The project, called Ma'ili Hale Estate, would target renters earning 50 percent to 60 percent of the area median income, or $23,000 to $27,600 for an individual and $32,850 to $39,420 for a family of four.

Residents would be able to pay a portion of their rent into a special account reserved to help them eventually buy a fee-simple home elsewhere.

Ma'ili Hale Estate also would incorporate an on-site preschool, computer center, community kitchen and facilities for raising fish, vegetables, fruit and herbs using aquaculture and permaculture to help educate and feed residents.

Aloha Noblehouse, headed by East Coast developer Gerald Greenstein, said it has secured $14 million in financing from grants, loans and tax credits, as well as arranged a 30-year lease for the government-owned site.

But the project still needs community approval, an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement, and state Land Use Commission reclassification of the roughly 90-acre property from conservation use to urban use.

The nonprofit has filed a land reclassification petition with the LUC, and hopes to make a presentation to the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board next month.

The group also has distributed petitions at Wai'anae gas stations to raise awareness and solicit support for Ma'ili Hale Estate.

Jerry "Kele" Reiss, an Aloha Noblehouse director and former Wai'anae resident, said he hopes the project can be a model for more low-income resident eco-villages with several hundred units on O'ahu and the Big Island.

The Ma'ili test project, however, has been slow to develop, as it has been in the works for 12 years. "It's a long time in coming," Reiss said. "We've been struggling."

State and private affordable housing proponents say the need for low-income rentals and fee-simple homes is at a critical need, especially with home prices at or near-record levels after rising over the last several years.

"Any private development that puts more affordable housing on the market is always a welcome thing," said Derick Dahilig, public information officer for the state Department of Human Services.

Sources of financing for Ma'ili Hale Estate include U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loans, a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, Hawai'i tax credits and other sources.

If approvals can be obtained, construction could start by the end of the year, with completion in mid-2005, Aloha Noblehouse said.