One year after the state's $6.5 million emergency homeless shelter opened in Wai'anae, 289 women, men and children who call it home were ready to celebrate yesterday with song, hula, speeches, and a communal feast featuring 250 pounds of kalua pig with all the trimmings.

Adding pomp to the festivities, the Royal Order of Kamehameha paraded in full regalia. Residents, staff and guests were treated to a rare choral rendition of "Hawai'i Pono'i," sung by the Royal Hawaiian Band.

"Our truck, which is very old, broke down en route with all our equipment," explained trombonist Sanford Masada. Fellow trombonist Patrick Hennessey added that the two saxophones and one clarinet that did accompany the music were brought by their players.

The brass band, sans brass, was one of several technical glitches that were overcome by enterprise and enthusiasm as the anniversary party began. Most everyone seemed ready to cast their eyes toward the shelter's second year with hope and optimism, and reflect on the first year's inspiration and success.

"It's much easier to build a strong child than it is to fix a broken adult," said Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, emphasizing Gov. Linda Lingle's priority pledge in summer 2006 to get hundreds of homeless children off the beaches.

The Wai'anae Civic Center shelter, known as Pai'olu Kaiaulu, was Hawai'i's first around-the-clock emergency homeless shelter built from the ground up for the purpose of offering succor to a growing multitude of citizens with no place to stay.

It took a gubernatorial emergency proclamation to fast track its completion. It would offer hope in the form of training programs designed to help the residents join mainstream society.

On March 1, 2007, the doors opened to the overflow of families that had been crowding miles of coastal beaches for months. The new facility was operated by U.S. Vets, the nation's largest nonprofit organization serving homeless and at-risk veterans.

While that organization had had plenty of experience assisting veterans, learning to deal with homeless families fresh off the beach was uncharted territory, said Darryl Vincent, U.S. Vets Hawai'i site director. The first shock came when officials realized children were nearly half the residential population.

"We realize now that when you have from 275 individuals here, about 125 of them are kids," said Vincent, who soon brought in a family specialist to tend to the children's issues as parents adjusted to shelter life.

Aside from setting basic rules, he said the role of U.S. Vets was not to dictate what residents have to do, but to supply them with what they need to take responsibility for their own situations — a form of empowerment unfamiliar to a sizeable portion of the incoming tent dwellers, he said.

Cathie Alana, project director, said families flocked to the shelter when it opened, and it remains family oriented. Alana believes families will probably remain the focus during the second year.

The shelter is serving 28 families with 135 children. Because it is divided into a 19,000-square-foot family shelter, and an 10,500-square-foot individual and couples shelter, Alana said the facility can adjust to whatever changes happen in the homeless population.

Regardless, the goal will be to move families, couples and singles toward self-sufficiency. To do that, shelter programs include job training, parenting, drug treatment, exercise, health, cultural activities, finances, and dealing with domestic violence.

"We're trying to build self-esteem through different real life experiences in a safe environment," Alana said.

But, Vincent added, "we have a ways to go. While we have established a therapeutic community, we would like to strengthen it to where the people that are residing in the shelter are taking (total) care of it. We're merely here to facilitate, versus we're here to be the ones making things happen.

"We measure success according to how families start progressing towards independence."

About halfway through the first year, residents got the hang of empowerment well enough to establish their own residential community council — a sort of in-house neighborhood board — for residents to air their concerns and suggestions to one another and facility operators. Council representatives now participate in staff meetings on a weekly basis.

Alice Greenwood, who became homeless for the first time at age 60 in July 2006, was a driving force behind establishing the council. She said residents have wrestled with grievances and personal conflicts, and at times the wrangling has turned heated and hurtful.

"There were many rocky roads and many hills to climb," Greenwood told the crowd yesterday. "But together we have taken one step at a time."

That's the process by which differences get ironed out peaceably, Greenwood said.

"After one year, I'd say things are going very well."

Kaulana Park, who was the state's homeless point man before becoming deputy director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands recently, said the Wai'anae shelter was built as a temporary starting point for getting homeless people off the beaches. As more private and state subsidized transitional shelters are built, those facilities will assume that role.

Park pointed out that 662 people entered the shelter in its first year. Of the 371 who came and went, 72 percent have either moved into permanent and transitional housing, or they have entered a treatment facility or other institutional setting. At that rate, Park said the need for the Wai'anae shelter will diminish significantly over time.

"The way things are working, five or six years from now we will be able to shut down the Pai'olu Kaiaulu site because you'll have other sites come up that will have the transitional capacity," said state Comptroller Russ Saito. Saito, who has worked on the homeless crisis with Park since 2006, will take over as homeless solutions coordinator for the state.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.