بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين وأفضل الصلاة وأتنم التسليم على دبينا وحبيبنا محمل وعاله وصحبه أجمعين اللهم علمنا ما ينفقنا والفقنا بما علمتنا وزدنا الماء اللهم وزدنا ودأة تنقصنا وأكرمنا ودأة تهننا وعطينا ودأة تحرمنا وأثرنا ودأة تؤثر علينا وارضنا يا رب العالمين ولا حولا ولا قوة إلا بالله إلا علم ضوهيم سبحانك الله علمنا إلا معلمتنا إنك أنت عالي محكيم السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته الحمد لله إنه جميل أن يستطيع أن نتحدث about The special event known as الإسراء والمعراج الإسراء المعراج as we know is one of the most important events in the life of the mission محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم that is one of the most important and divine encounters that he had in his mission it was a pivotal point in Islamic history and the scholars of Islam the theologians in particular they emphasize the importance of this particular event such to the extent that if a Muslim were to reject that it happened that they say that this itself threatens the faith of the Muslim and that is because الله سبحانه وتعالى in his Laurie's book he says بعد عقود بالله من الشيطان ورجين سبحان الذي أصراب عبده ليلة من المشهر الحرام إلى المشهر الأقصى الذي باركنا حوله ليوريه بن آياتينا إنه هو السميع البصير Laurie beat to him who took his servant by night from the sacred mosque to the farthest mosque the one around which we have bestowed our blessings blessings in order in order that we would show him from our signs in other words الله سبحانه وتعالى he took the message of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم from المشهر الحرام in Makkah all the way to المشهر الأقصى the place of worship in Jerusalem in a single night and returned him back to Makkah in the same night now of course this was a miracle in that it would take at least a month for the average person to travel from Makkah to Jerusalem on foot or on camel but the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم he himself was taken on this spectacular and very important journey during a single night and it is one of his great miracles now الله سبحانه وتعالى he makes it clear that if he loved you that it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to shower you gifts or make life easy for you all the time and for that reason when we look at this event we should see it as a sign of divine love as well right so as a pivot of the event it's a miraculous event but also a sign of divine love and الله سبحانه وتعالى through his messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم that those with the most significant or the most difficult trials are the prophets شرد الناس بلا أن الامبياء ثم الامتر وفالامتر that the people with the most difficult trials or tribulations are the prophets and then those who follow them or those who are next to them in likeness and those who are next to them in likeness and we as Muslims we recite صلى الله عليه وسلم and every single ركعة of our prayers and part of that recitation we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى ادينه سرات مستقيم سرات اللذين انامت عليهم غير المقضوب عليهم ولا دارين guide us to the straight path the path of those upon whom you have bestowed your blessing you have bestowed your grace and when we think about this deeply we should realize that what we are fundamentally asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to do is to guide us to acting and reacting in the way that the MBA the prophets and the only up the saints and all the righteous people have reacted when Allah سبحانه وتعالى tried them with things when we open the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and we read the stories of the prophets we notice that there particular tribulations and challenges that they have in the book you would expect that if Allah سبحانه وتعالى He's loving He loves someone that you would see that everything that they do and everything they ask for they giving it giving it right away Adam was trial tried by his sons one of his sons killed the other the prophet Yaku by his Salam was tried by his sons you know and his sons they abandoned one of the others and left him to become a slave and we know the story of use about his Salam نور علي his Salam was tried by both his wife and by his son لو طاهي السلام was tried by his son so there's a lot of what we call drama happening in the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى when we reflect upon the lives of the messengers علي his Salat وسلام not to mention someone like a youb علي his Salam جو who Allah سبحان اتار sent upon him affliction after افلكشن after affliction sent you to test to see how he would react when he remained grateful when he reject Allah سبحانه وتعالى was out or not so we are asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to guide us to their path and so this is an important reflection with respect to the إسرار and the out that we know because this is a event where Allah سبحان وتعالى he فى the to do and and and فى the 10 عايل grade بمعنى بدور العمارة المنفاق والتبريقية ومعنى hadn't been trying to appeal to his people and trying to get new converts to his religion. And of course we know that it was a very slow process and in rejection after rejection until eventually the persecution had intensified. And then three years prior to this event أصلينا. He had decreed that the Mosheerikin themselves that they would embargo the companions and along with Vanuashian that he will place them there with make them live in a special part of Mecca and they practically tried to starve them to death. They made a pact that they would not trade with them. They made a pact that they would not enter marrying with them. And so this was caused great hardship upon the Prophet Muhammad والصلاة الله عليه وسلم و this is not to mention all the other things that he had already gone through in his life. The loss of his mother, the loss of his father, the loss of his uncle, the loss of his, of course, his grandfather. And of course, the loss of his uncle was something that happened after this, right? You know, so at the end of this 10th year, once the 33-year embargo had been done, it completed. And the Mushriki had decided to show some mercy to them. The Prophet, peace be upon him, he would lose first his wife, Khadija, and also lose his uncle, Abu Talib. So Khadija was a source of emotional support. Abu Talib was a source of physical support because himself being one of the elite clansmen, so himself was a protector for the Prophet from the abuse that we would have experienced had Abu Talib not been there yet. But once he's dead, the intensification of the persecution, it comes as well. So the Prophet actually starts to become assaulted directly.  