Zoomers and Boomers, remote workers and retirees, rely on movers like Mana Lolo to schlep furniture and household goods from containers into dream homes along the Kona Coast.

Lolo and his coworkers at Kona Trans handle big household moves. They’re often moving in people who have “made it” elsewhere and are ready to claim their reward: a place in paradise.

Lolo is on the frontline of the struggle over the cost of living in Hawaii.

“You can’t fault people that work hard to make their money and they just want to live their best life,” he said.

“For instance, there’s a couple from California and we have moved them in at Honaunau Bay. Nice, nice place, nice area. I guess they came here on vacation in 2016, saw the piece of land, fell in love with it, and bought it. They built their dream home right over Honaunau Bay. That’s the kind of people that we see moving in.” 

However, every box he unpacks for a newcomer brings him closer to packing his own family’s belongings and leaving. 

Lolo, 40, has been saving to move his family to Oregon for two years. His wife grew up on Hawaii island and they raised their two sons here. Now that his older son, Semisi, has graduated from Kealakehe High School, he’s planning on leaving Hawaii.

“My sons know that the mainland has a lot more to offer, but they also know they’ll miss this place because this is where they grew up.”

“It’s just sad that after 20 years living here that we are actually going to leave this place,” he said. “The cost of living is just too expensive. The pay, it’s just not much. People with money are moving over to Hawaii and building their dream homes and affecting the prices of homes and stuff out here and I just feel like, what can we do about that? Man, there’s nothing.”

Lolo knows that leaving Hawaii could be hard for his boys, just like it was for him when, at 13, his family moved to California for better economic opportunities.

“It was a culture shock for me to move from the little island to the mainland,” he said “Everything was just a shock. I managed to finish high school, but really I was a lost kid.”

He returned to island life soon after finishing school in California.

“When I moved back over here, I completely felt at home,” Lolo said. “Just everything, the people, the food, the lifestyle.”

Leaving Hawaii can be tough emotionally and financially. For most families, they have to save up to make the move away. It isn’t a matter of suddenly deciding to leave and then you’re gone. It can be a struggle to keep afloat while scraping up savings. 

“I’m thinking of picking up a second job just to have a little bit more cash,” said Lolo. “Most people are here working two, three jobs. That’s normal for local people.”

And Lolo considers himself fortunate because of his housing situation: “I used to rent, but right now I’m staying at a place that my mom-in-law bought. So I’m just paying HOA fees right now and saving up money for the move that we have to do next year. So yeah, I just feel lucky.”

Lolo and locals don’t hire moving companies like his to ship their goods from Hawaii. They take suitcases, not containers.

When I asked him if he thought he’d move back to Hawaii again one day, I was hopeful for a “yes.”

“I don’t think so, but my wife believes we will, she’s pretty much a Big Island girl,” he said. “She believes that we’re coming back here once the kids are settled on the mainland. But I don’t know, I think it’s going to be hard.”

Lolo said he was surprised to learn that there are now more Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders living outside of Hawaii than in Hawaii.

It’s the reason why the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement will be hosting its convention in Las Vegas next week. 

“I think we got to look at the politicians, people who’re running the state,” he said. “I feel like they’re looking out for the tourists and the rich people more than they’re looking out for the actual local people out here.” 

So what happens when movers like Lolo are forced to move away from Hawaii because they’ve been “priced out of paradise” because of the people they helped move in? I hate to use the word “irony,” but it’s the word I can’t get out of my head. 

So what’s to be done? Does he have a solution to the situation?

“I just feel like a lot of people — I just accept it as is and just try to move on,” he said. “If you just sit around and be salty about it, it’s just not going to help. Hawaii is special. It’s such a destination that everybody else wants to move out here. People with money are just living their best life, but the local people are struggling.”