An act of generosity

Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multi-million dollar mansions to low-income Native Hawaiian families.

Billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto, who hails from Japan says that he plans to open eight of his tewnty-two mansions in Kahala, Hawaii to benefit needy Hawaiian families. They will be able to stay in the houses for up to ten years. He also gave each family $1,000 to help them move in. For Dorie-Ann Kahale, this is a godsend! Many tears of thankfulness spilled down Ms. Kahale's cheeks as the key to her new home were handed to her personally by Mr. Kawamoto.
Ms. Kahale became homeless two years ago when her landlord raised her rent, putting it out of reach with her current salary.
"What we need to do is appreciate," Ms. Kahale said after getting the keys to her new house. "As fast as we got it, it could disappear." She was one of over three thousand low income Native Hawaiian families picked by Mr. Kawamoto to move into his mansions. She certainly was grateful! "I'm shocked. I'm overwhelmed," She said. "From the little box we had to what we have today."

Her house is worth over five million dollars! Although that amount must seem like pocket money to Mr. Kawamoto.
Mr. Kawamoto faced criticism after evicting tenants in his rental homes so he could sell the property, as in 2002, when he gave California renters 30 days to leave. He has done this three more times since then. So whether he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, or just to improve his image, I don't know. I should hope it is the former! However it is, some of his neighbors are accusing him of doing this just to drive down real estate values and snap up more homes. Mr. Kawamoto countered that "The people who don't want to live near Hawaiians should move." His arguments seem genuine, but I do hope this isn't for publicity or anything. Not that he really needs it...

Mr. Kawamoto owns many offices in Tokyo, Japan, and has been buying and selling real estate in Hawaii and California since the 1980s. Ms. Lyn Worley, who moved into another Kawamoto house said, "We prayed so hard and cried so much for God to drop something from the skies, and he did." "He did, he really, really did."