Fellows mentioned in this story:
Marisa Hayase
Keoni Lee
Billy Pieper

From Maui Now:

With the theme “Building Solutions for Hawai‘i’s Housing Crisis,” Hawai‘i Community Lending held its annual meeting, Hui Waiwai, on Jan. 23, 2025. More than 150 families and homeowners, HCL investors and employees, executives and business and community partners gathered on the lawn at The Bishop Museum for an evening of speeches, awards, live local music and food. All proceeds from the event—totaling more than $37,000—go to support housing for local and Hawaiian families.

In his keynote address, HCL Board President Billy Pieper shared his vision for housing Hawaiian families, using a football analogy to illustrate the importance of taking action. “Nobody watches a football game to see the huddle; we watch because we want to see the plays,” Pieper said. “In Hawai‘i, we’ve been huddling for a long time trying to come up with solutions to address our housing crisis. It’s time to start running some plays.”

According to Executive Director Jeff Gilbreath, HCL’s accomplishments from the past year include making 394 grants and loans totaling $15.3 million.

“Together with our funders, investors and partners, we helped 241 families build, buy and save homes from foreclosure in the last year,” Gilbreath said. “These impacts have changed the trajectory of families’ lives, changed the capacity of nonprofit developers to build affordable housing, and changed the housing system to be more responsive to the needs of our local people.”

Continue reading at mauinow.com.