965 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study both biological and environmental causes of cardiovascular disease in Japanese-American men living in Hawai‘i. The study’s findings, which were compared to those from studies in Japan and California, confirmed the importance of diet in a longer life.

“As they became more acculturated to the Western lifestyle, i.e., Western diet, their life expectancies actually did go down and started to look more like the rest of the country,” she explains.

“We still have so many first- and second-generation immigrants (in Hawai‘i) who continue to eat pretty healthy, mostly vegetable, low-fat-meat diets who are physically active. You’ve got people who are 80 and 90 years old, but they tend to be of Asian descent.”

Health Numbers: Hawai‘i’s Ethnicities

A report published in 2017 in the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health compared the life expectancy of women and men in Hawai‘i’s largest ethnic groups, based on 2010 data. Here were 2010’s life expectancies at birth measured in years:

Source: “Life Expectancies in Hawai‘i: A Multi-ethnic Analysis of 2010 Life Tables”

Hawai‘i’s Top 3 Killers

Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the top three causes of death in Hawai‘i, according to the CDC’s statistics for 2021. Common risk factors for all three include obesity, diabetes and pre-diabetes, and smoking, Buenconsejo-Lum says.

“For almost every state, heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes are going to be in the top five (leading causes of death) because unfortunately the country is getting more and more overweight,” she says.

She says much of that circles back to diet, but the higher cost of healthy food makes it harder for income-constrained families to eat well.

“If you’re on a fixed income or have a huge household and are at the poverty level or part of the ALICE, you have to go for those cheaper value meals,” she says, referring to Hawai‘i’s residents who are “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.”

“We have to change policies to make healthy food accessible so that it’s always the first choice.”

By 2030, 22.6% of Hawai‘i’s population will be 65 and older, straining a health care system that’s already short of geriatricians, the doctors who specialize in older patient care.

Buenconsejo-Lum says UH has a geriatric fellowship training program, “but the reality is we can’t train them fast enough to meet our growing need and demand.” To help with early intervention, she recommends a team-based approach with physicians, nurses, physical therapists, dietitians and social workers.

Health Numbers: Hawai‘i vs. Nation

Source: CDC statistics for 2021 *CDC statistic for the latest year available, 2020

“Keep Your Brain Active”

The prescription for keeping kūpuna healthy and living independently at home for as long as possible, Buenconsejo-Lum says, is “regular physical activity, mobility, stretching, doing crossword, Sudoku, reading the newspaper. All those things keep your brain active and growing, and that’s going to slow dementia.”

However, with age also comes conditions like arthritis and back pain that make it hard for the elderly to be mobile.

“If we don’t have physical therapy or home programs in place to keep them active, that’s when they become inactive and they don’t want to go out. It’s a vicious cycle,” Buenconsejo-Lum says.

Once kūpuna become inactive, opportunities for social interaction wane and they become more isolated, which accelerates the decline of brain and physical functioning.

“Making sure we have enough community-based services that keep them engaged, active, healthy and interacting with others and society so their brains and bodies still work well.”

Learn More: In May, HONOLULU Magazine published a report titled “The Native Hawaiian Health Crisis.”

Photos: Kiana Liu, Josiah Patterson & Aaron Yoshino

Nicole Huguenin | U’ilani Kapu | Veronica Mendoza Jachowski and Alejandra Ramirez | Kaimana Brummel | Catherine Ngo | Ann Teranishi | Twinkle Borge | Jill Hoggard Green | Lori Kahikina

Nicole Huguenin: Co-facilitator of Maui Rapid Response

Photo: Kiana Liu

The Maui Rapid Response team is integrated, localized and community-driven – a lot like an ahupua‘a. “What’s cool about Maui Rapid Response is that it’s all run by our neighbors. That’s it. It’s run by aloha,” says Nicole Huguenin, who with her fellow co-facilitators, Kamiki Carter and Kainoa Horcajo, leads the organization.

Professionally, Huguenin is a former teacher and the founder/director of Share Circle, which diverts items away from landfills via upcycling and sharing. She explains that the roots of Maui Rapid Response took hold in 2019, when a collective formed to address the needs of the island’s unsheltered residents. The group further coalesced when helping those affected by the Covid pandemic and two floods in Ha‘ikū.

U‘ilani Kapu: Director, Nā ‘Aikāne o Maui Cultural Center

Photo: Kiana Liu

The historic building on Front Street in Lahaina that housed Nā ‘Aikāne o Maui Cultural Center burned in the Aug. 8 fire, along with the artifacts stored there. But the spirit of the place as a hub for the Native Hawaiian community is still alive.

The couple that runs the organization, U‘ilani and Ke‘eaumoku Kapu, immediately pivoted to help those affected by the wildfires. “Everything happened so fast,” says U‘ilani Kapu.

Activating a network of friends, family and supporters, Nā ‘Aikāne o Maui had a hub set up in Lahaina within two days of the fire, stocked with clothing, drinks, hygiene products, and camping and sleeping gear, much of it delivered by helicopter by companies that donated air services and ground support.

At first, the hub was at the Lahaina post office; as of publication time, it had moved to a drive-up location at the Kā‘anapali Sheraton. It features a huge, tented area with plenty of well-organized supplies – everything from pet food and baby wipes to fresh produce. Some of the volunteers are fire survivors; Kapu says the work is a kind of break from their own troubles, and she encourages them to stop by, either to help out or to just find somebody to talk to.

“We have people that drop in late at night, because I understand, you know, some people come after they work. And we’re here to serve them, no matter what time. As you’re working with people you can feel their spirit, that they are hurting. I like to give bear hugs. That’s one thing I’ve told the team: If you feel somebody needs a hug, give it to them. We’ve let everybody know that we’re here to support you no matter what.”

As for the cultural center? “Oh, we are definitely bringing our hub back,” says Kapu. “We will build again, and as they say, if you build it, they will come.”

–Kathryn Drury Wagner

Veronica Mendoza Jachowski and Alejandra Ramirez: Co-founders and Lead Coordinators of Roots Reborn Lahaina

Photo: Kiana Liu

Veronica Mendoza Jachowski and Alejandra Ramirez are part of Roots Reborn Lahaina, an organization that formed within a week of the wildfires. Made up of immigration lawyers and community organizers, the group also includes co-founders Leslee Matthews, Khara Jabola-Carolus and Kevin Block.

“I’m Latina, I speak Spanish, but our organization also serves Filipinos; we want to serve all immigrant populations, Tongan, Samoan, Marshallese, everyone,” says Mendoza Jachowski.

“Thirty-one percent of Lahaina’s population is foreign-born,” adds Ramirez.

Both are daughters of immigrants from Mexico. Ramirez serves as a UH Maui program outreach associate, assisting the island’s first-generation immigrants and low-income students. Mendoza Jachowski has spent several years working as a pro-bono caseworker for Maui Latinos and has a background in startups.

Immediately after the fires, Mendoza Jachowski says she was visiting a shelter and noticed that immigrants didn’t seem to be around. “I know they’re out there,” she remembers thinking. “The stories I heard from some of the survivors is, ‘Yeah, there’s a group of us at the park or sleeping on the beach.’ ”

She donned her diving suit and hitched a ride on a Jet Ski directly into Lahaina. “I don’t want to sound like this was a savior moment at all, because we were just like, ‘Are you OK? What do you need?’ ”

She helped those who had lost their essential medications, for conditions like asthma and epilepsy. “Everyone was pulling together,” says Mendoza Jachowski. “We had doctors helping. We had people with trucks helping. Because of our bilingualism, we were able to connect people who wouldn’t otherwise say anything to resources that they needed immediately.”

The group is now helping with things like replacing green cards that were lost in the fire, and with online applications. Housing is the No. 1 concern, says Ramirez. “There are places to stay, but for 30 days or a week. It’s like musical chairs, but with houses.”

Add in the challenges of prejudice and racism, and some immigrants’ distrust of government entities, especially if they are undocumented persons, and help can be incredibly hard to access – if it can be accessed at all.

“When people think of immigration [on Maui], they think of the plantation days, when the Portuguese, the Filipinos, the Japanese, came in the ships for the sugar cane fields,” says Ramirez. But that doesn’t take into account modern-day immigration. “People come here in planes, looking to improve their quality of life and that of their kids. They’re taking physically demanding, stressful jobs in restaurants, hotels, landscaping.”

The organization plans to be here for the long haul, Mendoza Jachowski says. “There’s been a big gap in resources. We’re already going to need a lot, but we need those resources to make it to those individuals who are typically cut out because of their status. I just want people to know that we’re here. Immigrants are here and we’ve always been, and we don’t deserve to start from absolutely nothing all over again.”

–Kathryn Drury Wagner

Kaimana Brummel: Director of Advancement at Seabury Hall

Photo: Kiana Liu

With devastating fires in multiple places– Lahaina, Kula, Olinda and Kīhei – and the need for help so overwhelming, it can be tough just knowing where to start. But that’s not the case for Kaimana Brummel. “I know how to help because my parents were helpers,” she says. “I watched them do community work my whole life.”

Brummel’s training and experience in fundraising, donor relations and community programs has led her to working on fire relief with groups such as Maui Rapid Response, Maui United Way and the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.

The response to the fires has been decentralized, she says. “We are building the canoe as we paddle. What I am hearing is this needs to be a community-led rebuilding process. There are funders who want to do that. I see my role as … being a bridge between funders and those who need to be leading that effort.”

“I have always navigated between Hawaiian and Western worlds, if you will, because of my privilege of education and other privileges that I have, but also being raised in a Hawaiian-speaking, Hawaiian-rooted home and being a Native Hawaiian myself,” says Brummel. “There’s not a lot of Hawaiian fundraisers that fundraise from a Native Hawaiian worldview, you know, and this has really brought those two worlds together more than at any other time that I’ve had professionally.”

While trust-based philanthropy has been discussed in charitable circles for about 10 years, Brummel notes that, with the Maui fires, that talk must now be turned into action. (According to the National Philanthropic Trust, “Trust-based philanthropy is a charitable approach that reimagines the relationships between donors, nonprofits and communities to rebalance power and decision making.”)

Says Brummel: “Funders can self-examine what they are expecting to get out of this grant, or that donation. People are like, ‘I want to make sure this really gets to the people.’ I need them to trust that when I look them in the eye and say, it will, that is enough for them to be at peace that the community is going to make sure that happens. Because here’s the thing: We live in this community, we have the responsibility if those people are not taken care of. The stakes are high for us. If we have poor mental health outcomes, if people are not back on their land, that means that our community is falling apart, and at the end of the day, that is all we have, because obviously material things can just disappear in a day. What is left right now is the community. That was built on trust, and relationships and time. That’s what’s left. So, trust us to rebuild that.”

–Kathryn Drury Wagner

Catherine Ngo: Chair of the Board for Central Pacific Financial Corp. and President of CPB Foundation

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

When Catherine Ngo set off for Hawai‘i in 2010 to work at Central Pacific Bank, she intended to only stay a couple of years. However, drawn by Hawai‘i’s people and sense of community, she and her husband quickly decided to stay.