And so it starts to get a little bit more physical. And the Prophet becomes even more worried. So what he does is that he decides to go to the Pa'ev, the nearby town Pa'ev, to speak to the chiefdoms from Pa'ev. Now, these are three brothers who were the leaders there. He was hoping that they themselves would be given support. They refused. And then they went ahead and they incited the riffraff up against the Mushriki. And so they pelted him. They pelted him out of the Pa'ev until eventually he made his way into the metal or the land of one of his enemies. And his sons were watching. And so the famous prayer happened there that moment. One of the most passionate prayers and the most beautiful prayers that we know from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Dua of Five, happened. And so eventually after this occurs, the Prophet then he heads back to Makkah. And on his way back to Makkah, because Zaid Ibn Hadith is traveling with him. And Zaid is now afraid. He said, if you want to go back to Makkah despite everything. And so the Prophet ﷺ insured Zaid. Don't worry, Allah ﷻ. He's going to make sure that I'm the victorious, right? Because in this prayer, he says in the prayer. مَا لَمْ دِكُنْ إِلَّمْ بِكَ عَرِيَّ رَضَبٌ فَلَا أَبْوَ بَرِيَ. And as long as this is not a sign of your anger against me, Allah ﷻ, then I don't care about what happens at this point, right? So he's very confident despite of being abused and physically attacked, right? During this particular encounter. So he heads back with Zaid Ibn Hadith and back to Makkah. He sends word to مطعم أبن عدي, you know, asking for asylum or his protection as he goes into Makkah. مطعم, he promises that he will go and give him protection. So he goes into Makkah. But eventually, well, before that, he stops at a place called Makkah. And he and Zaid, they perform a tourakah as a prayer. And the Prophet is reciting audibly. And while he's reciting a group of the Jinn, they pass by. And they notice the recitation. They listen to what the Prophet ﷺ is saying, you know, and this itself leads them to believe. And later on Allah ﷻ sends word to the Prophet ﷺ that the Jinn, they had accepted Islam, accepted this message because of what they heard from his recitation of the Qur'an. And so here, what's this important point to highlight here is that that, again, when we're not talking about Isra'a yet, Isra'a still hasn't happened. But the Prophet ﷺ had went through a series of setbacks and a series of tribulations in his life. So again, his father, he never knew his father. He lost his mother very early. He only knew her for about a year. Then he loses his grandfather. Then eventually he starts to gain followers and they start to be persecuted. Some of the followers are lost.  People is as if like the number of people converting, it stops, right? And this is one of the other reasons why this particular year, I mean the year 10 is called the year of sadness. I'm a person, not only because he lost his uncle and he lost his wife Khadija, but because the message itself has been rejected. This is like the doors were closed in his face. And so it was very difficult for him to reach anyone, right? But Allah سبحانه وتعالى first sends him this message. Don't worry that Jinn, they have listened to you. They have heard you. So as if Allah سبحانه وتعالى is saying to him. So even if the people in the material realm are rejecting you, then those in the spiritual realm are accepting you, right? So to console him. And that's really what matters more than anything else. Is those in the spiritual realm, or the unseen realm are accepting you, that means more than anything else, right? And so eventually he makes his way to the house of Um Hanat, his cousin Um Hanat. He spends the night there. And so while he's sleeping, this is when the angel visits him and then takes him on this journey from Makkah to Jerusalem. Now once he arrives in Jerusalem, and he's riding on the back of the Barak, these very special animal that we know, all the prophets that they had had written. He arrives and he has a grand reception. So he arrives in Jerusalem and then one quotes. And all of the prophets are there. All of the major prophets are there. And so then he's asked to need them in Salah. So the prophets, right? Is asked to need all of them in Salah. Again, another sign of not only Allah's love for him, but Allah is choosing him over everyone else, right? So a grand reception. And after this is finished, this is when the angel approaches them and says, I have something to show you. And so then he opens and puts on display what it's called at Me'araj. Me'araj is said to be some sort of special type of ladder or escalator or something, which it helps one to descend into the heavens. And the prophet in one hadith said that The Me'araj is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I had never seen anything more beautiful than what I have seen the Me'araj.  So friends, you notice when people, when their soul is leaving their bodies there, their eyes eventually become fixated. What are their eyes fixated on? Their eyes are fixated on the Me'araj, right? So the prophet ﷺ, and to some extent we can say that this was sort of a version of like near-death experience, right? Except that he wasn't near-death, but he was completely alive. And so Allah سبحانه وتعالى He had them have this experience. So he saw things on this night that only an angel or a dead person would see. He experienced things and visited places on this night that only an angel or a dead person would probably ever experience or see, right? And so the angel took him up into the first heavens. And so he goes with جباري الهي سلام up to the first heavens. When he reaches the first heaven, he sees a man, he's sitting at the entrance or near the gates of the first heaven. And what he's doing, he seemed to be greeting souls as they enter into heaven. And so he would see one of them and he'd make a negative comment about them. روحن خبيث خرجت من جسدن خبيث a wicked or filthy or foul soul which came out of a foul body, right? And he says to another one روحن طيبة خرجت من جسدن طيب a good soul a dead soul a good soul a delightful soul which came out of a good body, right? And then the prophet, he turns to جباري الهي سلام he says, جباري الهي who is this? And so he says, This is your father أبوك آدم عليه السلام that this is your father آدم he greets or he he himself has given information about all of his progeny as they enter into as they enter into this particular