Hope Services Hawaiʻi operates an emergency shelter for single women in Hilo, but questions about fire-safety oversight and bedroom escape options have surfaced as the facility has continued to receive county and state support, according to reporting shared with The Associated Press.
The shelter, called Hale Maluhia and located on Ululani Street, opened about five years ago and provides short-term crisis accommodation for single women, with residents paying a maximum of $150 per month. Hope Services Hawaiʻi, described as a nonprofit arm of the Hawaiʻi Catholic diocese, operates seven housing shelters on the Big Island that together provide 168 beds.
According to Hope Services Hawaiʻi’s county fire-inspection record described by the county, there is no record that the building has been inspected by county fire prevention officials since it opened. Tom Callis, a spokesperson for the county, said Thursday that inspections on the Big Island are triggered by direct complaints and that the county has not received complaints about Hale Maluhia.
A current resident, Kiona Boyd, raised concerns that the shelter lacks accessible emergency exits for people who may face difficulties evacuating. Boyd said the shelter’s design does not provide adequate escape exits in the rooms and added, “The shelter does not have adequate escape exits in the rooms of the single-wall construction building,” and that “none of the seven units have even one operable window.”
The shelter’s funding streams include support that the county makes available through its Housing and Homelessness Fund and the state’s Office of Housing and Homelessness. Hope Services Hawaiʻi received $575,000 from Hawaiʻi County’s Housing and Homelessness Fund in 2025 to operate Hale Maluhia and was awarded another $1.5 million in the most recent allocations from that fund. The nonprofit also received $362,000 from the state Office of Housing and Homelessness last year, according to the reporting.
Summary continued: escape exits, inspections, and what officials say
Boyd said the shelter’s emergency escape options fall short of Hawaiʻi County building code requirements. The code specifies that “sleeping rooms below the fourth story … shall have at least one exterior emergency escape and rescue opening,” and Boyd said the bedrooms’ only exit options are not sufficient for evacuation.
After renovations, the property did pass a 2021 inspection by the county’s building division intended to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the inspection checklist covered fire alarm accessibility features and clearance areas around fire extinguishers rather than exits. The reporting also said the lack of secondary exits appears to fall short of habitability standards for emergency shelters outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which requires a “second means of exiting the building in the event of fire or other emergency.” HUD did not respond to a request for an interview with a representative of the Hawaiʻi field office to clarify what would meet that standard.
The shelter’s operators disputed the implications of those concerns, saying they have systems and procedures in place. Hope Services staff acknowledged that the windows in Hale Maluhia are not intended to serve as emergency exits and said the shelter’s rooms have a single access point to the units, which house up to four residents. Hope Services director of operations Denise Oguma said, “We take a lot of precautionary measures because a lot of the population that we serve are traumatized,” and described monthly briefings and drills with residents.
The reporting also placed the dispute in the context of broader scrutiny of fire safety at emergency housing on the Big Island. In December, three people died in fires in Hilo buildings that had never received fire safety inspections, and the incident exposed gaps in county fire inspections, the reporting said. It added that staff from the county Office of Housing and Community Development inspected Section 8-approved housing at one of those locations but did not note a neighboring building’s conversion to housing units without permits, Civil Beat later found.
How Hale Maluhia’s layout affects evacuation claims
According to the reporting, access to each of Hale Maluhia’s seven housing units is through a steel screen door from the parking lot into a shared kitchen-dining area, and a small hallway then leads to bedrooms at the rear. The only exits from those bedrooms are the jalousie windows, and the shelter can accommodate up to 26 people and two staff members.
The reporting said fire extinguishers and smoke alarms with 10-year batteries are installed in each unit, but the building does not have a sprinkler system or emergency lighting. County council vice chair Dennis Onishi said that while sprinkler systems are not mandatory, they are recommended for commercial buildings like Hale Maluhia, and described windows as an emergency solution that still must meet code requirements for height and function.
Hope Services chief operating officer Kali French said staff are on site 24-hours-a-day and provide emergency procedure training when residents move into the shelter. French said the nonprofit also holds monthly shelter meetings and conducts monthly inspections using a checklist from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and told the AP, “We’re very confident in the procedures we have in place.”
Boyd, however, said briefings cannot change the shelter’s physical features that are out of compliance with county code. The reporting said photos provided by Boyd show bedroom window sill heights at 52 inches, exceeding the maximum in the county building code, which specifies “when windows are provided as a means of escape or rescue they shall have a finished sill height of not more than 44 inches above the floor.” Boyd said she is a little more than 5 feet 10 inches tall and used her body for scale in the photographs.
The reporting also said Boyd described the jalousie windows as hard to remove or break quickly, especially if smoke makes them less visible, and noted insect screens attached to the outside. Boyd said she raised safety issues with staff multiple times and also questioned whether smoke alarms always functioned properly.
Boyd additionally challenged French’s description of staffing coverage, saying there are nights when no staff are on the property and that a note with a phone number is left on the office door window. Oguma, the director of operations, said the need for a secondary emergency exit had not come up in government funding agreements.
Funding questions broaden beyond shelter inspections
Separate from the fire-safety dispute, the reporting said county funding awards for homelessness programs are also under scrutiny. Since 2022, Hawaiʻi County’s Homelessness and Housing Fund has awarded more than $33.5 million to nonprofits across Hawaiʻi Island, and Hope Services has received close to a third of those funds.
In December, Hope Services received $900,000 for long-term housing and $600,000 for support programs from the fund as part of $6 million awarded to programs addressing housing and homelessness on the Big Island. The reporting said the funding allocations passed by a narrow 5-4 vote during a heated council meeting, after some council members questioned the fund’s effectiveness in reducing the island’s homeless population.
The reporting said Kona council member Rebecca Villegas voiced concerns during that meeting about organizations continuing to receive funding despite what she viewed as limited progress. Hope Services CEO Brandee Menino defended the organization’s record of transitioning vulnerable residents into affordable housing, saying the challenge is that the population of unhoused people continues to grow.
While the December vote kept the funding tap open for now, the reporting said the Governmental Operations and External Affairs Committee asked the county auditor to conduct a performance audit of the program last month. Results of that audit are due toward the end of the year, and county funding is currently authorized through 2027.
While the county fire inspection questions focus on whether Hale Maluhia has been inspected and whether its bedrooms meet emergency-exit requirements, Hope Services says systems and training are already in place. The dispute puts oversight mechanisms—like fire inspection triggers and the requirements for shelter habitability—at the center of questions about how emergency housing is funded and monitored.