Today, her local service is broad and deep. In addition to leadership roles at CPB, she serves on the board of trustees of The Queen’s Health System and is chair of that board’s Finance Committee. She’s also on the advisory boards of Catholic Charities of Hawai‘i and the Trust for Public Lands, the board of directors of Hawai‘i Gas, and the board of governors of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. And she’s on the Federal Reserve’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council for the 12th District.

Closer to home, she is chair of the board for Central Pacific Financial Corp., the parent of Central Pacific Bank, and is president of the CPB Foundation.

“Our board of directors is the body that guides the strategy for our company, and then also provides the high-level oversight,” Ngo says.

As president of the foundation, she helped launch an accelerator program and network in 2020 for female entrepreneurs in Hawai‘i called WE by Rising Tide.

“I commit a lot of my energy to the program,” Ngo says. “I feel I’m getting back more than I’m giving. I think this program is particularly important because we know small businesses are the engine that drives our state’s economy, and so the more that we can support these women in business the stronger our business community will be.”

Ngo started her career in private law practice focusing on banking and securities law after graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1986. She joined Silicon Valley Bank in 1993 as general counsel and then served as its executive VP until 2005.

She was a founding general partner of Startup Capital Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm established in 2005, with investments in Silicon Valley, Hawai‘i and China. Her focus was software and services companies in China.

John Dean – who had led Silicon Valley Bank when she was there – recruited her to join CPB in 2010, where she started as executive VP and chief administrative officer.

Having strong mentors and a good support system is a way for women in leadership positions to overcome any challenges with insecurity, Ngo says.

“I’ve had some very strong mentors who have provided me the advice and the confidence and the encouragement to take on the larger roles over my career,” she says. “I feel it’s so important for women and also men to provide that kind of encouragement to women, because I think it’s not unusual for women to have some of those insecurities.”

Crystal Rose, who serves on the boards of CPB and its parent company, is part of Ngo’s support system and a strong supporter of the “fabulous job” Ngo did in creating WE by Rising Tide. “It is very successful, both internally as well as what it’s done for our customers externally,” Rose says.

“I believe that we need more women in what I call C-suite positions, especially in our state,” Rose says. Women “bring both a different perspective as well as a different level of energy to these positions, and having been there it’s part of my kuleana to support other women to get to the same place.”

Dean – a longtime Ngo mentor – would ask her: “What is your tummy telling you?”

Ngo says that was his way of telling her to trust her gut.

“Sometimes my insecurities overtook my decision-making process but my gut, my intuition, would tell me that I can do it. Go for it,” she says. “I would say that question that he often asked me was a big influence in a lot of the decisions that I have made over my career.”

–Tori DeJournett

Ann Teranishi: President and CEO of American Savings Bank

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Ann Teranishi has worked in myriad roles during her 16 years at American Savings Bank, culminating in her appointment as company president and CEO in 2021.

“I really had the opportunity to learn the company sort of inside and out, which I think was great preparation for the role,” Teranishi says.

From a young age, her life has taken many turns. She was born on O‘ahu and lived in Mililani for the first few years of her life. Then from age 4 to 7 she lived in San Mateo, California, before moving back to O‘ahu and living in ‘Aiea until she graduated from high school.

Then it was back to California, where she got her bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics at Claremont McKenna College and then a law degree from the University of California Law San Francisco (then known as UC Hastings).

“I started my career as an attorney, and I never imagined a career path bringing me to banking or certainly not the CEO of a bank,” Teranishi says.

She says that serving on the boards of many organizations gave her a chance to give back to the community – and to learn. “I found that those experiences really also helped me develop an understanding of things outside of my work life, but also develop further as a leader.”

In addition to serving as a member of the ASB board of directors, Teranishi serves on the boards of the Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative, Island Insurance, the U.S. Japan Council and Catholic Charities of Hawai‘i.

She also is a trustee for Punahou School, a member of the Hawai‘i Business Roundtable and Hawaii Bankers Association’s Executive Committee, and an executive mentor with the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii’s Young Professionals Mentor Hawaii program.

“I always am very happy to talk to women and men, but of course, women in particular, to encourage them to take on additional challenges to trust in themselves to think that they can really do it,” she says.

Earlier in her career, Teranishi says, a recurring challenge was overcoming the feeling that she didn’t “have all the experience that may seem required” for a role.

But over time, she says, she gained confidence with each new position, all the while making sure she was surrounded by smart and talented colleagues.

While serving in leadership positions, Teranishi says, “There have been times in my career when there haven’t been many women in the room or around the table.”

“But I’ve never felt like I was not welcome or included. As I’ve progressed in my working career, I’ve learned to really show up authentically and have confidence about what value and perspective I contribute, even though it might be a different perspective than a male colleague.”

She says she has been fortunate to have “both men and women really support my personal and professional development.”

Scott Seu, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries, the parent company of ASB, says he “really enjoys working with Ann; it’s truly a joy.”

When describing Teranishi, Seu uses the words “brain, heart and collaborator.”

“Being so much around Ann and other female leaders, I think it’s really impressed upon me that they bring such an important voice that needs to be part of that conversation to help bring that balance and perspective,” Seu says.

Teranishi recalls the best advice she ever received was from her father: “Don’t ask others to do what you are not willing to do yourself.”

–Tori DeJournett

Twinkle Borge: Leader of the Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae Houseless Village

Photo: Josiah Patterson

Shaded by kiawe trees next to the Wai‘anae Boat Harbor is Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae, an encampment of more than 200 houseless people and 160 animals. They reject the “homeless” label for they call this place home – “houseless” is how they describe their living situation.

Twinkle Borge, 53, is their beloved matriarch. Here, her tough yet compassionate nature has earned her the affectionate nickname “Mama.” As we sit and talk at one of the camp’s green picnic tables, a dozen or so people stop by to say, “Hi Mama,” and kiss her on the cheek.

“Even those that are older than me say, ‘Hi Mama,’ which cracks me up. But I love that they gave me that title and that respect.”

Borge has been at Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae since the beginning in 2006, when just seven people were camped there.

“Pu‘uhonua is a place of refuge, a place of solace,” says Borge. “I look at it as a place of healing because a lot of these guys came from trauma; they still in trauma.”

Herself included.

“I was that abused child,” she says. “Every day I was told and reminded of all my faults. I wore sweatpants more than shorts just to hide the bruises. But I still always knew how to love and forgive others.”

Borge became pregnant with twins early in adulthood but miscarried. “I believe I lost my twins from stress, because I couldn’t believe what was coming out of my dad’s mouth.”

She went on to have a son and hold a steady job and her life got better. But past trauma haunted her and a troubled romance with a drug addict brought her down.

“This person I’ve been with for many years, I never thought would fool around behind my back.” She was devastated after discovering her partner’s infidelity but could not bring herself to end the relationship.

“I couldn’t go back to work because I was too worried about who she with, or where she at,” recalls Borge. Her savings dissipated and she could no longer afford rent. The couple eventually became houseless and used meth together.

“When I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I started getting myself sober. It’s going on almost 17 years I’ve been clean. And I did it here. Never went into a program.”

Borge estimates about a quarter of Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae’s residents are recovering from drug addiction. She took it upon herself to create a better environment for houseless people by establishing an encampment with structure, amenities and a strong support system of people who ask, “How can we help? What can we do?”

She named it Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae, Hawaiian for “Refuge of Wai‘anae.”

Hawaiians’ High Rates of Homelessness

In 2022, Hawai‘i had the fourth-highest rate of homelessness per capita in the U.S., according to the latest UHERO housing report. “Nationwide, for every 10,000 residents, about 18 were experiencing homelessness. In Hawai‘i, the rate is 41, more than twice the national rate,” the report says.

Homelessness disproportionately affects Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. According to the State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition, a survey conducted by The National Alliance to End Homelessness, most groups of color have higher rates of homelessness than white people. “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders particularly stand out as having the highest rates, with 121 out of every 10,000 people experiencing homelessness” – 11 times the rate for white people.

O‘ahu’s Wai‘anae Coast has the highest concentration of Hawaiians in the world. Based on the 2020 census, 59% of its 50,000 residents identify as Native Hawaiian and Borge says about two-thirds of Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae’s residents are Hawaiian, including herself.

Another villager, a 33-year-old Hawaiian man named Ona, says he became homeless at the age of 12.

“After my mother and father broke up, my brother and I were always all on our own. We grew up poor. And so we left on our own to not be a burden.”

When Ona met Borge a few years later, she insisted that he and his brother come live at the village with her.

“You belong with family, regardless of how we live,” Borge told him. “It took me a week or two to convince him and braddah to come home to me. That way I can help them. I eat, you eat. I shower, you shower. You sick? Let me know how I can help.”

Lynette Cruz, who has been an anthropology professor with a focus in Native Hawaiian studies at Hawai‘i Pacific University and Leeward Community College Wai‘anae, says the crisis in Hawaiian homelessness cannot simply be explained by the state’s high cost of living.

“There’s a reason why we’re living on the beach houseless, why we’re sick, why we’re overrepresented in prison, why we have elevated mortality and morbidity rates,” says Cruz.

“People can’t explain it away with some racist kind of theory that says, ‘There’s something wrong with us.’ You have to look at history.”

That history is centered on the Hawaiian Kingdom’s overthrow in 1893, as well as what took place before and after. “What happened to Hawaiians is not new. It happened everywhere” with the arrival of outside people driven by something other than the indigenous people’s community values.

Cruz says many of Hawai‘i’s residents have difficulty relating to houseless people, and that breeds misunderstanding and prejudice.

“Yeah, it’s hard to relate. Sometimes we get angry at people because we feel like they’re just not doing their best to get out of a really bad situation. But we know nothing. We can’t make any assumptions.”

Life at the Village

Borge has invited many people to live at the encampment, where she says they’re safer from theft and somewhat protected from sweeps, and where residents take care of one another. An invitation is not necessary: Anyone who shows up is welcome if they follow the rules.

“You need help? You hungry? You need something? Don’t hesitate. I said even your neighbors will help you. We’re not just a community of houseless people; we one diverse community here and I love the fact that everybody shares in this village. No one goes hungry.”

The village has a pantry and a donation tent, which are regularly stocked with donated food, toiletries, kitchenware, clothes, shoes, books and more.

All donated items are free, but residents are only allowed to shop there once a week and outside community members once a month. People who steal or try to sell donated items for money are banned from the pantry and donation tent.

And it’s not just stealing within the camp that’s forbidden.

“If I find out someone from our village stole from the outside community, they’ll get it from me! I’ll make them go back to the store and meet me in a parking lot. And then I will go in to see the owners and ask them, ‘I reckon that’s your stuff in this trash bag?’ They’s like, ‘Yup.’ I tell ’em we have workers outside that will donate three hours to you for what he did.”

Other rules include respecting quiet hours, no drug use or guns on communal grounds, as well as mandatory community service work every month.

Rule-breakers are kicked out of the camp, but Borge believes in second, third and even fourth chances. “Regardless of what we go through, people deserve chances,” she says.

Not everyone at the camp is so forgiving, though. “Sometimes my guys get irritated with me, but I remind them they got to remember where they came from.”