realm. They transition they cross over that he himself he observes them as they enter as they enter into this particular realm. And so so I said that the reason why if he discovered that one of those children one of those souls was a disbelieving soul he would be upset and he would make this negative comment about about that person right about that soul. And if it was a believing soul he would say make a positive comment about the believing soul. And fundamentally I think that one of the lessons we learn from this is the importance of إيمان right that a loss of heart is ultimately wants every single person every single human being to believe in him. And all the prophets they value the believers right that more than they value non-believers what they non-believers a potential believer but believers are more important you know and a believing life is more invaluable in the sight of a loss of panel who's out of the non-believing life right. And so this is in this first heaven you know so the prophet eventually goes to what it's called باب الحفظة جبريل takes him to the gate of the guardians or the guardian angels right. And at the gate he meets an angel by the name of إسماعيل. And so when he reaches that gate إسماعيل says to إجبريل عليه السلام he said جبريل who is this person so جبريل says to him this is محمد and so إسماعيل responds so has he already been sent has he already been sent and so جبريل says yes is this time is he been sent and it said that as the prophet goes through all the heavens he passes to the first heaven to the second all the way to the seventh every time he reaches the door or the gate of each heaven the angels at the door they ask the question about okay who is he has he already been sent when he's told is محمد عليه السلام so again a grand reception for محمد الله عليه السلام and all this happened before he finally has this special meeting with the creator of the universe right. And so he's the lowest heaven in the lowest heaven he also meets the keeper or the trustee over the hellfire right. So all the angels when they greet the prophet they find out who he is they said they're laughing and they're very joyful and they're saying very nice things to him everyone has a you know nice smiling exterior and then he comes to this one angel and the angel is told to say this is محمد you know and so he meets the prophet and but he doesn't smile right. Like the other angels you know so he and Jibreel continue on their way and so the prophet turns to Jibreel and says Jibreel who's this angel here why is he doesn't smile he said oh don't worry there's Manik Manik doesn't smile in anyone and if he were to if he were to have a smile at anyone you would be most worthy of being smile there but he doesn't smile at all right. So don't don't don't think too much about that so the prophet they asked the angel Gabriel said Jibreel that you command all the angels and I was wondering if you would order Manik to show me the hellfire so Manik takes the prophet Muhammad to the hellfire and so the prophet witnesses a number of punishments happening right. So in the Shami mentions that there were four examples of people that were he was shown the ability of sexual indiscretion right. So one of the the property crimes was devouring the wealth of orphans right.  And so when they asked you who are these and these are the ones who devour and consume the wealth of the orphans then he goes to another group of people he sees another group of people said these are bunch of men they're they're sitting around their very large stomachs right but and the very large stomachs and but then they can't move and then all of a sudden these are those who devoured the people who actually consumed and paid and charged this is why they're being punished and then he passed by another group of men and these men were sitting down and they had a piece of fresh meat on one side of them and a people rotten meat on the other side of them and then they would look at each one of them and then they would chew their rotten meat and they would eat from it and they wanted to eat from the other from the rotten meat and then he asked who are these people why are they why do these men have to do this he said that these are the men who committed those men who chose the Haram over the Halal right and then he passed by according to my narration according to this narration passed by a group of women he saw they were being hung they were hanging by their breasts right and so he said well who are these women what did they do he said these women to their homes babies that didn't belong to their husbands right so so he was shown some of this and this is all in the first heaven so eventually جبير عاي السلام he kills with the prophet and he takes them to the second heaven in the second heaven he meets Aisha Ibn Maryam and Yahya and Yahya and Ibn Zakaria the two cousins the two maternal cousins and the third heaven he goes he meets the prophet Yusuf and the fourth heaven he meets the prophet عاي السلام in the fifth heaven he meets Haroon عاي السلام the brother of Mousa عاي السلام and then the sixth heaven he meets Mousa عاي السلام قليم الله and then in the seventh heaven he meets Ibrahim عاي السلام he meets Ibrahim عاي السلام and then eventually they come to a place they come to a point called the سزرات المنطاع right and if جبير he tells the prophet that he can no longer go with them and so he said you can only go the only you can go beyond this point and so the prophet he moves beyond the seventh heaven and enters into the low tree of the highest limit right and so when he gets there is a very fascinating spectacular display happens you know where what look like of many many number large large number of golden butterflies you know they're landing on the tree you know and then they disperse right and they disperse and then then he has this conversation with الله سبحانه وتعالى and as we know الله سبحانه وتعالى prescribes to him the five prayers on this particular night which began with fifty you know so الله سبحانه وتعالى take these fifty prayers return to your and tell them that they have the obligation to pray them and every time in his way back down he could pass by موسى عاي السلام موسى say no how many did he tell he said fifty say well they won't be able to do it go ask him to reduce it so he returned so he returned and then he reduced the number then Allah reduced him by ten so forty returns موسى said no they won't be able to do it he reduces goes back again and then Allah reduces it another ten and ten and then back down and so موسى no no no but ask him again so he returns