Count Russell Wozniak, a licensed engineer with a University of Hawaii doctorate in architecture, among the professionals donating their time to ease Honolulu’s homeless problem.

Wozniak focused his doctoral thesis on affordable housing. Now he’s putting his education and skills to work designing an architectural layout that would transform a 5,000-square-foot maintenance shed in Kakaako into a first-of-its-kind shelter for homeless families and children.

After he gets off work at Group 70 International, Wozniak focuses on designing a floor plan for the Kakaako shed, which maximizes the space for as many as 15 homeless families — or 60 people at a time — while complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“It’s a matter of how the beds would fit together, what makes sense, how does the function come together, how much space does the manager need,” Wozniak said.

He calls his pro bono work for the state “definitely an 8 p.m.-to-midnight shift.”

Wozniak’s initial architectural concept for what the state now calls a Family Assessment Center got thrown a curveball after crews in January discovered that a sewage pump was so badly damaged that it could not be used to run the shelter’s toilets and showers.

Wozniak knows that the delays caused by the damaged pump only contribute to the frustration of people who worry about the persistent homeless encampments that dot the Kakaako shoreline and flow into the surrounding parks.

But Wozniak insists that unforeseen problems are a normal part of any kind of renovation.

“There are always constraints like this,” he said. “There are always hiccups, you always hit a hurdle. It did not throw me off; it’s just one more thing to factor in.”

Wozniak’s employer, Group 70, worked on the city’s Hale Mauliola shipping container housing project on Sand Island. And Wozniak is adopting some of the lessons he learned at Sand Island to Kakaako, specifically the idea of using portable showers and toilets instead of installing new ones in the shelter, which is intended to operate for only two years.

“We’re taking what we learned there and bringing it to the shed,” Wozniak said.

He gets help from “half a dozen” of his Group 70 co-workers “who are contributing their thoughts.”

And Wozniak recruited Robert Kubota, a partner and vice president of Douglas Engineering Pacific, to figure out how to cool down the hot interior of the shed. Kubota, in turn, brought aboard some of his co-workers.

“We just want to help,” Kubota said. We need to find a solution.”