The village’s successes are a reflection of Borge’s leadership. “She’s trying to learn how to do something that’s not been done,” says Cruz. “I think people trust her because she’s consistent. She also doesn’t take shit, which is why we really like her.”

A Dream Coming True

Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae’s residents now live in a village of makeshift shelters, but they are building a “forever home” – communal housing on land they own in Wai‘anae Valley.

She recruited the help of local leaders, including James Pakele, president of Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae’s’s nonprofit, Dynamic Community Solutions, and Cathy Kawano-Ching, a founding member of Hui Aloha, a volunteer network that advocates for Hawai‘i’s homeless population and finds permanent housing.

First Hawaiian Bank Foundation last year announced a $250,000 donation to Pu‘uhonua O Wai‘anae. Dynamic Community Solutions’ GoFundMe page had collected $110,000 in donations as of Sept. 1. So far, donations have been used to buy 19½ acres in Wai‘anae Valley and materials for the homes being built.

“I feel so bad because they’re building my house first,” Borge says. “My thing is go take care of the people before take care of me. But I had a friend that told me it’s about time somebody took care of you.”

Half of the land will be used for housing that includes communal kitchens, bathrooms and a dining hall, and the other half for farming so residents can grow much of their own food.

“We already started planting banana, avocado, ‘ulu and kukui nut trees. I also got Okinawan potatoes growing. The oranges are doing beautiful. I want to start a patch of my own lo‘i too.”

Residents will pay $200 a month in rent when they move in.

She Shows “Which Way to Go”

I ask Borge about “Twinkle,” her unusual first name. “That’s not one nickname, that’s my real name,” she replies.

“My sister actually named me when I was born. She has a jewelry box that still to this day plays the song ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ So that’s what I was named after, her jewelry box.

“Wasn’t easy growing up with that name,” she adds.

But a closer look at the popular nursery rhyme suggests Twinkle suits her well.

The first verse you’re already familiar with. Here’s how the lesser-known second and third verses go:

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav’ller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

–Ryann Noelani Coules

Jill Hoggard Green: President and CEO of The Queen’s Health System

Photo: courtesy of The Queen’s Health System

Jill Hoggard Green has a special photo in her office: It’s of her mother and aunt, both nurses and both wearing their uniforms and badges.

“My mother taught me about care and compassion and the importance of health,” says Hoggard Green, who grew up in Utah.

She considered a law career but was increasingly drawn to health care and received a bachelor’s degree in registered nursing, then a master’s and a doctorate in health care leadership and quality.

After leadership roles in health systems in Oregon and North Carolina, where she was named a Top 25 COO by Modern Healthcare, she was drawn to The Queen’s Health System because of its mission.

“Queen’s is addressing health inequities, working to improve the well-being of the community,” she says. “Hawai‘i ranks as the healthiest state, and ranks highly for affordability for health care, but what’s not in those listings is the issue with disparities.”

Hoggard Green joined Queen’s as president and CEO in October 2019, just before Covid hit. As a result, “She had to build relationships and trust virtually, and bring the board and the team together during one of the most critical times in the organization’s history,” says Jenai Wall, chair of the board of trustees of The Queen’s Health System, and chairman and CEO of Foodland Super Market.

During the pandemic, Wall says: “Most organizations were focused on the day to day. Queen’s was focused on that, and on patient and staff safety, but also, we were thinking about how we could serve the community better, and I think that was due to her leadership.”

Hoggard Green helped create a strategic plan with an ambitious goal: to reduce the gap in life expectancy that exists between Native Hawaiians and other ethnic groups in Hawai‘i within the next 10 years.

“People think you can’t do that, but we are moving forward,” says Hoggard Green. “We have six major strategies, and it’s going well. There are lots of headwinds, but it’s rewarding. And I get to work with such great people who want to create a better future.”

Her vision includes developing a recently purchased 31-acre parcel at Honokōhau Nui in Kailua-Kona for ambulatory care. Queen’s is also investing in expanding its nursing team. “We have a 15% net increase in the number of nurses since 2019 to today, and we’ll keep on going,” she says.

Hoggard Green is the mother of two adult sons; she and her husband, a retired nurse, have been married for 43 years. She balances her 11- and 12-hour workdays with a lot of exercise, she says.

The way Hoggard Green works with her executive team is impressive, Wall says. “She values her people, listens to their opinions, gives them the leeway to get things done, and she supports them.”

Says Hoggard Green: “Early in your career you think you have to be in charge and you’re looking to achieve outcomes in a certain way. But I’ve found one of my strengths is leading with service. You have to listen carefully, have compassion, be strategic, to make difficult decisions when you need to.” And knowing “how to build strong teams” is vital, she adds.

“If I bring something to the table, saying, ‘We need to do X,’ we then have a conversation about it. Everybody in the room is participating. There’s that richness of discussion. You bring the wisdom of the team around it and it leads to a much better outcome. It will be developed into something extraordinary.”

–Kathryn Drury Wagner

Lori Kahikina: Executive Director and CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Lori Kahikina is used to being in the public eye. She’d previously been director of Environmental Services with the City and County of Honolulu, where she oversaw trash and recycling services and a $5 billion upgrade of the city and county’s wastewater program.

But that spotlight was nothing like what she’s encountered in her current position, as executive director and CEO of the rail system’s developer, formally called the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

“I can’t go a week without someone stopping me at Costco or at a restaurant,” she says. “The comments have been 100% positive, with people saying, ‘Keep up the good work.’ ”

That response is a testament to Kahikina’s leadership, says Ed Sniffen, director of the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation and a board member for HART.

“She is strong, decisive and action oriented,” he says.

When Kahikina took the reins at HART, says Sniffen, “She didn’t just take what she got and push it along. She took stock of the strengths and weaknesses of the agency. She made sure she had the right people and the right messaging. She made some adjustments to the route, which may have taken longer at the time, but she knew it was going to be a better project in the long term. Her body of work really speaks for itself.”

He adds: “She always mentions the team and congratulates the team for the win. She shows the best of HART and not just the best of Lori. She’s also a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and does a great job of upholding that honor of attending there. She is an inspiration to the next generation.”

Kahikina took the helm of the long-awaited and controversial project in 2021 when it was many billions of dollars over budget and 11 years late.

“When we came in, there was a lot of tension and negativity; people couldn’t stand HART,” she says. “Kamehameha Schools, HECO, city departments, the public, everything HART had touched was a damaged relationship. I had to work hard to repair that.”

There were other challenges. “We came in and found the wheels didn’t fit the track,” she says. “Are you kidding me? How long have you guys known that? I’m inheriting that. The public is hearing that. There are cracks in the supports on the stations. When did you find this out? 2018. Holy moly. So, then it was buckle down, let’s get all the smart people in the room and figure out a solution. That is the part of the job I love. That’s the engineer in me, the problem solving.”

Kahikina grew up in Kailua and was a competitive swimmer. She became interested in engineering around fourth grade, and was inspired by her dad, who would quiz her on math problems while he drove.

“There was always some long equation, but I loved it. The work ethic, that all comes from my dad, and doing what is right, high integrity.” Kahikina earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from UH Mānoa and is a licensed civil engineer. She has three grown sons and a grandson, as well as three dogs and a horse.

HART reached a major milestone in June: It turned over the initial 11 miles of rail and nine rail stations to the City and County of Honolulu, which will handle operation and maintenance. On June 30, “Skyline” opened to the public.

Kahikina has her eyes set on rail segments two and three. In the meantime, she thinks of serving the people of the Leeward Side, and of easing their long commutes into the city. “I hope this becomes another option for transportation, and the premier backbone for a multimodal system.”

–Kathryn Drury Wagner

Photo: David Croxford

Table of Contents

Letter from the Chancellor of UH – West O’ahu

The Workforce: Preparing for Today, and Tomorrow

Connecting Employers to Talent

Building for the Future

Greater Access to Care

Company Profiles

Queen’s Medical Center – West O’ahu

Island Pacific Academy

Hawaii Pacific Health

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Letter from the Chancellor of UH West O‘ahu

The University of Hawai’i-West O’ahu serves as an anchor institution that sparks thoughtful and meaningful change through academic excellence, innovative programs, and place-based instruction to support our west-side region.

Our commitment to workforce development in areas such as health professions, including nursing, early childhood education, and teacher preparation, ensures that the Kapolei and greater communities will be fortified with visionary leaders. Foundational programs such as accounting and behavioral health/psychology, alongside innovative projects in artificial intelligence and digital media, cybersecurity, and cyber operations, tackle the challenges of our 21st century.

Our value proposition places the learner at the center of all our efforts, elevating opportunities for our students to engage with the business community to integrate theory and practice with real-world implications.

We welcome you to learn more about UH West O‘ahu and join us on our journey to elevate our community and those around us!

E mālama pono!

Dr. Maenette K.P. Benham

Chancellor, UH West O‘ahu

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The Workforce: Preparing for Today, and Tomorrow

Creating vital pathways for future teachers and nurses.

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

The University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu (UHWO) is working to address a critical shortage of qualified teachers. It graduated 42 newly minted teachers in Spring 2023, including 32 elementary and 10 middle school/high school teachers—who were promptly hired.

“Our candidates are always sought-after,” says Mary F. Heller, PhD, professor and chair of the school’s Division of Education. Equally important, 85% of UHWO education-program alumni since 2006 are still teaching in Hawai‘i schools. “That is a phenomenal percentage considering the national data on teachers dropping out of the profession after five years,” says Heller. The school’s Ho‘opuliko Kumu Hou Program supports middle and secondary candidates with a teacher preparation program grounded in Hawaiian Culture Based Education (HCBE). Once graduated, UHWO alum build their confidence by meeting with faculty and their peers with a supportive new-teacher hui that meets at least once a semester.

About a third of the education majors are Native Hawaiian or part Native Hawaiian, and many graduates remain in West O‘ahu to teach. “Our students become teachers because they love working with children and young adolescents,” says Heller. “They understand that teaching is the ultimate act of service.”

Students who are being called into another service-oriented profession—nursing—have a new opportunity with the UHWO’s Pre-Nursing Pathway program. It allows students to do their prerequisite coursework at UHWO, then transfer into University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s nursing program to receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, yet all classes are taught at the UHWO location. “The program was designed so students are cohorted in smaller class sizes; wraparound services and extra support are provided all without compromising the rigor of the program,” says Nicole Akana, co-coordinator for the Pre-Nursing Pathway Program. The pilot group started in fall of 2022, with 21 students, and cohort 2 starts in fall 2023 with about 30 students, and the first graduating class is expected in fall 2027. Benefits include savings on tuition and time spent on transportation, as well as an educational model that supports students from Indigenous backgrounds. “Our curriculum includes native values and tradition, such as mele, oli and Hawaiian protocol,” says Akana. “Students participate in several courses that educate and train them with a sense of place and understanding of the ‘āina. … Our goal is to build a sense of pride and stewardship among our students to sustain a long-lasting positive impact on the community.”

