A nonprofit that provides shelter to homeless youth has acquired property in Honolulu’s Chinatown, according to a Tuesday announcement.
Residential Youth Services and Empowerment will develop the new four-story property into affordable housing and provide workforce development support for young adults from 18 to 24 years old.
RYSE already has one emergency housing shelter and several housing programs across O‘ahu.
To Executive Director Carla Houser, Chinatown seemed like the perfect place; there are businesses for young adults to apply for jobs and access to transportation with various bus routes.
“To be able to, in one location, provide both deeply affordable housing options and to wrap our young people around those career aspirations, those higher ed opportunities, so that they can end their homelessness once and for all. That's the mission,” Houser said.
RYSE bought the property using private funds. The asking price was of the building was marked at more than $3.2 million, but a realtor at Beall Corp. and RYSE officials declined to confirm the sale price to HPR.
The nonprofit had been in discussions with the City and County of Honolulu for the past few months about acquiring the building, according to Houser.
She also said that the building needs renovations and the programs that will take place there are still in the development phase.
