Online auction for Puna housing units closes

HILO — The online auction for a group of longstanding housing units in Pahoa has ended.

HOPE Services’ board in Hilo put the 20 16-by-12-foot units and one 16-by-14-foot unit up for sale on the auction site biddingowl.com.

The sale ended Saturday with a bid of $26,500 from an anonymous buyer, according to HOPE Services volunteer coordinator Malu Debus. The buyer was unable to be reached.

The average purchase price per unit was $1,262.

HOPE Services had set the minimum bid for the “as is” structures at $10,000, or $476 per unit.

The structures had languished, sitting idle and subject to vandalism and weathering, for years.

HOPE Services had planned to use them as housing for the homeless, but the organization learned — from a request for proposals to renovate the structures — that it would be cheaper to build new ones instead.

The organization has raised almost $400,000 to do so. It has leased a 14.5-acre agricultural lot from the Catholic Diocese to build affordable housing and expects residents to need to pay no more than 30 percent of their income to live there.

The plan includes seeking community input before construction.

Debus said the auction proceeds will be used for “future affordable housing in Pahoa.”

The units sold went as a single lot and must be removed from diocese grounds by May 26. Debus said the purchaser will be able to move the structures by that deadline.

Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.