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Another new development is opening up routes to education—literally. The Skyline rail’s Hālaulani station is in the parking lot of Leeward Community College, while the Keone‘ae station serves the UHWO campus. It’s a boon for students who want to either transfer in from LCC or take classes concurrently, expanding the course offerings a student can take, and can also help faculty with their transportation needs. The transfer option has been particularly popular with psychology, elementary education, and accounting students.

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Queen’s Medical Center – West O‘ahu

From primary care to emergency care, to a wide range of specialty services, The Queen’s Medical Center – West O‘ahu in ‘Ewa Beach provides families with access to high quality health care conveniently located in their neighborhood. We are firmly committed to ensuring that we are delivering on our commitment of ensuring access to care by honoring the legacy of our founders, Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, by becoming lifetime partners in health for Native Hawaiians and all of the people of Hawai‘i.

Queen’s-West offers an array of services include gastroenterology, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, ear, nose & throat (ENT), adult primary care, sports medicine, rehabilitation, women’s health, cancer care, and much more.

Queen’s also offers other health care options to those living in the ‘Ewa/Kapolei region. At EmPower Health, located at the corner of Kapolei Parkway and Keoneula Boulevard, we focus on a multidisciplinary approach to health care where patients are cared for by their core health care team. With our comprehensive primary care services for whole families, convenient location, on-site parking, as well as the added services of Diagnostic Laboratory Services and Queen’s Island Urgent Care, our patient population has grown in part through word of mouth and trusted communication throughout the community.

The Queen’s Health System is proud to have a dedicated team of caregivers who continue to demonstrate unwavering perseverance, innovation, and aloha on a daily basis as part of our ongoing commitment to delivering high quality compassionate care to all of our patients.

(808) 691-3000

WWW.Queens.Org/WestOahu
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Preparing Students to Navigate in an Uncertain World

Students at Island Pacific Academy. | Photo: courtesy of Island Pacific Academy

Just as the original Hawaiian navigators crossed the ocean to islands they had never before been to, educators are preparing students for an unknown future—for working in careers that may not yet exist.

“Part of our mission is to be navigators of change,” says Gerald Teramae, Head of School at Island Pacific Academy, located in Kapolei. “We’re a college preparatory school, and 100 percent of our students graduate and get into at least one college. That said, we’re looking at a holistic perspective on teaching and learning. We don’t know what issues and challenges may be forthcoming in careers; we know we must prepare students for careers where they will likely change jobs a lot, and for entering professions in a global society.” That’s why IPA hones what Teramae calls “21st century skills.” Academic knowledge is important, he stresses, but so are the school’s core values: human kindness, generosity of spirit, having a growth mindset, a commitment to excellence, and ingenuity.

Teramae also notes that the school is committed to providing opportunities for all families on the West Side, and that many have been able to take advantage of financial aid or financial support.

Next year, Island Pacific Academy will celebrate its 20th anniversary, and many of the early graduates are now entrenched in the workforce—living throughout Hawai‘i, across the U.S., and internationally and able to serve as true networking partners for current students. Additionally, the school is in the process of developing an intern mentorship program specifically for juniors and seniors. “We need to move away from the mindset of ‘high school students cannot do internships; they are too young.’ I think we are behind if we wait,” says Teramae. “Let’s give them the experience while they are in high school, connect them with organizations so they can experience the career or profession first-hand. There are great opportunities on the West Side for internships at both for-profit and nonprofit companies. You don’t have to go into Honolulu to get that experience.”

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Island Pacific Academy

Island Pacific Academy is West O‘ahu’s premier choice for a quality K-12, independent, college and future-focused school. “Our vision is to provide a place where students grow into confident, caring, contributing citizens able to succeed in an ever-changing world,” says Head of School Gerald Teramae. We encourage students to learn through experimentation as they become imaginative, independent, self-directed individuals in a culture where values matter. We nurture curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking so students learn to apply knowledge to real world challenges. We equip students to become Navigators of Change – and go forward with confidence into careers that have yet to be created, using technology that has yet to be invented, solving problems that have yet to be recognized.

(808) 674-3523

WWW.IslandPacificAcademy.Org

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Connecting Employers to Talent

In an incredibly tight labor market, staffing requires more than a want ad.

An employee shortage can bring even the most popular of establishments to its knees—and in some cases, kill off a business entirely. “There is definitely a labor shortage,” says human resources specialist Danielle De Lima, CEO of Superior Staffing and Services.

Photo: Aaron Yoshino; Courtesy of Danielle De Lima

After more than 15 years in staffing, she launched her own Kapolei-based company in January 2022, seeing a need for a staffing agency on the West Side. It’s also a way to serve her community, she says. “I live on Kaupe‘a Hawaiian Homestead and I’m very proud to be Native Hawaiian. I want to encourage people, and especially motivate women to become business owners.”

Recruiters like her, “have a big role to play in this market,” she says. “Recruiting is a skill set and a lot of small businesses miss the mark on this. They think it’s just putting out an ad or hiring friends or family.” With Hawai‘i’s unemployment rate at a mere 3 percent, according to the latest data from the Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), more thoughtful hiring approaches are called for. Says De Lima, “I don’t think the concept of using staffing agencies has really caught on with some sectors. Especially with hospitality and retail businesses, they are used to hiring walk-ins. I wish businesses knew that there’s an HR skill set you need.”

She sees a growing demand for workers on the West Side in nonprofit, health care and hospitality industries. Her advice to those in the hiring seat? “I like to educate clients on a healthy pay range,” De Lima says. “Pay a little more and attract the right people. It’s an upfront cost, but it takes so much effort and money when you have a high turnover. Think about how many more sales can you make with experienced staff on the line versus training someone and having to do a three- to six-month ramp up. People forget to do the math to calculate the loss when you have high turnover.”

She also sees an opportunity to better connect job seekers with employers on the West Side. “There are a lot of readiness programs for industries for people to develop skills or certifications,” she says. But, “I think the gap is placing them into the field. We’re equipping people but the bridge to employment isn’t always there. You have to know who needs these workers and come up with a pipeline that is a feeder,” she suggests, adding this is “an opportunity to fix a lack of relationships.” She also sees room for workshops on interviewing skills, communication skills, and creating résumés (writing those correctly is especially important in the era of AI screening of applicants). “I want people to be successful in finding jobs,” she says. “I try to prepare them during the screening process about how to be authentic to who they are and what they can bring to the table.”

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Building for the Future

Steady construction means the workforce needs to be built up, too.

Photo: Getty Images

Construction in West O‘ahu continues briskly, says Keoki Fo, general manager for Island Ready Mix Concrete, Inc., a locally owned and operated concrete company based in Kapolei.

Higher interest rates, permitting issues and inflation have impacted projects, and in some cases halted them entirely. But plenty of others, such as Ho‘opili, move forward. “There’s a lot of infrastructure work going on there,” says Fo of the planned 11,750-home community in Kapolei and ‘Ewa Beach. That includes work for the new East Kapolei High School, being planned to address the area’s fast-growing population. “There are also a lot of commercial and industrial warehouses and spaces coming up in Campbell Industrial Park and the harbor,” reports Fo.

Island Ready Mix Concrete has resumed using CarbonCure technology, which injects captured carbon dioxide into fresh concrete, where it becomes permanently embedded. It helps reduce the carbon footprint of construction, and also makes the concrete slightly stronger. “We’re now putting that technology into 100% of our projects,” says Fo.

As is the case in many industries, Fo says finding workers remains a challenge. “Most of my employees are mixer drivers, and it’s hard to find drivers. Everyone is looking for drivers,” he says. “I wish there were more programs on the West Side that could inform people that it’s not just driving a truck; it’s a career. We want to work with universities and high schools, to let young people know about the job opportunities in concrete, with steady work, good pay and benefits.” The work, he says, would also appeal to someone who wants to be outdoors and doing different things all the time. “It’s an adventure every day, a new job site, different kinds of concrete,” he says. “It’s satisfying as they are also able to look back and see something that has been completed and know they helped build something.”

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Greater Access to Care

Creating a centralized location for care and offering state-of-the-art techniques brings better results to cancer patients.

Paula Lee, MD, Gynecologic Oncologist and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Hawai‘i John A. Burns School of Medicine | Photo: courtesy of Hawai’i Pacific Health

“There’s a big push in population health to bring the health care to the communities instead of expecting them to come to us,” says Paula Lee, MD. Lee is a gynecologic oncologist and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Hawai‘i John A. Burns School of Medicine.

“Having the presence here and having the foresight to open on the West Side is really a testament of what Hawai‘i Pacific Health is trying to achieve,” says Lee. HPH’s Dr. James T. Kakuda Cancer Center at Pali Momi Medical Center serves patients in Central and West O‘ahu areas in one, centralized location. Having this type of integrated care means cancer patients do not need to drive into downtown or make stops at multiple facilities for things like infusions, radiation, or blood draws. “Having a new diagnosis of cancer can be overwhelming to the patient and also to their family,” says Lee. Many female cancer patients are their family’s primary caregivers, which can make time-consuming weekly treatments such as chemotherapy especially challenging. “Cancer usually requires multimodal therapy, with different physicians in different specialties. Having everything in one place helps with patients’ ability to carry through with the treatments, to be compliant, to handle the therapies. We also offer telehealth where appropriate to try to fit [care] into their schedules.”

Some of the cutting-edge cancer treatments HPH offers, Lee says, include robotic advanced laparoscopic surgeries for cancer and for other surgeries such as treating endometriosis. Lee notes, “These aren’t offered in many places.” She also cites new techniques such as sentinel lymph node mapping, “which we are incorporating in treating three gynecological cancers, including endometrial, vulvar, and cervical cancers.” It takes certain training and a comfort level for physicians to use this method, she says, “so even in the continental U.S., not everyone offers that.”

Her advice to women when it comes to their health? When it comes to both routine screening appointments and anytime changes in the body are noticed, don’t wait. “Get an evaluation,” urges Lee. “You have to care for yourself before you can care for others.”

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 Pali Momi Medical Center and Straub Medical Center

Pali Momi Medical Center was founded by a physician, Dr. Joe Nishimoto, to serve the families of Central and West O‘ahu. More than 30 years later, the focus remains the same; to provide patients high-quality care close to home.

Pali Momi’s standard of care is nationally recognized. The medical center has earned Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience award for the past five years, which places it among the top 15% of hospitals nationwide.

Pali Momi is home to Central and West O‘ahu’s only interventional cardiac catheterization unit, which helps detect and treat heart disease, a comprehensive women’s center and one of the largest centers for cancer care in Hawai‘i. A new pulmonology clinic now provides screening and minimally invasive treatment for lung cancer.

Straub Medical Center was also founded by a physician, Dr. George Straub, as a place where families could receive all the care they needed in one space. Now, more than a century later, Straub neighborhood clinics make seeking high-quality care even more convenient for families in Central and West O‘ahu.

Straub’s Kapolei Clinic and Urgent Care is open until 8 p.m. daily, so patients can see a doctor after work. Specialty services include women’s health as well as cardiology, sports medicine and orthopedics for both adults and children.

Hawai‘i Pacific Health has committed to making health care easily accessible in Central and West O‘ahu, with more than 13 new centers and clinics connected to Pali Momi and Straub all dedicated to their mission, to create a healthier Hawai‘i.
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In West O‘ahu, increasing access to high-quality health care and addressing health inequities are the goals.

