Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1995 — Looking for innovative housing solutions [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Looking for innovative housing solutions

by Moanike'ala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i As Chairperson of OHA's Planning, Eeonomie Development and Housing Committee, I look for creative, innovative, appropriate avenues that address eeonomie development and housing needs for our Hawaiian people. Housing is a major prioiity for Hawai'i residents, especially us natives; affordable

housing is a emel joke. The increasing cost of imported lumber is only a part of the problem; we look for alternative building materials including those available and utilized by our Pacific cousins for over a thousand years. The sugar industry's decline. Drosoects of

'āina for the Hawaiian nation as well as a need for eeonomie alternatives for the state points we must seriously examine Bamboo and its eeonomie, social and environmental potential for these Islands. Why continue to rely on expensive, diminishing timber from the Pacific Northwest when it could be feasible to import then possibly grow bamboo (whieh is tropical and aesthetic) on ceded lands? Bamboo is fast growing, four years harvest — most soft woods take 20 years; building materials and many other uses could create eeonomie opportunities for our people as well. Kali Watson, Chair of DHHL, is open to having bamboo homes as an alternative on Trust

lands. Although wind resistance is a eoneem, some bamboo is stronger than steel; certain bamboo's tensile strength is 28,000 pounds per square ineh vs. 23,000 PSI of steel. Bamboo homes ean range from low-cost to expensive. Of the many different species of bamboo, seventeen are native to Indonesia and used for everything from asthma medicine, food, building bridges, reinforced concrete

homes, and highrise buildings. A critical element of this is to identify whieh species ean adapt here. There are Hawai'i residents, bamboo advocates, already propagating different bamboo species to areas where they will thrive.

Treatment and bug resistance must be assured. Environmentally, bamboo could help to replace imported wood as a building material helping to save our world's forests. Sustainable use and cultivation of bamboo, if viable, could be tied in with community-based eeonomie development. The potential is exciting. Mamo Theater A problem has arisen because of our "highly evolved" and legally sophisticated lifestyle. We no longer ean look at a problem, see a solution and go about putting one and one together — unfortunately those days seem gone forever — Hawai'i, like most of the U.S. and

the industrialized world, is lacking when it comes to recycled "waste." For example: Easter Sunday last a portion of Hilo's dilapidated Mamo Theater collapsed. Anyone with half a wit for recycling could see a bonanza of usable building materials, wood, tin, windows, etc. Young men from among the homeless and unemployed literally begged to salvage the usable materials to build structures on available lands at the beach — leaming center, long houses, etc. — so what's the problem? The Board of Directors of the theater's owners (Hilo Community Players) would gladly agree to a recycling plan if it could be carried out by a licensed contractor. Because of laws (county and state), lawyers and liabilities, no contractor has been found willing to risk a lawsuit if anyone is injured in an admittedly potentially dangerous operation. Result — thousands of dollars of building materials will be crunched and sent to the dump, aggravating the landfill problem and those marginalized citizens (mostly Hawaiians) will be denied an opportunity to work together for the eommon good — their own, their 'ohana's and the community's. We have become so encumbered with legalese that the clarity of old-fash-ioned problem-solving is rendered impossible — even unreasonable. A healthy island society must maximize all available resources. Recycling is a moral, eeonomie environmental necessity. It's Aloha 'Āina! Mālama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono.