Neighborhood Place of Puna (NPP) began as community response to the high amount of child abuse in Puna and the disproportionately high removal rate of Hawaiian children from their homes.

In 2002 a collaboration of community groups including; The Island of Hawaii YMCA, Child Welfare Services, the Children’s Justice Center, Turning Point for Families and several concerned citizens submitted an application to Blue Print for Change to open a Neighborhood Place in Puna.

The collaboration was seeking to develop and support a family centered, and community driven, home visiting prevention program that would help ensure that families had access to the resources and skills necessary to raise safe and healthy children.

In August of 2002, the Island of Hawaii YMCA opened the Neighborhood Place of Puna in Pahoa to families and community groups in Puna. In 2003 NPP received additional funding from the Hawaii Children’s Trust fund.

In effort to expand the reach more families with home visiting services and create sustainability, NPP applied to the IRS for and received its 501(c) (3) non-profit organization status in 2006.

In 2010 Neighborhood Place of Puna applied for and received Title IVBII funds. This multi-year grant allowed NPP to hire staff dedicated to serving the many isolated families living in Upper Puna.

In 2013, in response to a rise in Child Abuse and Neglect in the Hilo district, Neighborhood Place of Puna opened its office in Hilo, in the mixed income neighborhood of Puueo.

Today we reside at our office location 16-105 Opukahaia St., Keaau, HI, 96749 and our temporary family housing shelter Hale ‘Iki in lower Puna. We’ve been blessed to expand staff and resources and with your help hope to grow our reach even more!

Ending Family Homelessness

Neighborhood Place of Puna is committed to ensuring that no family – and certainly no child – experiences homelessness in Hawaii County.

Homelessness can have lifelong negative developmental and health impacts on a child. Children who experience homelessness are more vulnerable to child abuse and neglect. The longer a child remains homeless, the more bleak the outcome. Children raised in persistent poverty, including periods of homelessness, are less likely to finish school. They are at higher risk for incarceration, teen pregnancy/parenthood, substance abuse, and a life of poverty.

Neighborhood Place of Puna believes that we can end family homelessness in Hawaii County and that doing so is a moral imperative!

To this end:

1. We work directly with homelessness families to connect them with emergency shelter, permanent housing, and the supports they need to remain housed.
2. We work with local churches to provide emergency short term shelter and support to homeless families who have nowhere else to go.
3. We work with the Faith Community, businesses, and Social Welfare groups to address the lack of affordable housing for families.
4. We work to address the underlying causes of family homelessness and poverty.

Neighborhood Place of Puna needs your help. Please consider a donation to support our homeless families, and the work that we do to ensure that that no child has to experience homelessness.

Download the Family Outreach Referral Form

More about Hawai’i and U.S. Homelessness

Honolulu Civil Beat Poverty persists among Hawaiians despite low unemployment

Splinter News They were there first, but now Native Hawaiians have nowhere to live

Daily Mail Homelessness in Hawaii has grown so fast that the eighth-smallest state in U.S. has the nation’s highest homeless rate per capita

Star Advertiser HUD: Hawaii still No. 1 in per capita homeless

Download the Aloha United Way’s ALICE Report. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income, Constrained, Employed.

Listen to Terri Gross’ April 12, 2018  interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author Mathew Desmond as they discuss America’s Eviction Crisis.

Download a simple graphic about the 2018 cost of housing in Hawaii Count.

Download the Touchpoints of Homelessness Report, which looks at Homelessness in Hawaii.

Donate to NPP

Make a monthly or one-time donation to Neighborhood Place of Puna. Your support helps us to build strong, healthy families in your community.

Family Strengthening Services at Neighborhood Place of Puna

Neighborhood Place of Puna is committed to the well-being and success of families and children. We strive to help families develop the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to raise their children in safe, stable, and nurturing homes.

Our Family Strengthening Program provides intensive, on-going, in-home services to families with under-age children. Often families enroll in our program because they are in crisis. Sometimes that crisis is an unexpected pregnancy. Or it could be a child that is constantly “acting out.”  Or it might be that the stress and insecurity of poverty have made parenting unmanageable.

Our program staff work with families wherever they call home. This might be an apartment, a park, an unpermitted dwelling, a car, or an emergency shelter like Hale ‘Iki. Our program services are tailored to address each family’s unique needs. Sometimes a family’s needs are very concrete. They just need stable housing. Other times there are complex family issues that require Neighborhood Place of Puna staff to provide ongoing coaching, parental education, advocacy, and referrals to additional professional services.

Families living in Puna and South Hilo can access Neighborhood Place of Puna’s free and voluntary services whenever they need help.

Would you or a love one like to participate in family strengthening services? Email family@neighborhoodplace.org

You can help Hawaii families. Please consider a donation to support our local families in their efforts to raise safe and healthy children.

Download the Family Outreach Referral Form

Neighborhood Place of Puna supports recovery for those affected by the recent Kilauea eruption.

Have you suffered job loss, loss of wages, home loss, increased rent, or psychological trauma due to the 2018 Kilauea eruption? Neighborhood Place of Puna is collaborating with FEMA, County of Hawai’i and other agencies to provide referrals and support to aid healing for those recently impacted by lava on the Big Island. Contact (808)965-5550 or disaster@neighborhoodplace.org for assistance.

Disaster Recovery Intake

• Name
  First Last
• Email
• Phone
• Needs
  • Medical Assistance
  • Mental Health Counseling
  • Legal Counseling
  • Home Repairs
  • Housing
• Additional information (optional)