La‘akea Village kicks off ‘ambitious’ 4-year goal to build homes for adults with developmental disabilities

PĀ‘IA — At La‘akea Village’s farm on the slopes above Pā‘ia town, mentor Ella Fowler starts the day collecting eggs and feeding the ponies before gathering for a “morning circle” with her clients, a group of adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.  

“It’s a safe space,” Fowler said. “Parents know that their adult is being carefully looked after and encouraged to be a part of something rather than isolated.”

Creating an inclusive community where adults with differing abilities can live and work has been La‘akea Village’s dream since it began in 2000, Executive Director Ashlee Klemperer said at a community meeting on Tuesday.

Now, the nonprofit organization — which was created by a group of concerned Maui residents and parents of children with disabilities — finally is moving forward with its first housing project. Plans call for 22 homes, of which five would be dedicated to house a combined seven adults with disabilities and six residential staff members.

The project is expected to cost $23 million to $30 million and will be on part of a 12-acre parcel of county-owned land just off Baldwin Avenue that the organization secured a 55-year lease for in 2005.

“Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities truly thrive when they have all of the opportunities at their fingertips in an environment that understands their unique needs and how to support them,” Klemperer said.

The layout of the five dedicated units:

• One state Department of Health-licensed home with five bedrooms and three bathrooms, including three rooms for adults with differing abilities and two rooms for live-in staff. DOH licensing is required because of its size.
• One home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, including two rooms for adults with differing abilities and one for a live-in caregiver.
• Two homes with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, including one room for adults with differing abilities and another for a live-in caregiver.
• One home with one bedroom and one bathroom for an on-site housing support specialist staff position. 

The other 17 homes would range from one to three bedrooms and be 100% affordable rentals. They would be open to other community residents at a mix of income levels that have yet to be determined.

The entire project would be fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act, Klemperer said. The village also would include a community center with a kitchen, offices, restrooms, a shared garden and green spaces. 

La‘akea Village is looking at a four-year timeline:

• 2026: Submit a fast-track housing application to Maui County and launch a fundraising campaign.
• 2027: Secure permit approvals and raise $10 million for the first phase, which would include infrastructure and grading work, the La‘akea-dedicated units and the community center. 
• 2028: Construct Phase 1, select residents and raise $10 million for Phase 2, which would include eight more homes. 
• 2029: Build Phase 2 and raise $10 million for Phase 3, which would include the remaining homes.
• 2030: Complete construction and move residents in. 

“We know it’s an ambitious timeline, but with all the support that we’ve been mounting and the momentum that we’ve been gathering, we do believe that we have a pretty good shot at making this a possibility,” Klemperer said. 

She added that the organization already has three grants in review for fiscal year 2027 from county, state and federal funds that total just over $11 million. So, once everything is secured, La‘akea Village already will be about a third of the way toward its goal. 

In 2010, the organization started offering services as a Department of Health-licensed agency, including a 12-acre farm on its leased land along with a country store, an indoor day program and a community building.

It attempted to branch into housing with the purchase of an off-site home in 2015 as part of a residential pilot program for up to five participants with three live-in staff members. However, the program closed in December 2023 due to staffing challenges, and La‘akea Village sold the home.

Klemperer said the program didn’t work because it was “an isolated, siloed, off-site home, and without full integration of this community and additional support, they were not able to sustain and thrive when there were bumps and ebbs and flows, like if a staff member got sick and needed to take a week off.”

The larger housing project on-site will provide more support and integration and will allow the organization to “pivot and move when those things happen.”

“We have learned from all of those experiences and will not be replicating them,” she said.

In 2017, the organization secured a state grant for planning and design of the housing project that it started using at the end of 2023. The funding has to be used up within the next three months, Klemperer said.

Klemperer, who was named executive director in August 2023, said organizational transitions delayed the use of the grant and planning of the housing project. Until now, the organization hadn’t had the capacity to carry out the project. 

In June of last year, the project’s final environmental assessment was approved, and now planners are working on the affordable housing application. 

Today, the organization with a staff of about 20 helps 17 participants who come to the farm Monday to Friday to do farm chores and group activities, and take occasional field trips. 

