When the first families arrived at Ka La‘i Ola, The Place of Peaceful Recovery, it marked more than just a move-in day. After months of displacement and uncertainty following the Lahaina wildfires, survivors were finally stepping into stability — into a community designed for healing, dignity, and rebuilding.
Ka La‘i Ola spans 57 acres in Lahaina and includes 450 homes for up to 1,500 wildfire survivors. Built in record time, the village provides interim housing through 2029, when the site will transition to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, accelerating Native Hawaiian housing by 17 years. The project came together through an extraordinary public and private partnership involving the State of Hawai‘i, the Department of Human Services, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, HomeAid Hawai‘i, and hundreds of organizations and builders working side by side.
HomeAid Hawai‘i served as lead developer, bringing together modular innovation, Hawai‘i's building industry, and philanthropic support to deliver housing at unprecedented speed and scale. As CEO Kimo Carvalho explained:
“By bridging modular innovation with Hawaiʻi trade industries, we achieved the speed, scale and cost-effectiveness that made Ka La‘i Ola the largest and most innovative disaster recovery development in the nation. Through public and private partnerships, we reduced costs by 42 percent, ensuring families can focus on earning, saving and rebuilding their futures. Ka La‘i Ola demonstrates that when Hawai‘i comes together, we can deliver on impactful housing solutions with dignity, stability and hope.”
That impact is already visible. Nearly 900 residents now call the village home, many of them families who had cycled through half a dozen temporary residences before arriving. Stability is allowing children to return to school routines, families to share meals under their own roofs, and survivors to begin the long process of healing. Recovery, after all, is often more traumatic than the disaster itself — but a place like Ka La‘i Ola makes recovery possible.
The scale of savings also demonstrates what collaboration can achieve. By combining builder discounts, philanthropy, emergency proclamation savings, and donated land, HomeAid Hawai‘i lowered costs by 42 percent compared to traditional development, saving taxpayers an estimated $106 million. That included:
Because of these efforts, the average cost of homes, excluding infrastructure, was approximately $120,000 per unit, covering studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, and three-bedrooms.
For its scale, speed, and impact, the Hawai‘i Society of Professional Engineers Maui Chapter named Ka La‘i Ola the 2025 Project of the Year. But beyond recognition, what matters most is that Hawai‘i has shown what’s possible when urgency, innovation, and community values come together.
As Kimo reminded the community in his speech at the opening of the village:
“Hawai‘i is my home. And it’s the people that make this place special. You are the future of this place — the generations that you bring. We don’t want to lose you. We don’t want to lose the essence and spirit of our home. Please continue to fight. Please continue to persevere. We are here with you every step of the way. Mahalo nui. Mahalo everyone for everything you’ve done to make this place special.”
The lessons learned here will shape how Hawai‘i responds to future disasters, how we build deeply affordable housing, and how we keep our communities rooted in aloha. At HomeAid Hawai‘i, we strive to build with urgency and compassion through community partners to deliver homes that change lives.
See the full list of partners and learn more at kalaiola.org.