and then he reduces it another ten another ten times so it's twenty until eventually الله سبحانه وتعالى he says to him these I will reduce the number to five and these five were equal to fifty prayers موسى tells them that they won't be able to do this they won't be able to do this so we'll return ask Allah to reduce the burden once more and so the Prophet ﷺ told him that I feel I feel uneasy returning to Allah after he told me that these five were equal to fifty and so giving me the indication that he would not there was no need for me to return right so the Prophet returned on that night with the prayers the five prayers which should indicate to let us know how important these five prayers are how important these five prayers are because this all of this culminating in Allah سبحانه وتعالى giving him five compulsory prayers for the Muslims to pray every single day every single day and so the prayer is extremely important and of course we know the story after this returns to Mecca he wakes up and then he tells Omehanna about it Omehanna she's not excited and she don't think she should go do it or the other people anyway and then what happened and what happened but ultimately this is the story of Isra'a Na'raj and Breath now but we can say that perhaps some of the lessons that you can learn from this is that that first and foremost that Allah سبحانه وتعالى that his love is not necessarily going to manifest in the form of luxuries that that because when Allah loves someone it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to ت give them countryside كخيوم يارت it بناعب شر حديث حديث خير محمد سلوي نفس ريخеeenth ما يولد Schrكر من night��ح فيه هزار هزارالتذيييي ع hid هزر فإنه يرسله على مطلعهم ، حين نساعدهم. لذا ، عندما نساعد الله على المعادل، إذا كان من المجمعين الذي قد أعطيه نعمة ، من المجمعين ومأدين ، بأسراراً ، نساعد الله على ذلك ، يجب علينا جهة جداً. ومن الشيئ الذي يريده لديه جهة جداً يأتي بها. فهذا فقط لأننا لم نرى لأننا نرى أن الحياة تصدر بشكل أساسي لكي نحن نستطيع أن نحصل على حقيقاً ونفعل الأمر بشكل أساسي لا يعني أن الله سبحانه وتعالى أنه أعلم of what's happened which perhaps you can say is a second another lesson which is that as long as we are doing good as long as we do the right thing as long as we fulfill all those commandments we remain patient and we endure a tribulation we endure criticism and ridicule that Allah سبحانه وتعالى He always knows He knows at all times what's happened and Him knowing is all that really matters and it's really interesting that at the end of that verse the very first verse in Surah Al-Isra He says In the Huwa Samir In the Huwa Samir He is the all hearing, the all seeing and that is what matters at the end of the day is that if Allah sees it then it doesn't matter if no one else actually sees it because the credit is when it comes from Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so when it seems that the world is turning totally against you and you continue to be patient and committed in your religion the spiritual realm will be placed in your service and Allah سبحانه وتعالى He will see and He will come to your support and He will reward you for your patience and eventually you will have your victory eventually you will have your victory and after this the prophet returned refreshed that the love of God Allah's love is sweet but it's only sweet to those who love God and those who understand God and how God behaves and interacts with interacts with us so at any rate I hope that there was some benefit that came from that that lesson and this reflection upon hopefully in the future we'll be able to sit in one of the presence Insha'Allah and to gravitate and bounce and enjoy one of His energy but we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to grant you all a blessed Isra and Maharaj may the lessons be taken to heart may He keep your family safe may He increase and magnify your rewards for all the good that you do on these days may He grant you a part of the prophetic light that says that you are able to emulate the Masha'Allah both during good times and during bad times so we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to forgive us as well and to guide us and grant us His assistance سبحانه وتعالى ورحمة لله إلا أنت أصف في روك الله السلام عليكم ورحمة


The human population of the world is unhumanely distributed over the earth's surface. So here we have certain factors which are controlling the distribution of the human population. One of the factors is climate, second is relief feature, third is location and the other areas are also very important in the form of factors. But these are the major factors which are controlling the human population distribution. Why climate is important? Because of the activities. Human activities related to production and services are located in those areas where the climate is suitable. We have example of Pakistan. The Pakistan's economy is controlled by agriculture because the climate and certain other physical factors like soil which is suitable for agricultural area are available for the human activities. So that's why we have human cluster there. So second important factor is the location. The location if that country is located closer to the water body, that factor is also very important because most of the trade activities and the things which are related with the regional or global level, that location is very important. The third one which is the area where we have the factor of the distribution of the human population is the relief features. The plains are suitable for human settlement as compared to the mountainous regions. Desert is not suitable because of the climatic conditions not good there. So these are the areas where we can discuss a lot of things. Now the earth human population at the beginning of the 20th century stood at about 1.5 billion. So this is the beginning of the 20th century where the human population was 1.5 billion. But by the end of that century it exceed 6 billion population. Now why because of the certain things which are favourable for the human growth or human population's growth, some factors are involved. In which you can say that with the change of technology, we have the example of the medicine. After that, life saving drugs, the things which are life saving, serilated medicine were the market. So then you have the growth which is actually in the human population. This slide shows the major clusters of the human population. Again, the latitudinal extent is an important factor. As we are going north or south, the human population is decreasing. Because these are the areas where