The city is considering dressed-up shipping containers as a way to provide affordable housing on Oahu.

At a news conference held Wednesday on Honolulu Hale’s lawn, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he wants to work with Faith Action for Community Equity Hawaii, or FACE, and the City Council to find ways to address the housing crisis.

FACE is displaying a refurbished shipping container home on the lawn. The 160-square-foot unit will remain there for a week to show the public and developers the affordable housing option. The nonprofit will then display the container home at various sites across the island.

Housing has been a core issue for FACE since its inception two decades ago.

"We need to break the old model of doing things," Caldwell said. "And it’s trying different things and seeing different ways to help people find a home to live in that’s affordable so they can live life in this beautiful place in a fair and decent way."

An affordable housing initiative is underway to address the demand.

One component of the city’s strategy is updating zoning codes to allow accessory dwelling units on single-family lots. A container home, Caldwell said, could be used as an accessory unit.

More than 24,000 homes on Oahu are needed in the next 15 years to meet the growing demand for housing, according to the city. Of those, 75 percent need to be categorized as affordable housing.

Container homes have been used in various ways in cities around the world.

At the news conference, City Councilman Ron Menor, chairman of the Public Health, Safety and Welfare Committee, said container units could also serve as possible housing for the homeless.

"We definitely need to move forward more proactively and expeditiously in creating more shelter spaces for our homeless here on this island."

The Public Health, Safety and Welfare Committee will hold a public hearing next week on a resolution that calls for the mayor and the adminstration to implement a demonstration project through which land would be designated for shipping container homes.

The state Hawaii Public Housing Authority recently announced a similar concept that involves creating a mixed-use housing complex with shipping containers.

The state is seeking a developer to create 600 to 1,000 public housing units in Palama. Used shipping containers and prefabricated modular units are among the inexpensive concepts the state is seeking from developers for the project.

The housing authority is also looking at available land that could serve as potential sites for other low-income housing projects.