Robin Danner, Hawaiian homesteader and in the thick of Native Hawaiian issues for years, has found one way to address a particular large-scale community concern.

Make it small. Tiny, in fact.

Danner is executive director of the Homestead Housing Authority, a nonprofit founded in 2009 to support affordable housing and job creation initiatives. Its current big push is the construction of what’s become known as “tiny homes” — compact, often partially prefabricated units that can be built much more cheaply than conventional units.

Danner said the nonprofit has been building other products since 2015: certified kitchens and 22 “regular” homes — four-bedroom, two-bath houses, 10 in Kapolei and 12 on Kauai, where she lives.

“Two years ago the board wanted us to focus on an affordable-housing niche that doesn’t exist in the marketplace,” she said. “It’s more affordable, and they wanted a product that was low complexity, didn’t take three to six months to build.”

In other words, tiny homes.

The HHA is now part of what officials describe as a trend. Tiny homes and their multifamily counterpart, “microunit” apartments, are seen as one way to house more people for less. Locally, the movement has manifested in various forms, especially in homeless housing initiatives, from renovated shipping containers on Sand Island to the nearby plantation-style village at Keehi, built with repurposed modular units.

Whether they’re transitional accommodations for the homeless or permanent homes for those needing something lower-cost, they have not yet proliferated as a housing solution. The challenge lies in overcoming limitations of infrastructure: A family that lives in a small home or apartment still puts much of the same demand on water and sewers, and many communities statewide are not yet equipped to handle the load.

The authority’s work crews are now embarked on the pilot project on Kauai, with the aim of producing an affordable housing option — single-family homes of 480 square feet for less than $85,000. Ultimately, Danner said, the production of these homes will expand, but for now the nonprofit is trying to deliver the units to beneficiaries of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

Faster and cheaper

The homes will be constructed using a modular, prefabricated build system or hybrid that involves some conventional stick construction. The target mark, according to an HHA release, is to come in at a $75,000 turn-key price, with financing at $500 a month.

The price point works, she added, but the building program also fills a void because it takes on such small projects, one house at a time.

“In rural areas, it’s damn hard to find contractors,” Danner said. “They all want to build hotels, big subdivisions. Small homes, the industry doesn’t have contractors who want to do this.”

On Oahu, small homes have been seen as one way to address the state’s persistent housing shortage, especially for low-income rentals. Harrison Rue, who is the community building and transit-oriented development (TOD) administrator for the city, said the concept of microunits has been raised in preliminary discussions among developers contemplating projects along the corridor of Honolulu’s rail project.

Rue said TOD project plans typically don’t harden up until the rail is closer to buildout. However, he said, indications at this point are that what may work best are complexes that combine microunits with other apartment types and mixed-use elements to improve the revenue potential.

“We’ve heard about two or three all-microunit proposals, but the economics are not quite there yet,” he added.

‘Micro’ solution

In Kakaako, the Hawaii Community Development Authority has approved one microunit apartment building on a small state-owned parcel of 10,400 square feet at 630 Cooke St. Dubbed Nohona Hale, the project will consist of 111 residential units of about 300 square feet, each with an additional 70 square feet of lanai space. There will be a one-bedroom apartment for the resident manager of roughly 600 square feet.

This project is being developed by the nonprofit housing corporation EAH Housing and built by the Bronx Pro Group, which specializes in affordable housing (see story above).

Financing through the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. was secured in January, with construction to start the second quarter of next year and finish 18 months after that, said Kevin Carney, vice president for EAH Housing, Hawaii.

Attention has focused on the broad push to encourage accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which are usually add-ons to existing homes, serving as affordable rentals in roughly tiny-home dimensions. Such small homes have been described as “ohana units” for decades, generally accommodating family members. Danner said she and her husband, children grown, live in one of these, added on to the family home now occupied by a son and his family.

But it’s on Oahu where Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration has actively encouraged ADUs to boost the island’s rental capacity by leveraging what the private sector could do.

Across the country, the “tiny house movement” has run into stumbling blocks, usually regulatory in nature. If the prospective homeowner owns the land, the parcel may not be zoned for a tiny house.

Land is always a challenge here, but Caldwell and the City Council have tried to lighten the regulatory barriers and the load of fees on the construction of these units.

Even so, progress has been slow. Of the 354 preliminary applications for accessory dwelling unit permits that have been denied by the city since the ADU program began two years ago, the primary reason was that sewer facilities in the application area can’t support more people living there.

As a result, the Council has advanced Resolution 17-193, which urges the administration to upgrade the city’s wastewater system to address sewer capacity and to report back on its progress.

Rue said Oahu’s capacity problems have been a known issue at least since 2010. That’s when problems with wastewater spills culminated in a federal consent decree that essentially compels a program of sewer upgrades.

Boosting capacity

All told, about $5.2 billion in 2010 will be invested, including more than $320 million in projects already funded. These are expected to improve capacity over the next five years in Ala Moana, Kakaako, Iwilei- Kapalama, Kalihi, the airport area, Pearl City and Waipahu, according to a list compiled by the city. Another $510 million in additional projects are identified.

There are companies that have positioned themselves to help fill a growing demand for ADUs. Hardware Hawaii, for example, sells “ADU kit homes” that can be assembled in configurations ranging from 400 to 792 square feet.

Rue remains bullish on the potential for the tiny-home movement to take root in Honolulu and help fill its affordable-housing needs. He points to the track record in Portland, Ore., as another place where there was a long ramp-up before things really took off.

“After several years, they passed incentives for building, and within two or three years they were building couple of hundred a year,” he said, citing statistics showing permits rising from 263 in 2014 to 615 last year. “It takes a couple years for the industry to respond.”

Danner’s enthusiastic about the pace she’s already seeing, albeit on a house-by-house scale of construction. The house the crew is building now is on a six-week timetable, not months.

“It’s not for everyone, but a lot of people would be helped by this,” she added. “It’s so darn exciting.”