we have the below freezing temperature. So it is one of the factors that the things are not suitable for the human clusters. And most of the clusters are present in those regions where we have the agriculture land. Like example, we have a China, then we have South Asia and the areas which are closer to the middle attitude where rainfall is available. The things which are closer to the sea sites, the sea sites, i.e. the water body and the Europe which is actually controlled by the coal mining. That is why we get human clusters here. So some are actually controlled by the resources. There were mining resources, there were power sources where fossil fuels are available or metals are available. So the human cluster is present there. So those are actually the factors which are important for the distribution of the human population. But all clusters are unevenly distributed. We have example of China, which is a vast area. If we look at all of China, then most of the region is under less than 20% per square kilometer population. But the 50% area is densely populated area because of certain opportunities and the suitability. During the 1960s and 1970s, the rate of population growth increased so fast that disasters seemed to lie ahead in the form of mass famines and global social dislocations. Since then, technologically advancement have expanded food production even faster than the population has grown. And the global population growth rate has begun to slow. But as we will see, the problem resulting from the population explosion still prevailed. Hundreds of millions of people, mostly children, remain malnourished. Many countries, mostly in the poorer part of the world, continues to have population increase with which they cannot cope. So the human population increased from 1950 to onward. Now today it is closer to the 7 billion population. Why? Because of the certain opportunities or the things which are favorable to the human growth. This may be medical sciences, genetic engineering, technology, the flow, the economic condition. So the population nowadays is closer to the 7 billion. Now here we have certain stages which are important for the growth of the world population, human population. But it is actually controlled by natural increase. What is natural increase? Natural increase is actually the birth rate and the death rate. If we are studying the crude birth rate with crude death rate, that is actually the part of the natural increase. Now in stage 1, when pre-industrial era, the growth of the population was very slow. Because the level of technology was low and there was no awareness. In the second stage, in the early industrial era, rapid growth, i.e. people in awareness society and transportation networks, communication networks, we see that the birth rate of the population was similar but the death rate was less because some life-saving drugs were marketed. In the third stage, we see that the sudden decline in the birth rate because the industrial stage was matured and the population growth was slow. Because the availability of the market was rising and the birth rate was less. In the fourth stage, the post-industrial era has become more slow because we are passing through nowadays the post-industrial era. Now in this part of the world, we have the developed economies where the population growth that is closer to the zero and the developing economies have also become less. We have example of India, we have example of China and again in Pakistan which is closer to the 2.1% annual growth percentage in the growth rate. So why because of the education, it has played an important role for the reduction in the birth rate. So the focus of the study of the population geography is on the spatial aspect of demography. Demographic issues and problems vary not only region to region but country to country. This demography is the main characteristics of the population. We call the study of demography and its issues vary from region to region. As I said, the developed world is a region and the developing world is a region and country to country. If we compare Pakistan with Afghanistan, the demographic characteristics are different because of the cultural differences, because of the economic differences.


And welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I'm your host, Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney, clean energy advocate, and community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Power Up Hawaii is about a clean, renewable, and just energy future. To us here on the show, that means talking to all of the players who need to be engaged in the conversation, including those who may not be traditionally involved in the energy policy area. As we are well aware, we pay the highest energy rates in the country due to the need to import oil to burn. These high energy costs affect everyone in ways big and small. In particular, these high energy costs impact poor and low income people. High energy costs are a big part of Hawaii's high cost of living and have big impact on housing affordability. The numbers are staggering, and they may surprise you. According to research done in this area by Fisher, Sheehan, and Colton, home energy is a crippling financial burden for low income people in Hawaii. Hawaii households with incomes of below 50% of the federal poverty level pay 40% of their annual income simply on home energy bills, 40%. Home energy on affordability, however, is not only the province of the very poor. Those with incomes between 150% and 185% of poverty level take up 10% of income on energy. Hawaii households with incomes between 185% and 200% of the federal poverty level have energy bills equal to 8% of income. Of course, our housing costs are extremely high to begin with even before you take energy into account. I don't know anyone who isn't looking for more affordable housing, and affordable housing is in extremely short supply. This is a huge factor in why Hawaii has the nation's highest per capita rate of homelessness. There's also a reason why many people live in tight living quarters or leave Hawaii altogether. Now it makes all the sense in the world that people who have extra space on their properties seek to turn those spaces into dwellings, typically called accessory dwelling units or ADUs. This could be a dwelling for a relative or to establish a new income stream. Either way, it's an opportunity to bring more needed affordable and energy efficient housing to Hawaii. Now as anyone who has ever tried to develop an accessory dwelling unit knows, it is not easy to build