Hui Waiwai is about fostering a stable community rooted for generations in Hawai‘i, a community where local families can afford to have a home and raise their families without fear of losing their land. HCL aids in this process by offering products and services—including affordable loans, targeted grants, technical assistance and step-by-step guidance—for local families and native Hawaiians to build, buy and save their homes from foreclosure.

Hui Waiwai highlights our collective work to strengthen the financial well-being of Hawai‘i’s people. It reflects how Hawai‘i Community Lending partners with families, nonprofits, lenders, and community leaders to expand access to fair financing, support homeownership, and close the gaps in our housing system—especially for local and Native Hawaiian families.

Mahalo to Pōmaikaʻi sponsors Central Pacific Bank, Hawai’i Community Foundation and Honsador Lumber for their generous support.

“For too long, families haven’t had access to the homes that they need at the prices they need. The system needs to change so it’s more responsive to the family and not to interest that’s just looking to increase profit and take land. Our push is to make sure that we’re making innovations happen. We’re changing the system in a way so it’s more responsive to the real families that are here on the aina.” said Jeff Gilbreath.

Alapaki Nahale-a, HCL board member – “We need to approach people with dignity and respect, they don’t need to be ‘fixed’, they just need assistance. That’s what Hawai‘i is about. People think of HCL as just a lending institution, but they really are responding to community need on all aspects of how to deploy capital to improve our lives. I’ve seen HCL fill the gap between what is and what’s needed. To see families feel like that gap is too far and then that dream gets realized, that’s pretty special.”

Billy Pieper, HCL Board Member – “We don’t get to see this, where you actually can touch and feel the stairwell and see where the kitchen is, see where the bassinet is going to go. With the relationship between Hawai‘i Community Lending and American Savings Bank, the word that comes to mind is more. I feel like we will do more. We’ve got to replicate this. Let’s create some scale and do this for hundreds of families.”

Jeff added – “The measure of when we’re done as an organization is really when the current financial system, the banks, the credit unions, are able to offer the same exact products that we’re offering today. The zero down construction loan, the zero down mortgage, and not turning families away just because they don’t fit in a nice neat box. And not saying no, but saying how. We believe in the next 25 years, we can get those 29,000 people on the land. That is actually within our reach with the type of partnerships we have. If we do that, that’s success. Once we’re done with Hawaiian homelands, we move outside of Hawaiian homelands and we help everybody else.”