The Queen’s Medical Center-West O‘ahu, has expanded access to care in several areas, including Women’s Health services.

“Earlier this year, we installed a second 3D tomosynthesis mammography unit used in breast cancer screenings,” says Robin Kalohelani, RN, MSN/ Ed, CCM, vice president of operations at The Queen’s Medical Center-West O‘ahu and associate chief nursing officer. “This form of technology combines multiple x-rays, generating a three-dimensional image of the breast. This addition helps increase access and availability to this important imaging test.”

Photo: courtesy of Queen’s Health System

In addition, Queen’s Medical Center-West O‘ahu opened a new radiation therapy department and expanded its cancer clinic and chemotherapy infusion center to become one, comprehensive cancer center. In October, Queen’s Medical Center-West O‘ahu also is expecting to have in place a second 128-slice CT scanner. “This state-of-the-art piece of equipment will be able to offer cardiac-computed tomography scans that can reveal issues with a heart’s structure, valves, arteries and aorta,” explains Kalohelani. It will enhance the availability of biopsies and other CT-guided special procedures, she says. In addition to the hospital at Queen’s-West, Kalohelani notes that the 2020 opening of EmPower Health in the ‘Ewa-Kapolei region “is a testament to ensuring that we are delivering on our commitment of expanding care.” EmPower Health focuses on a multidisciplinary approach, with patients being cared for by a core health care team (including physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, and medical assistants) as well as receiving support services like physical therapy, dietitians, pharmacists, behavioral health specialists, care coordinators, social workers and patient educators. The Queen’s Island Urgent Care and Diagnostic Laboratory Services are also located in the same building. The goal is to empower patients by addressing prevention as well as active health-care needs.

“We know there is a high demand for health care services in West O‘ahu,” says Kalohelani. “That’s why we are committed to investing and being a part of the community with a focus on ensuring access to care for everyone.”

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Sherman Maka is part of the destination management team at Hā‘ena State Park. He helps educate visitors about the park’s history and how to be safe and respectful. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

At 8:40 a.m., Sherman Maka, a resident of Kaua‘i’s northern moku of Halele‘a, greets 30 shuttle riders disembarking at Hā‘ena State Park.

The visitors, most dressed in hiking attire, take in views of vibrant lo‘i kalo that lead to some of the most popular beaches and trails on the island.

Maka speaks passionately to the group, even about mundane matters like the shuttle schedule. He tells them that lifeguards are on duty and to make sure they have enough water, and the times they must leave certain trail locations to make the last shuttle at 6:40 p.m.

The 62-year-old Native Hawaiian grew up living off the land and fondly recalls the days before the North Shore became a destination for tourists, multimillion-dollar properties and vacation rentals. As a young man, he never thought he’d be educating visitors on proper behaviors, but a 43-year hospitality career changed that notion.

“To encourage and educate the visitor industry on everything Hawaiian as much as we can; mālama the ‘āina; mālama the kahakai, from mountain to the sea, take care of it; respect the land: It has been fulfilling,” he says.

His role is part of a new destination management system that’s being touted as a successful community-led solution to overtourism. The 65-acre state park is the first to set a daily visitor cap, and nonresidents must make reservations and pay for entry. They also have to pay to park their own car or to ride the affiliated North Shore Shuttle from Waipā. There’s also increased law enforcement to deter illegal parking. Signs, shuttle messaging and Maka’s talks educate visitors about the area.

Those who created it say the Hā‘ena system has resulted in a more equitable relationship between tourism and the local community. Two nonprofits, Hui Maka‘āinana o Makana and the Hanalei Initiative, manage the park. Their efforts have helped Native Hawaiian lineal descendants like Maka to be part of the overtourism solution and encouraged locals to return to the park.

Joel Guy, who grew up in Hā‘ena and is the executive director of the Hanalei Initiative, says the new system has encouraged locals to visit after decades of being pushed out. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

“You just become overwhelmed with gratitude,” says Joel Guy, who grew up in Hā‘ena and is the executive director of the Hanalei Initiative. “You’re part of a process that says early on, there were way too many people, we weren’t even going there anymore. And now people go back to Kē‘ē (Beach) who hadn’t been there in decades.”

Lessons learned from this system are being shared with hot-spot communities around the state. It’s all part of Hawai‘i’s transition to a regenerative tourism model that aims to contribute to the Islands’ cultural, natural and community well-being and repair the harm done by tens of millions of visitors over the years.

Increasing Visitors

Discussions and concerns about overtourism in Hawai‘i are not new, says Frank Haas, president of Marketing Management, a hospitality-focused consultancy. He says plans in the 1970s, when tourism became the state’s primary industry, addressed the need to manage growing visitor arrivals, which by decade’s end had reached nearly 4 million visitors a year.

“It’s just that there was never an urgency to it until we got so big and conditions changed so that people were really feeling that,” he says. Haas was the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s VP for tourism marketing in the early 2000s and a consultant for HTA’s current strategic plan.

Those changed conditions included increased resident frustration with the local tourism industry, which accounted for a record 10.4 million visitors in 2019. More and more tourists were venturing out of resort areas in search of new and at times dangerous adventures, and residential neighborhoods were facing an explosion of unregulated vacation rentals.

Over the years, Hawai‘i has strived for a visitor industry that’s environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive, and one that mitigates the impacts of millions of visitors – so-called “sustainable tourism.” But since 2020, momentum has increased for a tourism model that’s regenerative, rather than just sustainable. To reflect that change, HTA’s 2020-2025 strategic plan largely focuses on destination management, and its marketing efforts target high-spending, low-impact visitors.

“For me, when we think about tourism, it should be done in a way that allows our future generations to call Hawai‘i home for a long, long time,” says Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, chief brand officer at HTA. And that home, he says, should be in better condition than it is today. “It’s not just about preserving what is left, it’s about remediating, re-enhancing, regenerating what was partially lost or impacted.”

In 2021, HTA underwent a reorganization to emphasize that new direction and launched its Mālama Hawai‘i program to target mindful travelers. HTA videos encourage visitors to give back to the destination and direct them to the Mālama Hawai‘i website, where 50 partner hotels offer incentives to guests to volunteer with local nonprofits.

The shift to regenerative tourism also gives residents a greater say in how tourism is rebuilt and redefined. During the pandemic, HTA worked with community members, business owners, farmers, hotel executives and cultural practitioners to create destination management action plans for each island.

“The DMAPs are a framework for us to be able to engage communities, have a dialogue, really listen, get out there in person and see what communities are asking for, and then partnering with them to find solutions on some of the hot spots that exist,” Ka‘anā‘anā says, “and also finding other ways to empower them to tell their story.”

The three-year plans stretch into 2025 and emphasize visitor education, community-led management solutions, increased local food and product purchases, and investments in programs to support the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture. The plans also rely on the collaboration of government agencies and private and community organizations.

Some state lawmakers have long criticized HTA’s management of tourism and some even tried during the 2023 legislative session to replace the agency with a new tourism management entity. One challenge, according to Haas, is that HTA doesn’t have the statutory authority to enforce collaboration. He and others have argued that what is needed is a management approach based on policies that assign well-defined roles and functions to various government agencies.

“Tourism is unique in how complicated it is. It affects the community, it affects the economy, it affects natural resources, it intrudes on neighborhoods,” he says. “So you have to find some model where you can cut across all the silos to manage it properly.” One example of that model is at Hā‘ena State Park.

Empowered Community

Chipper Wichman and Presley Wann of Hui Maka‘āinana o Makana sit comfortably under a pop-up canopy surrounded by 5 acres of restored lo‘i kalo in Hā‘ena State Park. They say the area was the breadbasket of the surrounding Hawaiian community for 800 or more years. It was eventually turned into a state park, but with no management, invasive trees and plants overwhelmed the traditional landscape.

As the land deteriorated, many Native Hawaiian families lost their connection to Hā‘ena. So, in the mid-’90s, Wichman, Wann and other founding members of the nonprofit started considering how they could once again care for the land.

Photo: Aaron Yoshino

“The Hui Maka‘āinana o Makana, we’re all lineal descendants of this place, so it seems so natural to want to take care of it,” Wann says.

Under a curatorship agreement with the State Parks Division, the hui cleared and cleaned the area, mostly by hand. They ripped out invasive trees, unearthed ancient stone walls and restored the traditional waterway. Along the way, they cultivated kalo for the community and created educational programs to reconnect the next generation.

The hui’s long-term goal was to manage the park. They spent decades helping the State Parks Division create a master plan for facilities and infrastructure improvements and crowd control.

That master plan’s implementation was fast-tracked after a record-breaking storm in 2018. “The flood created the opportunity to not have to scale back from 3,000 people a day but to scale up from zero,” Wichman says.

The hui began managing the park under a revocable permit in 2021. While it focused on its farm and cultural restoration work, oversight of the management system was subcontracted out to the Hanalei Initiative, which had launched its North Shore Shuttle in 2019 to reduce the number of cars on Kūhiō Highway.

The two nonprofits share the park’s parking and shuttle revenues to support operational costs and park maintenance. Two of the hui’s next big projects are to build a restroom at the eastern end of the parking lot and restore the sand dunes that contain ancient burials. Wann says the revenue also supports the hui’s youth education programs, which reach about 1,200 keiki a year.

Meanwhile, the Hanalei Initiative has used its revenue to host an engineering class and to support community organizations with micro grants.

Together, the hui and Hanalei Initiative created 35 jobs for parking attendants, laborers, shuttle drivers, administrators and cultural practitioners. Twenty-one of those positions are filled by North Shore residents. And some are held by lineal descendants of Hā‘ena.

“Regenerative tourism in my mind is where tourism leaves a community and a resource better than you found it,” Wichman says. “It’s regenerating. That’s what this is doing here – those community jobs, the ‘āina right here, this ‘āina kūpuna that our ancestors farmed and lived off of in harmony with for hundreds and hundreds of years – it’s better today because of this model.”

He adds that he’s proud Hā‘ena can be a road map for other communities.

“Across the pae ‘āina, across the state, now we’re all looking at this concept of scaling back and creating an equitable balance, and this term regenerative tourism is now kind of becoming a buzzword,” he says.

Other Community Hot Spots

Earlier this summer, the key players involved in creating the Hā‘ena management system released a 60-page handbook on how to replicate their model. What’s been crucial, they say, is that communities build trust and mutual respect with other organizations and government agencies.

Alan Carpenter, assistant administrator of the State Parks Division, says his relationship with Hui Maka‘āinana o Makana began about 30 years ago when he was a DLNR archaeologist documenting Hā‘ena’s historical and cultural resources. And Wichman says the hui’s curatorship work showed the state that the group was committed to its love of place and community.

Strong working relationships were also built among community members, government and visitor industry leaders to help implement the Hā‘ena master plan.