additional dwellings on your property and also adhere to the legal codes and standards. Today we will speak with Aileen Lakaden of Hawaii Apple Seed Center for Law and Economic Justice. Hawaii Apple Seed Center, Hawaii Apple Seed is a non-profit law firm created to advocate on behalf of low income individuals and families in Hawaii on civil legal issues of statewide importance and to compliment the assistance provided by existing legal services in the state. They work on issues of housing poverty and health among other things. Now Aileen leads Hawaii Apple Seed's work on ADUs. For studying industrial and systems engineering at Virginia Tech, Aileen served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Hawaii Apple Seed. She hopes to apply her engineering background in innovative ways to carry out Hawaii Apple Seed's mission and leave a lasting impact in the communities that she serves. Welcome Aileen. Thank you so much for having me on your show today. Thank you so much Aileen for joining us. So first I know I gave some introduction about it, but if you could tell us a little bit more about Hawaii Apple Seed and the work that Hawaii Apple Seed does in the state. So a lot of what we do is research, policy development, coalition building and advocacy on key issues vital to economic self-sufficiency for Hawaii's residents. What we focus on are economic justice, housing, hunger, education and healthcare. And a lot of what I do is in research, education and advocacy. Well that's excellent and I think that's why I'm so excited to have here because it makes sense that the folks who are really looking to see that people in Hawaii can afford food, can afford healthcare, can afford housing are involved in this energy conversation particularly when you think about the amount of money that people, especially low income people spend on energy, right? So why don't you go ahead and tell us more about yourself and some of the work that you do with Hawaii Apple Seed? So I'm originally from New Jersey. I was born and raised there and I ended up going to engineering school in Virginia. And then I decided to come out and volunteer with Hawaii Apple Seed as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and AmeriCorps VISTA places volunteers at organizations that fight against poverty across America. I decided to do that, try to use my engineering background in a different way to try to give back to the community right out of college. So when I came on, I came on as their ADU project coordinator and what I did was kind of develop resources such as manual kind of outlining the A to Z about ADUs in the city and county of Honolulu because they were just recently legalized here. So no one really knows what they are still even though it's been a year and a half since the law passed. So I did that and held a few workshops in the community to educate the public and continue to do so. Excellent. Well, since we may as well, since you brought up the legality, we may as well talk a little bit about that. If you could maybe give us some background on sort of what were the, what was the state of, well actually maybe you can even back up and tell us a little bit about housing affordability in Hawaii and what the state of ADUs was before the law changed, what happened and what you guys helped do with a lot of other folks to make that law and make that law change for folks who may not know the story. So back in the 80s, the state legislature actually made it a requirement for all of the counties to have some sort of law allowing second dwelling units on single family properties to create additional housing. And those were called Ohana units, if you might have heard that term before. But then later on, the legislature gave that power to the counties themselves and each of the counties made their own specific rules. So the city and county of Honolulu actually made it so that Ohana units are only for family members only. So a lot of those Ohana units that were built in the 80s that were rented out were continued to be rented out but illegally people weren't paying taxes on those illegal units causing a lot of problems between neighbors and just causing problems in the housing community. And I can imagine if everyone's got different standards, there's got to be a lot of confusion right amongst the building community and amongst the property owners, amongst everybody. Right. And we thought that it doesn't really make sense that you limit it to family only. If you can rent these out to anybody responsibly, then that's a great idea to create additional housing units much needed. Let me ask, do you know why that restriction was there? Why that restriction was put there to family only? I am not sure. There was a little bit of a specific question and you did say back in the 80s, which was a while ago. I can speculate that various powers that be wanted to ease up the restrictions and enable folks to have more people live on these properties legally but didn't want to create a cottage industry and rental. Right. It involves actually enforcing those rules if you have to put rules in so they just didn't allow it I guess. But now they have changed their minds in recent years. Back in 2013 we released a report showing innovative ways to create additional housing units, which included accessory dwelling units and micro units, which existed here on Oahu before but they kind of all got phased out and now we're trying to bring them back because those are ways we can easily create more housing units in the limited space that we have. That's exactly right. So tell us a bit more about, when you say they changed their mind, it was like it was family only and then tell us a little bit about this, the newer ADU law. Was that 2014 or 2015? Tell me a little about it. So after we released our report in 2013 we released a policy brief specific to accessory dwelling units 2014-2015, worked with the local city government officials and the local construction industry to kind of put together a bill, bill 20, which passed in September of 2015. Got it. With much support from the mayor and the city council. Fantastic. So what about this bill 20 and what its provisions were and the changes that it made? So it allowed Oahuana units, it changed the Oahuana unit bill to include detached units because Oahuana units were also required before to be attached to a single family house but now it required them to be detached and give people more options. In addition to that it created legalized ADUs so now people can build actual rental units attached or detached on their properties. So