Fowler, a direct support worker also known as a mentor, hopes the village will one day provide a home for her son 25-year-old son Evan Fowler, a Maui High School graduate with autism who lives with her in Kahului and helps care for his grandmother. He has been receiving services for autism since he was 2 years old. 

She found La‘akea Village while searching for something for Evan to do after he graduated from high school. Her son is “not a very outdoorsy person, so it wasn’t the right fit” for him. But it turned out to be perfect for Emma, who knew she wanted to work there and help participants feel like they were part of the community. 

Danielle Castrence, a member of La‘akea’s community, also hopes to live in the new housing project. She comes to the village on weekdays to sell her handmade keychains at the country store for $6.25 apiece. They are between jars of local honey, bags of macadamia nuts and homemade artwork. 

“I really like it over here,” she said.

Castrence, 35, is raising funds so she can go to the Special Olympics in June in Minnesota, where she’s a multisport athlete in tee-ball, track and field, basketball and bocce. 

If it weren’t for La‘akea Village’s services, Castrence would be “stuck at home” because the bus doesn’t reach her house in Makawao, said La‘akea service supervisor Chong Shi Zheng. La‘akea provides Castrence and other participants with transportation to the farm. 

Zheng said he’s “very excited about the housing project” because it will allow participants to have easy access to La‘akea’s programs. Getting to work outdoors is “literally a breath of fresh air,” especially after the years of the COVID-19 pandemic that cooped everyone up inside.

La‘akea isn’t just building housing, Zheng said. “We’re building community. That’s the most important thing so that we can be there for each other.”

Castrence said if she could have her own place at La‘akea, she could more easily “come over here and hang out,” helping with chores like cutting the grass and feeding the animals. 

“‘Ohana means family together,” she said. 

Maui County Council Member Nohe U‘u-Hodgins, who holds the Pā‘ia-Ha‘ikū-Makawao residency seat, voiced her support for the project at the Tuesday meeting. 

“It’s extremely inclusionary, which is not something we see too often,” she said. “Our housing crisis is already at a tipping point, and I’m sure for so many of our disabled communities, it’s even hard to find housing that’s fit for their needs.”

But some residents were concerned about only five of the units being set aside for La‘akea participants, wondering if that would truly fulfill the organization’s mission and its lease with the county. 

Pā‘ia resident Francine “Aunty Mopsy” Aarona, the chair of the Maui County Commission on Persons with Disabilities, said she knows plenty of Maui residents with disabilities who would like to move into the housing.

Joshua Circle-Woodburn, vice president of La‘akea’s board, pointed out that while housing residents with disabilities is the priority, the organization has “to be careful legally of the creation of a segregated community.” Board members also noted that the other housing units would still be open to residents with other types of disabilities, since all units would be ADA compliant.

As far as deciding who gets to live in the La‘akea-designated units, Klemperer said the organization plans to use the application process already in place to assess potential residents for its programs. The general selection process for the other rentals has yet to be determined. If there is a lottery, Klemperer said La‘akea has talked to the county about putting in safeguards for its vulnerable residents. 

Other community members raised concerns about safety on the property, especially if the project is a mix of residents with disabilities and others who may not be familiar with their needs.

Susan Graham, president of La‘akea’s board, said there is no plan for safeguards yet, but that residents with disabilities will be looked after by caregivers and the support housing staff member. 

“We’re well aware that we have a vulnerable population here,” Graham said. “A lot of details still need to be worked out as far as policies and procedures.”

She added that she has an adult grandchild with a disability, and “I would want him to live in a community that’s representative of the world at large.”

“I don’t want him isolated strictly with adults with disabilities,” she said. “I want him someplace where he’s going to experience life as we all know it, and I think that’s the definition of inclusion.”

Dean Wong, CEO of the nonprofit Imua Family Services, said in a perfect world, “we could have homes with individuals living with disabilities in every single one of our neighborhoods, and we would know that they were supported by the neighbors.”

“But that’s not our reality,” he said. “Our reality is that a project like this has to occur in order to even separate some portion of homes for individuals with disabilities, and the last thing we want is to put all of the people with disabilities into their own community where they are separated from the rest of the community.”