Hui Waiwai 2027
Hawai‘i Community Lending’s signature annual event
Thursday, January 21, 2027
5 – 8 p.m.
Bishop Museum, Honolulu
Hawai‘i Community Lending’s signature annual event
Thursday, January 21, 2027
5 – 8 p.m.
Bishop Museum, Honolulu
He ʻaʻaliʻi kū makani mai au,
ʻaʻohe makani nāna e kulaʻi
I am a wind-resisting ʻaʻaliʻi;
no gale can push me over.
A reflection of resilience, strength and HCL’s commitment to growing its impact in Hawai‘i.
Cocktail Hour • Dinner • Presentation
He ʻaʻaliʻi kū makani mai au,
ʻaʻohe makani nāna e kulaʻi
I am a wind-resisting ʻaʻaliʻi;
no gale can push me over.
A reflection of resilience, strength and HCL’s commitment to growing its impact in Hawai‘i.
Cocktail Hour • Dinner • Presentation
Sponsorship
Join us at Hui Waiwai 2027 for an evening featuring keynote speaker Chrystel Cornelius, president and CEO of Oweesta Corporation, and one of the nation’s leading voices in Native community finance.
Each year, too many local residents leave the state because they can’t afford to stay here. Hawai‘i Community Lending is dedicated to offsetting that outmigration of local families, and your support is essential!
All net proceeds raised at Hui Waiwai go toward furthering HCL’s mission and providing low-cost mortgage financing to meet the needs of local people. Through partnerships that lower barriers, HCL continues to expand opportunities for local families to achieve affordable homeownership.
Now is the time to show your support and keep Hawai‘i’s people here in the islands.
Sponsorship and ticket information will be announced soon.
About Hui Waiwai
This year’s Keynote Speaker is Chrystel Cornelius, president and chief executive officer of Oweesta Corporation, the nation’s longest standing Native Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) intermediary.
Chrystel is recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices in Native community finance and has helped mobilize hundreds of millions of dollars into Native communities through strategic partnerships. Her inspiring address will share the importance of strengthening this movement and advancing Native-led solutions to economic development.
In his final Hui Waiwai as chief executive officer of HCL, Jeff Gilbreath will share his insights and wisdom gained over the last two decades of service within the affordable housing community.
One of the most moving parts of the evening promises to be the families who share their stories of achieving homeownership through HCL programs. With tears and triumph, we recognize these local and Native Hawaiian people who have worked so hard to gain stability for themselves and future generations.
Hui Waiwai 2027 celebrates Hawai‘i’s people and what we have achieved and what we will achieve going forward, thanks to the commitment and support of our community.
A reflection of resilience, strength and HCL’s commitment to growing its impact in Hawai‘i.
About Hawai‘i Community Lending
Hawai‘i Community Lending is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Started in 2002 as a mortgage broker under Hawaiian Community Assets and founded as a subsidiary nonprofit in 2014, HCL funds affordable housing ecosystem from home buyers to home builders to homeowners.
Our Mission
Hawai‘i Community Lending increases access to credit and capital for the economic self-sufficiency of Hawai‘i residents with a particular focus on native Hawaiians.
Our Vision
All native Hawaiians will own a home and reconnect to ʻāina for spirituality, food security, and healing from the systematic separation of our people from our ancestral lands. When we realize this vision together, our ʻohana will anchor a 21st century Hawaiian economy centered on Hawaiian values, and collective well-being.
Our Philosophy
Our organization is rooted by a philosophy of Kahua Waiwai, meaning Foundation for Wealth. We view the home as a foundation (Kahua). Upon this foundation is built a family’s spiritual values and teachings (Waiwai). It is the spiritual value of the home and its surroundings that provides stability and the opportunity for families to build a secure future. Opportunities that help stabilize family life help to create a more stable community. A strong foundation, if built property, will serve generations to come.
Hui Waiwai 2026
We kicked off 2026 with our signature Hui Waiwai gathering on January 22 at Bishop Museum. Each year, we bring together borrowers, investors, partners, and friends to celebrate progress in affordable homeownership and reaffirm what’s possible when we work together.
This year’s event honored the families, partners, and impact investors helping expand access to housing across Hawai‘i. We reflected on milestones from 2025 and looked ahead to bold goals for 2026 — including mortgage loans below 5% interest with $0 down for Native Hawaiians on Hawaiian Home Lands, support for Lahaina families returning home, and continued operational growth to serve more local households.
Mahalo to everyone who joined us and continues to stand with us in building a stronger future for our communities.
HCL CEO Jeff Gilbreath and Board Member Kawena Beaupré present the Impact Investor of the Year Award to Lindsay Durr, Northern Trust senior vice president, community development and impact investing.
The Ahuna ‘Ohana were recognized for their resilience and celebrated as proud homeowners. “Trust the process!” said Jona Ahuna about their work with HCL to achieve homeownership.
E. Bueno Construction received the first Kūkulu Partner of the Year Award for their role in building the Ahuna family home in Anahola, Kaua‘i.
Lahaina homeowner Valerie Ho‘opai was able to rebuild through the laulima approach of HCL’s navigation specialists working together. Aunty Valerie was introduced by Maria Linz, HCL’s Lahaina Homeowner Recovery Program manager.
Chelsie Evans Enos, CEO of Hawaiian Community Assets, accepted recognition for HCA’s groundbreaking work to create Ua Hale Aʻela, an innovative new rent-with-option-to-purchase program.
Impact:
A short video on our work.
Mōhala i ka wai ka maka o ka pua
Unfolded by the water are the faces of the flowers
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.”