Hā‘ena State Park used to see up to 3,000 visitors a day; today, it has a daily visitor cap of 900.  | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Rep. Nadine Nakamura, who represents Kaua‘i’s North Shore, facilitated over 200 hours of meetings that led to the creation of new laws to help deter illegal parking on Kūhiō Highway and gave DLNR flexibility in setting parking and entry fees. Another new law signed this summer allows the state parks to enter into long-term contracts with community nonprofits to operate parking lots and concessions.

“That’s a huge shift, right, because people want to take part in managing their own parks, their own communities,” Carpenter says, adding that the new laws pave the way for other communities to follow Hā‘ena’s lead.

He says Kealakekua on Hawai‘i Island and Wai‘ānapanapa on Maui are looking at Hā‘ena’s example. And Wichman says lessons learned are being shared through the Hawai‘i Conservation Alliance’s Ahupua‘a Accelerator Initiative, which brings together six ahupua‘a focused on restoration efforts. The hope is that the work at Hā‘ena will compress the timeline for other communities seeking change.

And community-based efforts are happening outside of state parks too. For instance, HTA initiated a pilot program for four part-time community stewards in Pololū Valley, a visitor hot spot near Hawai‘i Island’s northern tip. Those stewards inform visitors about the valley’s importance and dangers. The program is now managed by the state DLNR.

HTA and Hawai‘i County also funded four community stewards in July at Waiuli and Lehia beach parks under the Keaukaha Steward Pilot Program, and the agency is working on another community-based program in East Maui.

HTA’s board of directors also voted at the end of July to approve the creation of a Destination Stewardship Branch, further increasing the organization’s focus on tourism management. Ka‘anā‘anā will lead the new branch as chief destination stewardship officer.

Regenerative Experiences

The sound of squelching mud repeats with each footstep as I move closer to a 10-by-12-foot lo‘i kalo in Uhau‘iole Valley, in the eastern interior of Kaua‘i. Noa Mau-Espirito and two other farmers have been cultivating kalo here for their families and community.

The farm is about a five-minute walk from a parking lot for three state-managed trails, so Mau-Espirito says he’ll occasionally invite inquisitive visitors to help in the lo‘i. In the process, they’ll get a lesson about Hawaiian history and traditional farming practices. Mau-Espirito’s work is part of a visitor engagement program being created by the Hanalei River Heritage Foundation.

Kamealoha Hanohano Pa-Smith, the foundation’s program administrator, watches as Mau-Espirito pulls weeds. “These are appropriate actions for visitors to be involved in,” he says. “We want them to know the journey behind what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.” As we talk under the shade of a banana tree, Pa-Smith points out that the breeze blowing from the northeast is called moa‘e lehua.

From left, Kamealoha Hanohano Pa-Smith, Noa MauEspirito and his daughter. Mau-Espirito grows kalo in Uhau‘iole Valley, while PaSmith works at a nonprofit that encourages tourists to work on that farm. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

The nonprofit’s work is supported by the Hō‘ihi Grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The program gave nearly $1 million to seven Native Hawaiian organizations in fiscal year 2022. And it acknowledges that tourism has long been an extractive and transactional experience for Native Hawaiians.

Ka‘aleleo Wong, Hō‘ihi Grant manager with the Interior Department’s Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, says the grant is meant to encourage a mindful tourism model that accurately showcases Hawaiian culture and traditions.

“We are out here to show that there’s a way to solve these issues by practice,” PaSmith says. “In Hawaiian we say ma ka hana ka ‘ike – you can learn and you can gain knowledge by doing. So that’s where my heart is.”

And while visitors get to engage in meaningful experiences, the grant also benefits locals and Native Hawaiians, says Lia Sheehan, a foundation board member.

“We’re giving purpose to our folks on the island who can be growing their own food and telling their own stories and just validating their own life and livelihood and existence,” she says. She and Pa-Smith agree that Kaua‘i’s other popular destinations are ripe, as well, for community-hosted interpretative visitor education programs.

Over the summer, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement began work on its $27.1 million contract with the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority to provide stewardship services. Kūhiō Lewis, the nonprofit’s CEO, says the contract is an opportunity for Native Hawaiians to be seen as leaders.

Between 2015 and 2019, nearly 49,000 Native Hawaiians worked in tourism, according to a 2021 report by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. That’s about 20% of all tourism workers.

“We are tourism, we are the culture,” he says. “We are the backbone of the industry and I think our value in the industry hasn’t necessarily been up to par with what we bring to the table. With a Native Hawaiian organization now being at the forefront, there’s a lot more people coming forward because they’re starting to see that opportunity.”

Building Capacity

As Hawai‘i continues its shift to regenerative tourism, the Hanalei River Heritage Foundation and other organizations recognize that better bridges need to be built to connect tourism and community groups.

“I think the trick is going to be we still have to build the system where the people of the place are able to truly be the hosts,” Sheehan says.

Pa-Smith adds that he’s been proactive in talking with tourism organizations about how his nonprofit can work with them, and cited efforts by other groups to do the same, on a larger scale.

Pa-Smith leads the way into Uhau‘iole Valley, where tourists are encouraged to work in lo‘i. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

The Hanalei River Heritage Foundation was one of 29 community groups that participated in the 2021 Kaiāulu Ho‘okipa Impact Studio Cohort put on by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association and travel2change, a Hawai‘i nonprofit that connects visitors to volunteer experiences.

Cohort members learned about good business practices and how to accurately present Hawaiian culture while developing their regenerative experiences. They also received mentorship for three months after six-week training.

“We believe in the potential of our community leaders who are already doing the work to be able to come up with the solutions, and just because they’re not always super mainstream doesn’t disqualify them from having the answers,” says Mondy Jamshidi-Kent, who was travel2change’s executive director until March 2023. She is now principal of Naupaka Pacific, a consultancy that helps nonprofits and social enterprises offer regenerative tourism experiences.

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement already helps businesses and nonprofits build capacity and access financial support through its Pop-Up Mākeke online marketplace, financial counseling, loans and business classes. Now, using its existing tools, it’s pivoting to better help local organizations get involved in tourism, Lewis says.

Sustained By Tourism

Locals’ views of tourism are starting to improve, according to HTA’s latest resident sentiment survey from fall 2022.

About 44% of the 1,950 residents surveyed said that tourism was being better managed on their islands, up 5 percentage points from fall 2021. And 57% of respondents agreed that tourism’s benefits outweighed its problems, up 8 percentage points from a record low the prior year.

However, visitor numbers are almost back to their pre-pandemic peak, with arrivals each month between January and June this year at least 93% of what they were during the same month in 2019.

“I think we universally agree that 10 million visitors a year is too many, but we also sort of have to agree our economy is dependent on the tax base that’s generated from tourism dollars,” says Tyler Iokepa Gomes, chief administrator of Kilohana, CNHA’s tourism arm.

In 2022, the industry generated $2.24 billion in state tax revenue and supported 197,000 jobs, according to HTA. And in June 2023 alone, nearly 890,000 visitors spent $2 billion – 22.7% more than four years ago.

The key is figuring out how to make sure tourism is contributing more than it’s extracting, Gomes says. Regenerative tourism by itself won’t solve Hawai‘i’s high cost of living issues, but it can help, he says, by creating job diversity and wage and hiring equity for Native Hawaiians, among other things.

“I think if you were to ask me what does the future look like for tourism, it’s one in which our community is being sustained by tourism – where our farmers don’t need to struggle to farm, where our businesses aren’t clinging on to life,” Lewis says. “This is a multibillion-dollar industry and there’s no reason why it can’t regenerate our community and provide for them and their families, their future.”

Back at Hā‘ena State Park, Maka, the Hanalei Initiative employee, is somber. He says Kaua‘i has been flooded with visitors since pandemic-closures lifted. And because the park now requires advanced reservations that quickly sell out, tourists are flocking instead to nearby and sometimes more dangerous beaches.

“In order to save this place, the community has to really come together, the county has to come together or even the state, and slow these people down, really slow them down because there’s just too much people,” he says. “We have to start slowing them down now because we have to save (these places) for when we’re gone.”

Tourism Can Be a Catalyst for Local Agriculture

The 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay, situated on a steep hill, was built to blend into its surroundings. On one roof is an organic chef’s garden; others are lined with thick pili grass to help insulate the rooms below and to reduce stormwater runoff.

Sustainability and regenerative travel are key to the 1 Hotel brand. Alexis Eaton, director of marketing, public relations and programming at the luxury property, says when she first joined the hotel in June 2022, she and other leaders visited nearby farms to see how they could work together. Those visits ended up shaping the property’s culinary and wellness offerings.

“Instead of saying like, oh, we need to source this, we need to source that, we took the approach of what is available here, and then started to build from there,” she says.

About 85% of the ingredients used by 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay’s signature restaurant, 1 Kitchen, are sourced from Hawai‘i. Kaua‘i vendors include Mālama Kaua‘i, Moloa‘a Organica‘a, Aloha Honey Bee Farm, Buena Vista Gardens, Kainoa Fishery and Jerry’s Rice Farm.

Dishes made at 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay with locally grown ingredients.| Photo: courtesy of 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay

“We’re paying significantly more for rice, but we’re able to work with him (Jerry’s Rice Farm),” says Corrine Hanson, who until June was corporate director of sustainability and impact at SH Hotels and Resorts, which operates 1 Hotel. “Maybe he can scale and he can grow. The fact that we have a large enough business to be the catalyst for some of those things really makes me feel like we’re contributing in a way I would hope we could.”

 

Tourists Willing to Pay More

A 2021 study co-authored by UH professor Jerry Agrusa found that U.S. visitors to Hawai‘i are willing to pay more for locally grown food, as well as for experiences that are respectful of Hawaiian culture and sustainable tourism.

Hawai‘i’s tourism industry in 2019 contributed an estimated $98 million in direct visitor spending to Hawai‘i’s agricultural industry, according to a July 2022 DBEDT report. That climbs to $399 million when indirect visitor spending and spending by workers in tourism or other supportive industries are included.

Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, chief brand officer for the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, says that money helps local producers continue growing food for residents, and serves as a baseline for the positive impact that visitors have in diversifying the economy.

Agrusa, who’s conducting a second study on locally grown food, says small farmers can’t consistently meet the volume and quality that local hotels and restaurants need.

One solution to that is to have farmers aggregate their products for large purchasers. In Kahuku on O‘ahu, the 468- acre Kuilima Farm essentially acts as a food hub for its 11 tenant farmers and Pono Pacific, the farm’s manager. It produces about 2,000 pounds of produce a week, about 800 of which are sold to the five restaurants at the 408-room Turtle Bay Resort.

Produce from Mālama Kaua‘i. | Photo: courtesy of 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay

Ramsey Brown, VP of diversified agriculture at Pono Pacific, says the hope is that Kuilima Farm will grow into a true food hub model so its tenant farmers can also collaboratively serve other large purchasers.

Another challenge: Institutions want local food but don’t want to pay premiums for it, so they’ll opt for imported food that’s cheaper, says Pomai Weigert, a board member and trainer with the Hawai‘i Agritourism Association. She’s also an agribusiness consultant with GoFarm Hawai‘i.

