Waikiki Community Center matching savings to help residents

Aug. 4—The Waikiki Community Center wants to help 52 clients in each of the next three years, with participation limited to one year.

The Waikiki Community Center over the next three years will provide a dollar-for-­dollar savings account match for low-income kupuna and financially struggling working families who earn too much to qualify for traditional aid programs like food stamps.

The center received $125, 000 for each of three years through a grant from Aloha United Way and the Hawai 'i Community Foundation to match up to $1, 000 for each dollar saved by applicants who are considered asset-limited, income-constrained, employed—or ALICE—households.

The Waikiki Community Center wants to help 52 clients in each of the next three years, with participation limited to one year. So far, 20 people have signed up, and all but two are working parents such as Kristen Hara, a 37-year-old single mother of a 4-year-old boy who attends preschool at the center.

Hara was able to buy a 600-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo near Punahou School only because her father cosigned the mortgage and helped with the down payment. But after she pays the monthly mortgage and homeowners association fees, there's little left for Hara and her son, Julian Jenkins.

Julian receives breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack at his preschool, which he attends through a scholarship from Kamehameha Schools. Without the financial help, Hara said she would not be able to cover the $990 monthly tuition and would have to pay for Julian's meals.

"There is no way I would be able to survive, " Hara said.

But by "being frugal, " Hara on Thursday was just $5 shy of reaching her savings goal of $1, 000, bringing her $5 away from receiving another $1, 000 into her savings account from the Waikiki Community Center.

The savings account match program remains open to anyone in the community, not just those affiliated with the community center.

Pamela Seelig, who oversees the savings account program, has seen financial struggles up close for parents like Hara who send their children to the center's preschool.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seelig estimates, about 10 % of the 90 or so preschool families have moved to the mainland for financial reasons.

There are 17 nonprofit organizations working with AUW and the Hawai 'i Community Foundation on the ALICE Initiative, but only the Waikiki Community Center helps both struggling families and older adults, who became a focus of the Legislature and Gov. Josh Green this year.

Bree Maumausolo works as an administrative assistant at Hawaii Community Assets to provide dollar-for-dollar savings account matches, but only for kupuna.

Unlike the Waikiki Community Center, which continues to screen applicants, the first year of the Hawaii Community Assets savings account program filled up with 100 older residents but will accept new participants over the next two years.

While Maumausolo helps kupuna, she's also saving to get a dollar-for-dollar match of her own from the Waikiki Community Center program.

The 29-year-old, single mother is raising a 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhouse in Nuuanu she rents with the help of a federal Section 8 voucher.

After paying her rent and utilities, Maumausolo said she has less than $150 left until her next paycheck two weeks down the road.

She cried and got emotional when asked how her children deal with living on limited means.

"They say, 'Mom, I can't wait until I can work so I can help pay for everything, '" Maumausolo said. "I am proud to hear them say that. But at the same time it hurts me to hear them say that. But I'm doing something right because I don't hear them complaining."

The Waikiki Community Center program works with both low-income kupuna and struggling workers—many employed by the tourism industry—who live with the fear that a medical emergency or unexpected expense could send them into financial crisis, said Caroline Hayashi, president of the Waikiki Community Center.

"People of means have assets and savings and often a 401 (k ), " Hayashi said. "We're trying to raise even more funds because we want to help even more people and possibly offer more of a match per client. I would love to see families have at least $3, 000 in emergency savings. That's our goal to really benefit them the most."

While each year of the $125, 000 grant helps 52 applicants match $1, 000 in savings, the rest covers program costs and salaries.

Other Waikiki Community Center programs help people with temporary rent assistance or security deposits "to prevent people from becoming houseless, " Haya ­shi said.

People who qualify for the savings match are generally appreciative, said Seelig, the program manager.

"It's definitely something that they would not have the opportunity to do otherwise, " she said. "It makes them feel that there's at least a little bit of a safety net. They say, 'We don't have a lot or one thing wipes it out.'"

Others are initially skeptical.

"They say, 'Is this too good to be true ? What's the catch ?'" Seelig said.

Hara simply described the program as "awesome."

She wants her son to enjoy the kind of financial stability she experienced while growing up in Hawaii Kai and attending Punahou School.

"I have drastically less money than they (her parents ) had, " Hara said.

She graduated with an English degree from the University of San Francisco, went on to graduate with a medical degree in Chicago but grew disillusioned with the health care system and quit during her residency, burdened by student debt.

She then joined the Peace Corps teaching English in Sierra Leone and eventually moved back home.

Now she works as a policy analyst but was able to take Julian to see his grandfather in San Jose, Calif., last week only because her dad paid for the trip.

It was Julian's first ride on an airplane.

She wants her son to grow up in Hawaii and, hopefully, attend Punahou on a scholarship. For now, Hara fears Julian is missing out "on the fun things in life."

He doesn't understand why he can't go on vacations to Legoland and Disneyland like his friends.

"They tell him all about it, " she said.

Maumausolo also wants her children to have the same happy upbringing she also had in Hawaii Kai.

"I had a real good childhood, " she said. "I never went without anything. My parents really took care of us "—until her parents split up while she was attending Kaiser High School.

"From there everything went downhill for me, " Maumausolo said.

"I ended up running away from home and was on the run for a good year, " ending up homeless in Waikiki, she said.

After a neighbor police officer picked her up, Maumausolo moved in with her aunt in Kalihi and enrolled as a junior at Farrington High School to get her life back on track.

"My auntie is really strict, " Maumausolo said. "She don't play around. If I wanted to graduate, I knew I had to live with my auntie."

After having her children, Maumausolo's financial situation was a mess. She was hounded by collection agencies for falling behind on payments and had to choose between paying off debt or covering monthly payments and insurance on a 10-year Hyundai that she bought used.

Then she became a client at Hawaii Community Assets, began learning financial literacy and got help consolidating all of her debt into one monthly payment of $265—far less than just her previous monthly car payment of $375.

While Maumausolo works to save $1, 000 to get the match from the Waikiki Community Center, she also has to save for her upcoming car registration of $400 due at the end of August.

At the same time, she's working to help low-income kupuna at Hawaii Community Assets while teaching her children to stay out of financial trouble—lessons she learned through Hawaii Community Assets and now with the help of the Waikiki Community Center.

"Before I worked here, " she said, "I was a client of our organization."

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