Waimea man opens home to Salt Pond residents

WAIMEA — Over the last eight years, Buna Leialoha has transformed both himself and the property he lives on.

This week, Buna and wife Marcia Leialoha have taken in several families who were recently evicted from Salt Pond Beach Park with the closure of the county’s Shelter-In-Place program that allowed the houseless to set up camps during the pandemic. But this set-up may not last, either.

Leialoha envisions his home as a sort of Pu‘uhonua Place of Refuge, where he’ll help people recover from trauma, houselessness, mental illness and more, by offering them a place to heal. The O‘ahu native, after all, found healing on Kaua‘i.

“A place to sleep on a bed, to be able to live again without fear,” Leialoha said.

Leialoha rents the property that borders the beach in Waimea, near the Waimea Pier, and by doing this he’s risking his own home, he said. So he’s working on purchasing the property to keep this going.

“The only remedy is to own this outright,” Leialoha said. “My mission statement is to save another soul for Jesus Christ. It starts with our people.”

From growing up on the streets of O‘ahu and through Love the Journey and the help of Arvin Montgomery, Leialoha learned how to take care of people.

“I’ve started from scratch many times,” Leialoha said. “I’ve been in jeopardy my whole life.”

The house on the property has been rejuvenated by Leialoha’s work. The house he’s built over the years has transformed into four bedrooms, multiple bathrooms and kitchens decorated in letters from friends around the globe made through surfing. Outside, Leialoha has built a playground with found items as well as set up a flourishing garden of bananas, lilikoi and more.

But in that house, some of the houseless previously at Salt Pond were able to sleep on a bed for the first time in a long time.

“We got blessed by this,” Mana Geddes said. “This came to us as a surprise. When I understood we had a place this beautiful, it was around 1 or 2 o’clock Tuesday. I was skeptical because I wasn’t really familiar, but off of faith, we slept in a bedroom last night.”

One room, dedicated to Marcia’s late son Eric Canon, will be shared amongst the children of Salt Pond.

“My house is a rescue house,” Leialoha said.

Tuesday, a week after the beach park’s June 30 closure, both the county and state enforced trespassing laws, citing those who remained at the beach and surrounding areas in Hanapepe, forcing those to vacate and leave their items behind. The group continues to worry about belongings left behind at Salt Pond, unsure of when they will be able to pick up the items that were taken into inventory by the county.

“Unfortunately, history repeats itself,” Geddes said. “If we do not stand up for our rights, and our rights as Hawaiians, this will continue until there is no more.”

In February, a group of Salt Pond residents sent a proposal for the conveyance of land to live on while restoring it through agricultural, educational and cultural use to the state and county. The group sought land to dwell on and maintain, create a native botanical nursery, build tiny homes for Native Hawaiian families, maintain the landscaping and construct a playground for keiki. But the group didn’t hear back on that proposal per say.

“They want us to be able to do what we want to do because they have a heart and they’re compassionate and they know that we’re compassionate, too,” Kamuela Gomes said. “But we couldn’t do that there.”