Seven months after Kahauiki Village opened to house 30 homeless families and children, an additional 114 one- and two-bedroom units are planned to go up starting early next year.

Businessman Duane Kurisu, who dreamed of building permanent homes for homeless families, modeled the project after his own plantation upbringing. Now Kahauiki Village has become a model that’s supported by Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Gov. David Ige and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

“Kahauiki Village is permanent supportive housing,” Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday. “It’s not temporary.”

First lady Dawn Ige, a former educator, spoke at a blessing Tuesday for Kahauiki Village’s first preschool, which will be followed by another one when the next phase of construction begins.

So far, to build the first 30 housing units and two separate, air-conditioned infant-care and preschool programs at Kahauiki Village has cost $13 million — including the value of donated materials and labor and $4 million worth of infrastructure from the city.

There’s even space reserved for Honolulu police officers to write reports and use the restroom to encourage an HPD presence at Kahauiki Village.

The next phase of construction is planned to include a recreation center, the second preschool and 114 more housing units. It will be cheaper at $10 million because the infrastructure is already in place, Kurisu said.

When it’s finished sometime in 2019, Kahauiki Village is expected to be home to a total of 144 families, or about 620 people who had been homeless.

The 11.3 acres of state land upon which the homes were built was transferred to the city, which leased it to Kahauiki Village at a cost of $1 per year for 10 years, with an option to extend for 10 more years.

Ige described Kahauki Village as “the perfect example and model that we want to talk about in the kinds of projects that we fully support to help us deal with homelessness.” He said the state “absolutely” would be willing to offer land for similar projects.

Tenants pay $900 per month for a two-bedroom unit and $725 for a one-bedroom unit, which includes water, sewer, electricity, gas, internet service and community association dues.

The Institute for Human Services provides social serv­ice programs for the residents. Free child care for children from 6 weeks of age to age 5 comes from Parents And Children Together, which received federal Head Start funding.

Last year, the area between Sand Island and Keehi Lagoon Beach Park on the makai edge of the H-1 freeway viaduct was home to one of Oahu’s most dangerous and entrenched homeless encampments before sheriff’s deputies swept the area of 120 occupants and dozens of animals.

Then in January, Kurisu saw the first 30 homeless, working families move into Kahauiki Village.

Kurisu “built housing for those that didn’t have it,” Caldwell said before Tuesday’s blessing of the first child-care buildings.

Kahauiki Village is now a community that includes kukui, papaya and banana trees — along with a preschool where parents can safely leave their children so they can work.

“It’s an incredible story to tell,” Caldwell said. “… This is a place of hope for all of us.”

For Dawn Ige, Tuesday’s blessing of the Kahauiki Village Preschool Center and adjacent Kahauiki Village Infant/Toddler Center represented a critical milestone for making the village a real home for its new residents.

“Children,” she said, “ are at the heart of every community.”