Hilo hotel becomes housing project
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — The historic Hilo Hotel, once the site of a Hawaiian hale that welcomed visiting ali'i, has found new life in helping low-income residents make the transition to self-sufficiency.
The 54-room hotel, abandoned five years ago by its Japanese owners, is being renovated to provide 28 housing units.
The property was acquired by the East Hawai'i Coalition for the Homeless with a $560,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank in Seattle, the first such award in Hawai'i for an affordable housing project, said Steven Bader, coalition executive director.
Beverly Papalimu, treasurer for the nonprofit coalition, said most of the group's clients are poor local families. Although drug or alcohol abuse is a contributing factor in some cases, many families fall into homelessness after the death of a breadwinner or loss of employment, she said.
Once the building, which has been renamed Kalakaua Place, is ready for occupancy sometime next year, 14 units will be rented to people with low-income jobs or who are studying for new careers. The other 14 will be used as transitional housing for families or couples ready to move out of the homeless shelter two blocks away on Kapi'olani Street.
The old hotel, off Kino'ole Street in downtown Hilo, was the site of King David Kalakaua's 19th-century summer home. Known in earlier times as Niolopa, a royal enclosure comprising a stone wall and a large grass hale housed Hawaiian ali'i dating to Kamehameha the Great.
One of Kalakaua's card-playing buddies, legendary Hawai'i hotelier George Lycurgus, acquired the property and opened the Hilo Hotel in 1908.
It was operated by Lycurgus' son Leo until it was sold in 1969 to C. Brewer. Its most recent owner was Fujinkai Hawai'i Ltd., which shuttered the place in July 1996.
After the East Hawai'i Coalition for the Homeless took control of the property in May, police raids cleared the building of prostitutes and drug users so the cleanup could begin.
Room by room, volunteers began removing garbage and cleaning the filth. Businesses donated thousands of dollars.
Bader and Papalimu said the transformation from derelict building to subsidized housing comes none too soon in the wake of the economic downturn since Sept. 11 and the impending loss of welfare benefits to an estimated 300 Big Island families.
The coalition is seeking additional money and more volunteers to finish the work before Kalakaua Place can open. To volunteer or donate supplies or money, contact Bader at (808) 969-4848.
In the meantime, a separate office complex on the property that also was renovated will be dedicated Saturday. The first tenant is the state Department of Human Services. A ceremony will be held at 10 a.m., with tours until 3 p.m.