“When you even just look at hotel price points in Hawai‘i, hotel room rates, people are spending thousands of dollars a night, but that doesn’t trickle all the way down” to the farmers, she says. “They’re still trying to keep their food costs low.” She says hotel leaders need to prioritize buying more local food, even if it costs more.

In the spring, over 20 hotels, restaurants, schools and nonprofits signed the O‘ahu Good Food Pledge to use more locally sourced food. Ka‘anā‘anā says this is an example of how destination management action plans are guiding HTA’s work to make sure tourism is supporting other industries. “

Tourism also needs to be catalytic – it needs to be something that causes other sectors of our economy to grow,” he says.

 

Combining Tourism and Agriculture

Using locally grown food in hotels and restaurants is just one way the tourism and agricultural industries intersect. Agritourism also includes farm, ranch and nursery tours; agricultural fairs and festivals; farmers markets; and farm-related accommodations.

Weigert says agritourism provides a way for visitors to help farmers grow more food for Hawai‘i’s residents, and that it’s more relevant than ever. She specializes in helping rural communities to create and package authentic visitor experiences that are focused on culture and that give back to local people.

“With agritourism, it’s agriculture first,” she says. “It’s not tourism first. So that’s also the big shift, and that is also why more rural and cultural communities are more open to it.”

A: We have a pilot Parks for People project at Honolulu’s ʻ‘A‘ʻala Park (next to Chinatown), diving deep with the community into their concerns about the park and working with UH’s Community Design Center on concepts to present to the city.

Folks want culturally relevant community events to make the park a more welcoming, safe and vibrant place. So we’ve helped support Chinatown 808’s Lunar New Year festival that closed down Beretania Street to vehicles. We’ve facilitated skateboarding lessons for youth by teachers from APB Skateshop just across the street. We’ve got dog obedience lessons and the Kamehameha Schools Mural Club designed murals installed on utility boxes and bus stops.

Q: What existing programs do you hope to grow?

A: Our Aloha ‘ʻĀina and Sustainable Hawai‘i programs will continue and, hopefully, grow stronger. The Aloha ʻ‘Āina program, now 16 years old, works closely with Native Hawaiian communities to return lands to Native Hawaiian ownership and/or stewardship.

Sustainable Hawai‘i protects farmland and lands that produce our food and fresh drinking water. Food security is very important to us: We’ve adopted the same goal as the state of Hawai‘ʻi, which is to try to double our food production so more dollars stay in Hawai‘i.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing your organization today?

A: It’s always challenging to raise millions of dollars. Land in Hawai‘i is very, very expensive, but luckily people, including elected officials, really care about it, too. So we’re able to raise the money needed to preserve iconic places.

We depend on multiple sources. We go to the state and county and maybe seeking federal or private funding. So we really have to facilitate cross-agency collaboration and make sure we’re all on the same page. It’s also an opportunity to open lines of communication and be transparent to the landowner and community.

Q: This year marks 50 years since the founding of the trust for public land in 1973. How do you see its legacy while moving toward the future?

A: From the get-go, there was a lot of interest in Hawai‘ʻi. It is reflected in the 49, going on 50 projects completed in Hawaiʻ‘i.

Some are iconic, like Waimea Valley, Haleakalā National Park and the National Wildlife Refuge at Kīlauea Point on Kaua‘ʻi.

The impact on the community has been profound. These lands will be around for a long time and undeveloped long after I’m gone. It’s comforting to know that and humbling to be a part of that in some little way.

The Trust for Public Land has a strong think tank that helps public agencies throughout the nation raise money for conservation, which led to the establishment of open space funds that exist at the county level and a state fund that the trust worked on with other organizations.

Since the advent of those public funding programs, over $300 million of local funding has been generated for conservation and the number of projects has accelerated. That is reflective of those 50 years and has an amazing impact.

What Does ALICE Stand For?

In 2018, Aloha United Way introduced a way for us to talk about and measure Hawai‘i’s working poor. ALICE, which stands for asset limited, income constrained and employed, provides a common framework for identifying and quantifying the people in our state who are above the federal poverty line and don’t qualify for many government assistance programs, yet can’t afford basic necessities to remain stable and self-sufficient. In the last five years, we have seen this segment grow from 42% to 44% of the state’s population.

Such alarming statistics continue to drive philanthropic and legislative efforts to help those living paycheck to paycheck. Partnering with the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, AUW funds a cohort of nonprofits dedicated to helping ALICE households achieve economic security. These 17 nonprofit groups focus on a variety of needs, skills and services, including job training, career advancement, financial planning, public benefits programs, affordable housing and civic leadership training. In addition to improving their own situations, cohort members are building pipelines to each other.

“Sometimes when you’re in the work of serving the community, you neglect the mechanisms of your own organization, and miss opportunities to improve those systems. As a collective impact cohort, we look for ways to support and improve the work of individual organizations as well as ways to collaborate, utilizing resources such as information and data more effectively,” says Keoni Kuoha, director of HCF’s House Maui Initiative.

The ultimate purpose of funding a cohort of agencies, as opposed to putting all the eggs in one basket, is to foster a system that can serve the whole person, says AUW President and CEO John Fink. “There’s usually a confluence of events that affect people. If they have housing problems they might have education or training problems or may not understand financing or might have food issues. The more we look at people in a holistic way, the better we can help them get on track.”

But while the concept of ALICE has served as a powerful rallying cry, cohort leaders we interviewed all stress that it’s not enough. The actual people who live with financial insecurity also need to recognize themselves in the definition. They need to know that they have a right to seek help, and that there are services available for people just like them.

“These are families that are contributing to our societies as ministers, pastors, nurses and parents. When they hear about ALICE, they may assume it’s people who aren’t as well off as they are. They may think they aren’t supposed to ask for help. But if 44% of us are in this situation, there should be no shame in saying we need help to make it through,” says Suzanne Skjold, AUW’s COO.

The leaders we spoke with also cautioned against letting names stigmatize or stereotype. This can be especially crucial when it comes to terms like ALICE, which focuses attention on the negative qualities of being limited and constrained.

“There’s a potential byproduct of naming, and that’s this othering,” says Ryan Kusumoto, president and CEO of Parents And Children Together. “It creates a group of people and makes us think that we need to do something for them or to them that will get them to a better place. There are economic challenges, absolutely. But that doesn’t mean their daily lifestyles are wrong. In fact, some of our ALICE families are the strongest cultural keepers of our communities, and we should be learning from them and living their values.”

In this piece, we explore the ways in which ALICE households have partnered with the cohort of nonprofits to become more economically resilient. But in our conversations with leaders as well as the people they serve, one consistent message emerged: The term ALICE, as important as it is for establishing a shared framework, doesn’t capture the complexity and resilience of the people it refers to. As Fink puts it, “ALICE are not just numbers on a page; they are living, breathing souls that represent what Hawai‘i is all about.”

Beyond the literal meaning of the acronym, what does ALICE stand for?

ALICE Stands for People Doing Important Work

Shona-Mae Cobb walks along the streets of O’ahu where homeless people congregate, searching for those who suffer from the most severe forms of mental illness. Her work for The Institute for Human Services often brings her to people like Royce.

“I first started seeing him in Chinatown. He was a skinny meth user, always on the streets, never showered. He had swollen legs, lice on his body and head. He refused our services, but we didn’t give up,” says Cobb. “After several weeks, he finally agreed to go to a clinic, where he could shower, get fresh clothing and be medicated for his illness. When I visited him at a shelter a few weeks later, he was in clean clothes and reading by his bed. It made me so happy. This was someone who’d been homeless for over 15 years.

“I love what I do. This work has given me so much purpose,” she adds.

Cobb herself grew up on the streets with a single mom who used drugs and was in and out of jail. As a parent, she has also gone through phases of living out of a car on the beach with her kids.

Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

“There’s this whole population of children and families that struggle with homelessness that we don’t often hear about,” says Ryan Catalani, executive director of Family Promise of Hawai‘i. “When families are so close to the precipice, any one thing can set them over the edge. It’s better if we can keep them in housing with things like rental assistance so they don’t have to go through the long and traumatic process of trying to regain housing and restart.”

Thanks to organizations including Family Promise of Hawai‘i and Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Cobb now lives in a subsidized apartment for single mothers. But while it’s very affordable by O‘ahu standards, rent nonetheless eats up one full paycheck each month. She worries every day that her car will break down and she won’t be able to afford repairs or a replacement.

Similar to others in the ALICE community, she makes too much money to qualify for SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and because her youngest is 7, he is too old for WIC, the food program that targets women, infants and children. Cobb has high blood pressure, is prone to infections and struggles with anxiety and depression. And while her family is on the Med-QUEST health plan, she admits to holding off on her own care.

“I keep putting it off, and my work day comes and I’m swamped. I’m trying to save personal time for surgery. I figure as long as I can make it through the day, that’s a win for me,” says Cobb.

Hawai‘i Children’s Action Network Executive Director Deborah Zysman says that the people doing some of the most critical work in our communities are ALICE themselves. While there are agencies that provide training to help people transition into higher-paying work, Zysman says it is just as important to make sure people like Cobb can continue the work they are doing and still be economically secure.

“We need people to work in elder care, child care, teaching, retail or, like us, in nonprofits. We have to figure out how people can do full-time work with people with disabilities and be able to pay rent, have some savings and put food on their table. Getting them to move out of these sectors for higher-paying tech jobs in California shouldn’t be the goal. This is about fixing a broken system,” Zysman says.

ALICE Stands for Entrepreneurs

Next to the earrings she sells, Mattie Mae Larson likes to display plastic packaging that would otherwise have gone in the trash, watching people’s eyes go wide when they make the connection. All of her products, which include jewelry, beach totes, bookmarks, keychains, pouches and wallets, are made from plastic material that usually becomes landfill.

“We are all about sustainability and having less waste by taking and processing plastics, including the byproducts of food service,” she says, describing her company, Upcycle Hawai‘i, as being in the business of creating “trashion.”

Growing up on Hawai‘i Island, Larson was surrounded by entrepreneurs. Her father owned his own heavy-equipment business, her uncle was an auto mechanic and many people in her community worked at the farmers market. Even though her family struggled from paycheck to paycheck, she felt confident that her entrepreneurial drive and good credit scores were enough to start a business.

Entrepreneur Mattie Mae Larson struggled to land a traditional business loan. | Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

But then she discovered how banks actually work. “If you go there and ask for a loan without a ton of money and a 10-year history, they don’t care if you have 20 references and a great job history. Meanwhile, my peers and colleagues who came from rich families were given absurd amounts of loans for their businesses,” says Larson.

“I know my parents carry some guilt for the fact that I couldn’t get access to money, which is so ridiculous because they worked so hard their whole lives.”

Ahu Hettema, chef and CEO of Istanbul Hawai‘i, had a similar experience as a struggling entrepreneur.

Her business idea came to her at a particularly difficult time in her life: As an immigrant in Hawai‘i, she wasn’t sure if she could make it here.

Then her mother came for a visit and, to cheer her up, started cooking her favorite childhood dishes.

“Food sparks all your memories and feelings about who you are. It changed something in me. I started cooking, which I enjoy so much. I can’t express it in words, but it started my healing process,” says Hettema.

