A donation from Priscilla Chan and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will help make five homes on Kauai affordable to moderate- income households in perpetuity.

The $626,000 donation from the married couple, who are major landowners on the Garden Isle, will enable Permanently Affordable Living Hawai‘i to sell five homes with ground leases held by a land trust created by the nonprofit.

The five homes slated for construction in 2025 in Kilauea will be sold to households earning 80% to 120% of Kauai’s median household income under 99-year ground leases with nominal lease rent.

Under the leasehold land arrangement, the nonprofit retains ownership of the land and is able to sell the homes for far less than fee-simple housing. Homebuyers can pass on the homes to relatives or resell the homes as long as new owners meet income limits.

“We are deeply grateful for Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg’s support,” Larry Graff, executive director of Permanently Affordable Living, said in a statement. “The beauty of this gift is that it will have a generational impact. Their generosity will further our mission to create affordable, sustainable living for the people of Kaua‘i by safeguarding these homes for future generations.”

People who live or work in Kilauea will have a priority to buy the homes in the project, named Kauhale o Kilauea.

Permanently Affordable Living, which announced the donation Nov. 25, said selling the homes under ground leases can make housing affordable to families who otherwise might be priced out of their own community.

Income limits this year to qualify for the homes to be built by Permanently Affordable Living equate to $74,320 for a single person and $106,160 for a family of four at the low end of the range (80% of median income) and $111,480 for a single person and $159,240 for a family of four at the high end (120% of the median income).

Kauhale o Kilauea is one of three leasehold home development projects on Kauai in the works by Permanently Affordable Living.

The nonprofit, formerly known as Neighborhood Housing Community Development Corp., is also trying to raise money to develop four homes at a project called Kauhale o Waipouli and 10 homes at a project called Kauhale o Kalaheo where ownership of the land would be retained by the nonprofit’s Ho‘omaluhia Community Land Trust.

Kauai Habitat for Humanity is also developing homes as part of the same projects for homebuyers who contribute group labor and will receive fee-simple ownership.

The donation from Chan and Zuckerberg is being used by Permanently Affordable Living to cover the cost of the land for the five homes in the Kauhale o Kilauea project.

Chan and Zuckerberg have upset some Kauai residents for their control of land on Kauai but also have been prolific givers to charitable causes in Hawaii since buying hundreds of acres on the island for more than $150 million.

The couple initially bought roughly 700 acres for about $100 million in late 2014 plus nearly 600 acres for $53 million in 2021, which formed a contiguous estate on agricultural and conservation land that includes farm operations and a residence referred to as Ko‘olau Ranch that Chan and Zuckerberg call their Hawaii home.

Chan and Zuckerberg in 2021 also bought 110 acres of agricultural land that includes most of the earthen Ka Loko Reservoir that broke March 14, 2006, releasing an estimated 400 million gallons of water that swept seven people downstream in the same area on Kauai’s North Shore.

Donations from the couple have included $1 million for Kauai flood relief efforts in 2018 and a $50 million gift to the University of Hawaii in 2022 for researching the impact of climate change on the ocean over seven years.