they're limited in size of course but they are just like any apartment you would rent but even nicer because you're in a single family neighborhood in a single family home pretty much. So go ahead and let's dig in and talk a little bit about these ADUs because I think they're pretty exciting because there's this opportunity now if you can build this stand alone unit on your property to do something that's kind of neat and cool. And you wrote the manual so go ahead and tell us a bit about these ADUs. So for the city and county of Honolulu they're limited in size to 400 square feet if your lot is under 5,000 square feet in size and then up to 800 square feet if your lot is over 5,000 square feet. So they're pretty small but definitely big enough for at least two bedrooms if you go up to 800 square feet which is great for families who don't want to raise their kids in an apartment complex they want that single family neighborhood feel and it's definitely good for homeowners here it doesn't require any government subsidy. Right because people are looking to do this. Right, yeah. Everyone's looking to do this. Right, it's such a great opportunity to invest in your property and build up your property's value by creating a rental unit and they can be really really nice they can be as simple as you want it to be it could be attached detached it could be a garage conversion or a carport conversion it could be your basement. There's so many different options you could take. And who might typically live in this type of unit this could be a family number it could be somebody renting it could be anyone you feel. Right, right. So traditionally people will rent it to family or just anyone you know using the traditional model like Craigslist or you know Apartment Finder but there are a lot of students who are looking for housing in good neighborhoods and a lot of people are looking to age in place and stay in their houses. That's exactly correct. So they want to either move into their ADU and rent out their big house if their kids have moved out and it's just them on their own or rent it to a caretaker if they need extra help at home. Well we are about to go to a short break and then we will be back with Eileen Lakadan from Hawaii Appleseed talking about accessory building units. Hello this is Martin Despingh I want to get you get excited about my new show which is Humane Architecture for Hawaii and Beyond. We're going to broadcast on Tuesdays 5 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. Hi this is Jane Sugimura I'm the co-host for Condo Insider and we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at 3 o'clock and we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners and I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. Aloha I'm Carl Campania host of Think Tech Hawaii's Movers, Shakers and Reformers. I hope you join us over the next several weeks as we take a deep dive into biofuels in Hawaii and explore the alternative fuels supply chain necessary for the local and global transition towards transportation fuel sustainability. Join us as we have good conversations with our farmers, our producers, our conversion technologies, our investors and our legislators as we try to achieve our transportation sustainability goals. See you soon. Hello and welcome back to Power Up Hawaii. I'm your host, Raya Solter. We're here today talking with Eileen McAden from Hawaii, Hawaii Appleseed and we're talking about accessory dwelling units, housing affordability and also we'll talk a bit about energy efficiency. So thank you again so much for being here Eileen. So we've been talking about these ADUs, we've been talking about their benefits and how it is really desirable for anyone who's got a property to have that option to be able to develop it and get some extra income or have a family member live with them while not living with them. But what are some of the drawbacks and some of the pushback that has come for them against these ADUs and from what corners does this opposition come from? Some people have complained that it'll overcrowd neighborhoods that are already overcrowded but the thing is some of these neighborhoods can't actually take on additional housing units so wherever a neighborhood is too cramped they're not going to be allowed but it's kind of necessary for us to utilize some of these underutilized spaces in our urban neighborhoods and create additional dwelling units if people are willing to do it. I think other drawbacks are the additional financial investment. Construction is the most expensive in the country here so that's the thing people need to actually have the money up front to do it. ADUs can cost from maybe 20,000 to 60,000 just for the supplies alone. So it could be two to three times that including the labor. That's tremendous cost. Right. Well we're talking about the cost of housing or the cost in the designs of these units. Hey, I know that you guys have worked with various folks, architects and others in the building community to really work on some cool stuff for ADUs. Could you tell us a little bit about that? We did have one architect, Architects Hawaii, who developed a model for us to provide free to the public to show actually how cool an ADU could be for models designed specifically for a property in Hawaii and how cool it could look on the yard, how energy efficient it could be designed. They came up with a really awesome model for us for a single person. It has everything you need. It's an efficiency, bed rolls down, tiny micro kitchen, but it has a lot of outdoor space. It has a lanai, good airflow, energy efficient appliances and everything. So you can live in a very comfortable space. You've got some pictures, and then there's so many different. This looks like a really kind of traditional, almost sort of like log-gavany style of house that is extremely attractive and takes advantage of all that outdoor space. And I'll ask, something that's interesting is when you think about these accessory units, you also think about utility service and electricity and the energy, and we talked about the energy costs. So I would think that there's probably a lot of potential not only for they to be energy efficient, but to utilize solar or other components, or there's the potential for that. