OHA’s New Home Repair Grant Will Soon be Available

By Lindsay Kukona Pakele, OHA Strategy Consultant

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) Mālama Honua Home Improvement/Renovation Program Grant for Nonprofits (Mālama Honua) is a pilot grant that supports a nonprofit partner to administer a health and safety-focused home improvement program for income-qualified Native Hawaiian homeowners who are otherwise ineligible for traditional financing.

The selected nonprofit will provide targeted grants to address urgent, documented health and safety repairs that threaten habitability, helping Native Hawaiian homeowners remain safely in their homes.

The grant program was developed through extensive research of existing home repair program models, consultation with home repair programs in Hawaiʻi, and rooted in the lived experiences of our OHA beneficiaries. It also supports OHA’s Mana i Mauli Ola Strategic Plan goals for housing stability, economic security, and health outcomes for beneficiaries.

OHA identified service gaps (the need for support systems to help homeowners maintain habitability); financial barriers (financing is often inaccessible for income limited beneficiaries); scarce resources (existing home repair grants are rare and funding is exhausted rapidly); and determined that there are urgent infrastructure remediation needs in our Native Hawaiian communities.

The Mālama Honua grant solicitation was released on February 1 and OHA has been sharing information about the program via its website and social media platforms, and via a recent Zoom webinar that explained how prospective nonprofit partners can apply for the grant as well as the need for grant evaluators for both the Mālama Honua and Capitol Improvement Project (CIP) grants.

Once a nonprofit partner(s) has been selected, the nonprofit partner(s) will receive/process Mālama Honua applications from beneficiaries and administer this OHA-funded grant program.

Grants of up to $10,000 will be available for minor safety repairs. Examples include accessibility and mobility modification; simple kitchen and bathroom repairs such as cabinets, sinks, toilet, ventilation, etc.; or pest and infestation remediation.

For more critical repairs, up to $20,000 may be granted. Critical repairs include things like structural integrity; plumbing, water and waste systems; electrical systems; drywall, insulation and weatherproofing; and lead and asbestos mitigation.

Elective renovations, such as remodels, additions, landscaping or non-essential upgrades are not covered.

OHA Trustees have approved $250,000 for fiscal year 2026, and $500,000 for the following year. The program is open to homeowners with either fee simple or DHHL properties, and there is no pre-set list of home repair contractors.

Once a nonprofit partner has been selected, more information will be made available about how and when homeowners can apply for a Mālama Honua grant.

For more information go to oha.org/housing.