More than 70 volunteers converged on a Kahalu'u public housing complex yesterday as part of a fledgling project to help the state renovate vacant units in need of big repairs.

U.S. Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka, along with Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona helped kick off the cleanup at Ho'okipa Housing, and Aiona later spent hours painting and laying tile alongside volunteers from the Bank of Hawaii.

In addition to pledging volunteer hours, the bank also donated $5,000 to the project, which was spearheaded by the Honolulu Community Action Program and is dubbed "Ohana Hou."

"What these people are doing is something that should have been done by the government, but the government doesn't have the money," Inouye said.

At last count, there were about 300 public housing units still vacant, not counting apartments set to be demolished or on the list for major contracted reconstruction work.

About half of the units need major repairs.

Since October, the Ohana Hou project has renovated five units at public housing projects on the Windward side. Eight units were completed yesterday, and the project is expected to go islandwide later this year, said Dan Goodman, who has spearheaded the project for HCAP.

"The Windward side is a good incubation site for a program," he said. "But we want to make sure this is something that benefits everybody."

The Hawai'i Public Housing Authority has been encouraging more and more groups or businesses that want to chip in and repair vacant units.

This year alone, everyone from Boy Scouts to Institute for Human Services employees have organized weekend volunteer projects.

But Ohana Hou is the first program to focus solely on the problem, and also attempt to coordinate funds and volunteers.

Goodman said the big turnout yesterday is what he hopes to see much more often around the island.

Kate Patterson, a senior vice president at Bank of Hawaii, spent yesterday — an unusually warm day on the Windward side — painting and tiling.

She said the experience was worthwhile.

"It's such a waste to have units like this unusable," she said. "This is an opportunity."

Some public housing residents and others also pitched in. Earl Correa and his family, who are homeless, helped throughout the day.

Correa, a maintenance worker for public housing projects in Windward O'ahu, has been on the waiting list to get into a unit for seven years. He has been assured his family will get one of the Ho'okipa apartments refurbished yesterday.

Correa, his wife and three children — ages 14, 4 and 2 — are now in the Family Promise program.

The project shelters homeless families at 13 participating churches for a week at a time. Correa said the family joined the program in May and is grateful for the help. But, he added, moving to a new place every week takes its toll.

"The people are great," added Lokelani Correa, "The churches are wonderful. But stability is hard."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.