A coalition of faith-based groups plans to take over a decommissioned Navy destroyer tender — the USS Acadia — and turn it into a homeless shelter that would be unique in the nation.

Though the Navy has made no promises to hand over the ship, it has been receptive to the proposal and has asked organizers to submit a business plan for how they would maintain the 642-foot vessel.

If the faith-based groups succeed, the Acadia would be the first Navy vessel to be converted for humanitarian purposes, Navy officials say. Many ships have been turned into museums, but most are used for scrap or training.

Under the plan, the Acadia would house hundreds of homeless people — mostly singles — who would also get job skills on the vessel.

"Land is a high commodity. We live on a rock," said Pastor Gary Shields, director of the Victory Ohana Prison Fellowship in Pearl City, who is helping in the attempt to acquire the ship. "Hawai'i has to do something different and out-of-the-box. And this is out-of-the-box."

But organizers also stress that the plan is still in its infancy, and could fall through without the right funding or community support.

The ship is docked at Pearl Harbor, but would have to move if it were handed over to a private entity — which presents a barrier. The coalition is negotiating with the state for space at Honolulu Harbor, but that may be too costly. The group is also looking at Kalaeloa.

The proposal, which calls for the Acadia to start housing people as early as May 2009, is the latest in a series of unconventional shelter programs aimed at getting the homeless off beaches and out of parks — and one step closer to permanent housing — by putting them up in yurts, warehouses, churches and tour buses, rather than traditional emergency shelters.

Advocates say the new strategies are born out of the sheer number of homeless who need help, coupled with the difficulty in finding real estate within financial reach for mostly small, faith-based organizations.

Even the state is thinking unconventionally: Its new Wai'anae shelter features two temporary, pre-fabricated metal and plastic structures on a concrete base.

And its Next Step shelter in Kaka'ako, opened in May 2006, is a warehouse with cardboard cubicles substituting for room dividers.

"We're looking at models from around the country," said Doran Porter, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, which manages Next Step and is also an advocacy group for affordable housing.

Porter said the beauty of everything from yurts to buses being used as homeless shelters is they accomplish the same thing as traditional homeless shelters — they bring people one step closer to permanent housing. And in many cases, the unconventional ideas cost less and are put into action quicker.

But Porter cautioned against focusing simply on shelters.

The real solution to homelessness is affordable housing, where unconventional thinking is a little harder to come by, he said. "There just isn't enough affordable housing out there to meet the need," he added.

The ranks of the homeless have grown rapidly in recent years, as low-income people are priced out of the rental market. According to a city-commissioned report issued in June, the number of unsheltered homeless counted at seven O'ahu areas in January was 3,750 — up 28.2 percent from January 2005.

The coalition looking to convert the Acadia sees itself targeting a population that rarely gets much sympathy — mostly single homeless men who could have drug abuse and mental health issues, and probably have criminal records. Still, they say the ship could also accommodate families. In addition, the program would recruit people at risk for homelessness.

The vessel would not sail, but would be kept operational. And aboard its decks would be several programs meant to get people back on their feet.

In addition to vocational training, including spaces for everything from electronics and engineering classes to upholstery, organizers envision a library on the ship, a medical and dental clinic and a computer lab.

Coalition members, including the Hawai'i Coalition of Christian Churches, the Navy League and H-5 Ministries, which oversees day-to-day operations and support services at the Next Step shelter, are still trying to estimate how much the programs and renovations will cost, but are already expecting to spend $2 million just to get the ship ready for bare-bones living, with air conditioning, revamped bunks and bedrooms and other improvements.

So far, the group has not solicited donations or applied for grants.

Still, it has received support from Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, dozens of pastors and faith-based groups and others. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka has not pledged to write legislation needed to grant the USS Acadia to a private organization, though he has met with organizers and is excited  about the project, according to his press secretary.

Tom McCrea, co-chairman of the Acadia Acquisition Committee, which is made of about 30 members of the faith-based community, said he has lofty goals for the Navy vessel — but he is willing to start small.

At first, he said, the Acadia program will likely admit about 25 people and hire 10 employees. But McCrea sees enrollment growing quickly, and said the ship could eventually accommodate up to 800 homeless people, along with 60 staff members, volunteers and occasional instructors.

The biggest barrier for McCrea and his group appears to be the unknown. The Navy has given McCrea a list of things he needs to do to get the Acadia, including getting legislative and community support, submitting a business plan and soliciting donations. But Navy officials point out that what McCrea and his group are trying to accomplish is a first, and so there could easily be unforeseen hang-ups.

"It is a tough undertaking," said Pat Dolan, deputy director for public affairs with the Naval Seas Systems Command, which is in charge of ships in the process of getting decommissioned and disposed of or sold.

Dolan said she remembers only one other group trying to use a Navy ship for a humanitarian program, and that was in Virginia in the 1990s. The plan was dropped, but Dolan could not recall details on what went wrong.

"Nobody has ever done this," said McCrea, who works on Navy vessels as a contractor and heads the Open Door Academy, a nonprofit for youth.

The Acadia was built in 1981, and sailed around the world several times, with a crew of 1,587, before it was decommissioned in 1994. In January, Navy officials decided to dispose of, sell off or give away the vessel.

Some of the faith-based groups helping to launch the Acadia program are involved with other unconventional shelters for the homeless.

And McCrea sees those shelters, especially the 18 operational tour buses set to house people, as providing candidates for his program, which would last anywhere from three to nine months.

The tour bus program has not yet taken off, but program coordinator Utu Langi expects five of the renovated tour buses to start accepting homeless people in early October. The buses will likely be parked at Honolulu churches. Right now, all 18 buses are parked at Kalaeloa.

Langi got $500,000 from the state for the project, which he hopes to expand with grants and donations. He said the program is a good example of how a little innovative thinking can go a long way. "We're looking for other ways and new ways and ways that don't cost as much," Langi said.

Brother Sadrian Chee, of the Ohana Family of the Living God Church, got about $600,000 from the state to set up his community of yurts — small, tentlike structures that are easy to put up and take down.

So far, Chee has put up six yurts, housed 50 people in his program — which limits stays to 40 days — and plans to erect more yurts soon.

"With the number of people going into homelessness, we're not keeping up," Chee said. "And what I've found out is there is no one solution."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.