LIHU'E, Kaua'i — State and county officials yesterday announced their plan to use the vacant 5th Circuit Court building in Lihu'e as a transitional shelter for working homeless families for two years, after which the 70-year-old historic building would be converted into office space for state agencies.

Kaua'i Economic Opportunity, which would run the shelter, has identified 20 candidate families ranging in size from two to seven people. They would pay rent for staying in the facility and would take instruction in being a renter, in anticipation of being placed in one of three upcoming lower-income rental housing projects.

KEO president MaBel Ferreiro-Fujiuchi said all families will undergo criminal history checks to weed out people with violent backgrounds. No single people and no one with drug or alcohol problems will be accepted. KEO will operate the facility with state temporary emergency homeless shelter funds provided to the county by the 2006 Legislature.

Mayor Bryan Baptiste said Gov. Linda Lingle issued an emergency declaration temporarily making the courthouse available for the project, which is being called Ka Uapo, or The Bridge, to represent its function as a bridge between homelessness and renting.

Baptiste said he asked Lingle for the help on an emergency basis because he considers the housing problem for Kaua'i's working homeless unable to afford housing no different from people displaced by disaster.

Baptiste said he expects concerns to be raised about using a historic building in the island's government center, but hopes to deflect them with the screening process for families. A public meeting on the project is scheduled at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at the Kaua'i War Memorial Convention Hall.

State Comptroller Russ Saito said the state will spend $800,000 over the next four months preparing the site for the new use. Showers will be provided in a mobile trailer outside the building. That facility, which will be available for other applications after the shelter is closed, will cost about $300,000 of the $800,000 total. There will be no major changes inside the building; residents will be housed in existing rooms in the courthouse.

"We're doing minimum renovation, to bring up to standard plumbing and wiring, and adding fire alarms and sprinklers," Saito said.

That work should be done around the end of the year.

"I'd like to have these people in there by Christmas so they don't have to spend the holidays out in the open," Baptiste said.

County housing chief Ken Rainforth said upcoming rental housing projects include 40 units at the county's Kalepa Village third phase, to be open in January 2008, 40 more units in Kalepa Village phase four to be open in October to November of 2008, and an 82-unit project in Waipouli, to be open in late 2008 or early 2009.

"Between today and the time these projects are completed, families with children are out in the elements without a roof over their heads. Ka Uapo will provide for the health and safety of these children in the interim," Baptiste said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.