Honolulu Habitat for Humanity is preparing to bid aloha to its ReStore shop in Palama. The warehouse store that sells donated goods is set to close March 18 so the nonprofit can focus entirely on building affordable housing.

“The need for affordable housing in Hawaii continues to rise,” Honolulu Habitat for Humanity announced on its website. “After considering ways to provide more housing opportunities with our available time and resources, we have made the difficult decision to wind down our ReStore program and focus 100% on building homes.”

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity CEO T.J. Joseph cited the need to focus “singularly” on fighting the shortage of housing. “At the end of the day, the size and scope of Honolulu’s need for housing requires all hands on deck,” Joseph said in the website announcement. “We’ve embarked on an ambitious 5-year strategic plan to triple the number of people we serve each year. Achieving that will require our undivided focus on Habitat’s construction and homeownership programs,” she said.

The cost of running ReStore proved to be the nail in the coffin. “The sheer economics of renting warehouse space and overseeing the ReStore operation made it necessary to make this decision,” the website said. ReStore employees have been offered other opportunities with the organization and severance packages, the site said.

The organization’s administrative offices, in the same building as ReStore, will move to a new location that has yet to be announced.

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity has been working with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in recent years to build homes in Waimanalo. The group built four homes in Kakaina, enough to house 26 people, according to its website. Plans are in the works to build six more homes there in a time frame of between 2022 and 2024.

The organization’s strategic plan for 2022-2026 had anticipated ReStore would last, if not thrive. The plan included goals of doubling ReStore’s profit margin, increasing donations by three-quarters and drawing 15,000 customers each year. Other goals included building 40 homes for some 250 people, raising $1.5 million each year and cutting home construction time to six months from 10.

Last week a half-dozen people milled about the aisles of the high-ceilinged ReStore warehouse, 922 Austin Lane.

Although the store stopped accepting drop-off donations Feb. 10, there was still plenty on offer. Among the merchandise: dozens of doors ($8 each), five scuffed drop-leaf tables ($40 each), a satirical Department of Defense poster headlined “Instruction to patrons on premises in case of nuclear bomb attack” ($10, framed), a watercolor print of nine aloha shirts hanging on a clothesline on a beach ($2.99, framed), a tarnished petite French press coffee maker ($3.25), an opened can of teal house paint ($5), a Black &Decker weed whacker ($25), a bucket of hand saws ($5 to $8, depending on the condition), a Health-o-meter scale ($40), a new Frigidaire electric range ($450) and a pair of 2-foot-tall blue-and-white vases painted with scenes of misty mountain villages ($50 each).