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. Especially with all those PV battery systems coming out, it would be so easy to power the entire ADU on a PV battery system alone, because it's such a small unit. Solar water heater, it can take everything a normal single-family home can take on. And that is so interesting, because now I think energy efficiency and renewable energy are probably, can potentially anyway, be a big part of that investment decision when you're thinking about the energy costs. Because I don't know, I think I thought if many of us have the dream of living in Hawaii in a small sort of simple ADU-type space somewhere, and we've all looked at those kits you can buy for like $8,000 or $9,000 and get some cool like Hindu temple-type space or whatever. And I'm here now with these, we're talking about much larger investment. It would seem, and actually I won't ask you directly about this, because it may or may not be your province, but then if you're not going to have it be off the grid, then you're going to have to talk to the utility company about extending the main and extending service out to that ADU. Is that something that you're familiar with? It may not be your area. I know that people have the option, people come to me all the time asking, do I have to have a separate utility, or do I not, can I include it with the house, how do I bill it separately, but you have the option, it's actually up to the homeowner on what you want to do with all the utilities. That is so interesting. I'd be interested to know what the experience of it, you know, someone doing an ADU has had with the utility and making those decisions, maybe we can do another show on that. So, yeah, we talked about the ADUs, we talked about the opportunities. Is there a place on the island where some of these new cool innovative designs or ADUs are sort of popping up? From what I've heard from the city, only about a hundred maybe actual ADU permits have been given out with at least more than 1,100 people applying initially with interest, but I think big areas, these are going up are probably Hawaii, where people have a little bit more space, and I know a lot of people on the windward side who are looking into getting prefab units done, where they don't have to pay a lot for labor. And I know when I used to work on the mainland for environmental organizations, and prefabricated housing was a really big deal and a really important issue in terms of advocacy. It's not the previous generation's prefab housing, there's just some great stuff made with all kinds of materials that can be reclaimed. It doesn't need to be sort of something plastic. Actually, perhaps now, your background isn't also in the built environment, yeah? A little bit. Or more engineering, okay, so I won't go ahead and ask you more built environment questions. So, what are some of the reasons why so many people showed interest, and so few people were able to actually get permits? I think it's just the hesitation because it's such a new thing to Oahu, that people want to see what other people are doing first. They want to see what they look like, they want to see them in their neighborhoods and they want to see them being successfully used and used in a responsible way. Right. And I think there will be continued interest, and as people kind of realize and save up for that initial investment, because it is a huge initial investment, they will actually go through with the project. Also, there's a lot of different companies that are offering ADU services, like any contractor can do the work for you, if you hire an architect to do the actual design. But more and more companies are popping up here and there, offering prefabricated units which tend to be cheaper, so that will entice the market a little bit more. Well, thank you for that. I know that you have written a handbook in A to Z. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. So it's about 60 pages long and it kind of A to Z, so it's got to have some substance there. Yeah. So for people who are actually looking into building one of these things and don't know how to start at all, you can take this handbook and it goes from step one, what is an ADU? What can it look like? You can hold up the cover here. Here's the handbook. Yeah. And then the first steps, like going to the city, filling out an ADU pre-check form to make sure that your property is eligible to add an ADU to it, make sure utilities cover it, your road is wide enough, make sure you have wastewater capacity, things like that. And then about a month later, they'll tell you whether or not you can build one.  We actually have a website in addition to our handbook. Oh, great. HawaiiADU.org. Oh, great. Where we have a list of construction professionals who have reached out to us wanting to share that they're doing ADUs on Oahu. I know there's a lot of local builders making tiny homes on Big Island. Yeah. That's a tiny home thing. That's very trendy. Yeah. It's pretty similar. It's pretty much an ADU, but ADUs can be a little bit bigger and more permanent. That's the only difference, really. And we're seeing more and more companies added to our list as the months go by. I'm sure by next year it'll double. But then back to the manual. It goes into financing different ways you can finance a home addition in general, how to properly hire a construction professional so you can trust who you're working with and trust them to build you the wonderful ADU that you're looking for. So it really kind of takes you from A to Z and sort of the beginner to help you. And this is available on the website? Yes. HawaiiAppleseedADU.org? HawaiiADU.org. Sorry. HawaiiADU.org. And we're about to close in a few minutes. What can somebody do if they want to get more information, get in touch with you guys, figure out if there's a way they can help with the ADU project or other projects that HawaiiAppleseed does? Well, I welcome anyone to contact me at HawaiiAppleseed. You can email me, Eileen, at hiappleseed.org, or come to our HawaiiADU website where we have all our resources available. We even have, in addition to the website and this manual, we have three open source plans available on our website that you can use, you can take to an architect and kind of make it your own and have it site specifically designed. Can I say, I think this is tremendous and I just also want to say it's such a contribution for VISTA volunteers, someone with a brand new engineering degree from Virginia Tech to decide to take basically a volunteer position to create these resources for low income folks in Hawaii and to help with housing affordability. I think it's just tremendous. Thank you so much, Eileen, for your work and for your being with us on the show today. And that just about wraps up another edition of Power Up Hawaii. Aloha, Mahalo, and see you next week, everybody.