She and her mother began selling the food of their native country out of a food truck at a farmers market, and after enthusiastic responses from customers, she realized there was an opportunity to open a restaurant. But in order to develop the space she had found in Kaka‘ako, she needed a loan.

“We went to a total of 30 banks in Hawai‘i as well as on the mainland. And not one of them wanted to fund us,” says Hettema.

Entrepreneurs like Larson and Hettema, who have few-to-no resources of their own, are typically rejected for loans because they are considered too high risk and low margin to be viable investments, says Patti Chang, CEO of Feed The Hunger Fund. Recognizing this, Chang saw an opportunity to provide loans as well as technical assistance – including financial literacy, business planning guidance and credit counseling – to low-income entrepreneurs.

“We are the first responder for many of these folks who need loans. They will get rejected from so many other sources. When you look at the high cost of living, some of our folks are very poor and below ALICE, especially farmers,” Chang says.

Larson at Upcycle Hawai‘i, which she launched with a loan from Feed The Hunger Fund | Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

Feed The Hunger Fund focuses on businesses that support healthier food systems within the state. “We look at food enterprises in Hawai‘i, from soil to fork and everything in between,” says Chang. “We do so because food is everything. After finishing a meal, we talk about the next meal. And from a political sense in Hawai‘i, it’s also where immigration, labor laws, climate change and plantation labor all came together. Not to mention that food is so essential to our communities because it’s so cultural.”

Chang believes that supporting entrepreneurship within the ALICE population can create jobs for more people. “We’ve had individuals like a single mom with three kids trying to make kimchi on the side. We are willing to take more risk because when folks are successful, they hire more employees.”

With two loans from Feed The Hunger Fund, Larson was able to sign her first commercial lease, buy equipment and hire three employees. While she still sees herself on the precipice, she is proud that the business makes more money every year and that she has been able to provide one of her employees with full health care.

“They were the first and only ones that took a chance on us. And they didn’t just give us funds, but helped navigate us to make the right decisions and were there whenever we needed help,” says Larson.

Hettema used her loan from the Feed The Hunger Fund for payroll, rent, furniture and food. Today, Istanbul Hawai‘i has 16 employees and is considered one of the hottest restaurants in Honolulu. “Because of that loan, we could open the doors. And when we did, people just kept coming and supporting us. It got my business going. It turned our engine on.”

ALICE Stands for Working Parents

In 2019, Calvin Kā’aiali’i Matthews’ son was born and, shortly after, was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndrome that affected the communication between his brain stem and other parts of his body. This meant, among other things, that Matthews’ son needed to be on a ventilator whenever he slept. With his wife at home caring for their child full-time, Matthews became the sole breadwinner.

Despite having a university degree in business administration and a full-time job as a customer service representative, Matthews didn’t earn enough money for the family to get its own place. Living with his parents, he juggled work and numerous medical appointments for his son, and supported his Japanese wife, who didn’t speak much English and had few friends in Hawai‘i.

“Living paycheck to paycheck can be so scary. If I was on my own and had zero dependents, it would be a different story. But because two people rely on me, there is a lot of pressure to succeed with my career and income. There’s also the added pressure of all these expenses related to making sure my son’s health is going smoothly,” says Matthews.

“We cannot make any mistakes. We need to make sure his appointments are up to date. And when he’s asleep we must make sure he’s connected to a ventilator. There’s so much that goes on mentally in my head all of the time.”

Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

Matthews’ habit of collecting points from different rewards programs eventually led to a solution. Having signed up for a membership card with Goodwill Hawai‘i, he received regular promotional emails and, in one, learned about the organization’s Google IT program that focuses on fundamental technical skills. Accepted in late 2020, he completed the self-paced remote program in half a year.

“I’ve always been interested in IT as a hobby, but this email was a golden opportunity for me to transition away from my current field,” he says.

Goodwill Hawai‘i can also connect people to courses in other areas, including the medical field, massage therapy, child care, food handling, personal training and truck driving, according to Emily Lau, vice president of mission services. These certifications are often offered online, and some can even be done in a day.

And Goodwill Hawai‘i’s career development model continues beyond skills training. “We have a whole support mechanism that includes emotional support from our staff and connections to help people find jobs. Individuals might have different family challenges and without support, people often quit in the middle. Our staff is there to encourage and help them think about ways to overcome,” says Lau.

Just one month after getting his Google IT program certificate, Matthews secured a job at a tech company, increasing his salary by 20%. His family was finally able to rent its own apartment.

Calvin Kā‘aiali‘i Matthews moved from customer service to IT following job training from Goodwill Hawaii. | Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

But just as important as the additional money is the fact that his new job is fully remote, which allows him to be at home. “There was one time when my son’s oxygen level dropped quickly. But I was just five steps away and was able to give him oxygen and call an ambulance. That gave my wife so much peace of mind. Before, it was so hard for me to go to the office, leaving my wife and son at home. Being physically there has made such a huge difference.”

ALICE Stands for Staying Rooted in Hawai‘i, Despite How Hard It Is

Kimo Carvalho carried a laminated photo of his dream house to remind him of his goal every time he opened his wallet to pay for something.

For Carvalho, though, that goal felt unattainable for so long, despite his master’s degree and a combined income, with his husband, that exceeded $100,000.

“We were making too much for entitlement programs but not enough to cover our expenses, which included two vehicles, health care, food, bills, rent, utilities, water and electric,” he says. “When the system looks at who is ALICE, we go by median income as the metric. But that doesn’t take into consideration area median expenses. Our expenses were so high, it was always difficult to catch up.”

To compound the pressure, his husband developed a chronic disease in his leg, requiring travel to medical specialists and time off work.

“We felt numb to the routine. We were just living to work and living to survive, and when you realize that everyone else is living the same way, it becomes normalized.”

But what continued to motivate Carvalho toward the dream of homeownership, despite even his husband’s skepticism, was his own upbringing. “I grew up in foster care and if you ask a lot of foster-care kids who live in unstable housing and bounce around from home to home, one of the biggest things we want is a stable place of our own. To make our own rules, make our own way of living, create our own identity. You can do that as a renter, but there’s a longing to have your own piece of paradise.”

Carvalho admits that although he worked with ALICE populations at AUW, he was unaware of the services available for people like himself who were struggling to buy a home.

“As somebody who is very involved in communications and public awareness, my limited knowledge of that information is pretty telling. Most people don’t think they are supposed to approach service providers unless they are in a crisis state. But the truth is, if they are struggling enough, they should get in touch.”

It was a friend who introduced him to the Hawai‘i HomeOwnership Center. Carvalho and his husband started with a set of classes that explained the entire purchase process, the role of the Realtor, types of mortgages and loan programs, and how to create a financial action plan. They also underwent an affordability analysis.

“We take their income, debt and sample closing costs, and come out with a sample loan amount. They can then see what they would likely qualify for,” explains Executive Director Reina Miyamoto. “But just as importantly, it helps them see what they might qualify for if they didn’t, for example, have any credit card debt. In some cases, it has motivated people to get more education or decide they really didn’t need such a big car.”

Carvalho says the center helped him become more aware of his spending habits, which ultimately led to a healthier relationship with money. “At the time, we were always eating out since it was so convenient, but the budget template and saving receipts made us see how much we were actually spending. I realized I was spending like $3,000 a year on Starbucks. That’s what convenience does – it’s like a drug, it makes you feel good about a decision since it’s so easy and you justify it by saying it’s just one time. But that’s three grand that could have gone into an investment. Then you realize that’s a behavior that can change.”

After three years of regular accountability meetings with their coach to talk about how they were doing with their goals, Carvalho and his husband bought their first home. A year and a half later, the value of that condo had increased so much that they qualified for another mortgage, allowing them to upgrade to a single-family home.

Michael McCray, a coach at Hawai‘i HomeOwnership Center, encourages that kind of long-term view, especially for people who can’t imagine owning a home in their current situation. “I tell the folks that are attending, think of this like a fitness goal. Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds by a wedding. Would you rather have six months or six weeks to do it? Now is the perfect time to start because you can take baby steps. You can do a little at a time.”

Carvalho acknowledges that everything may have been a lot easier if he and his husband had moved to a more affordable part of the country. But in the end, they decided to stay for the sake of starting a family in the one place they consider home.

“Every time I opened my wallet, the laminated photo of my dream home reminds me that generational wealth is built over generations, just like generational poverty is built over generations. It reminds me that breaking this cycle is not just for me, but for growing a family. It’s a long, long journey. It requires a lot of patience and values. But as long as you have your priorities and goals and you make incremental progress year after year, it actually is possible.”

ALICE Stands for the Values of the Community

Māpuana Simpliciano was pregnant when she caught Covid from her 4-year-old son. Not only did it impact her health, it also affected her unborn child, requiring doctors to induce labor early. Although her family was reeling from health issues and caring for a newborn, she was worried about her finances and the cost of taking more time off. She ended up cutting her meager six-week maternity leave short.

“We’re educated, fully employed and we don’t take government assistance. And this is what we’re dealing with. With all the medical bills and the surprise of having to take time off of work because of Covid, it really hit me that we’re a paycheck away from homelessness,” she says.

Despite having a doctorate in education and a master’s degree in public health, the experience made her realize how precarious life is for so many people, including herself, and how families need big, systemic changes to gain a measure of security. “I felt helpless being in a system where things weren’t working and being in financial stress. Lots of times as a parent, I felt like I was on my own.”

She found her voice and confidence while participating in the Hawai‘i Parent Leadership Training Institute, or PLTI. Now in its sixth year, PLTI, organized by the Hawai‘i Children’s Action Network, is a 20-session program that trains parents on leadership and civics. Participants learn how the government works, how to engage with the media and how to effectively advocate for issues such as affordable child care, paid family leave and raising the minimum wage.

Photography by Keatan Kamakaiwi and Aaron Yoshino

“We are a bit different from other nonprofits because we are not a direct service organization. We do movement building and advocacy with ALICE families,” says Zysman, the action network’s executive director. “We believe that families know what they need and see where the system is not working. We work with parents looking to step into leadership who might not think they have the skills, networks and camaraderie.

“Our motto is transforming parents who care into parents who lead.”

Simpliciano has drawn on the training to become an advocate for clean air in the classroom, educating teachers on ventilation and how to use carbon dioxide monitors and even to build their own DIY air-filtration systems. For her, the consequences of getting sick were just too high.

“There may be people making policies that aren’t experiencing the same type of struggles as the average parents. If we stay quiet and don’t know the avenues for advocating, things are never going to get better. The voice of the community can be a cohesive one. It can be powerful and make change,” Simpliciano says.

Kusumoto, the Parents And Children Together president and CEO, urges everyone working on ALICE issues to take the time to listen to the people they want to serve.

“The community is already talking. They are having conversations and they already know how to solve some of these concerns,” says Kusumoto. “One thing we’ve learned is that the best solutions are coming from the community. They might just need help getting some resources. But for us, it’s important to find ways to be legitimate, gather intelligence, understand stories, lift up their leaders and let the community take the lead in solving their issues.

“If we can do a little less to people and for people, and focus on doing a little more with people, we’re all going to be in a better place.”