Forget the party and the cake.

About 60 volunteers will celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Institute for Human Services today at Kalihi Valley Homes with sponges and paint brushes.

The organization will renovate five vacant public housing units at the project, scrubbing them from top to bottom, painting walls and fixing screens, replacing plumbing and electrical components and mowing and weeding their tiny lawns so that families can move in.

"We had heard about the public housing units that were empty and needed some repairs ... so we decided to incorporate a community service project into our founder's day," said Kate Bepko, public relations and volunteer manager at the Institute for Human Service, which operates emergency homeless shelters in Kalihi and Iwilei. "We expect it will be a great event."

IHS is the latest nonprofit to chip in and try to renovate units at public housing projects statewide.

At last count, there were about 300 public housing units still vacant, not counting apartments set to be demolished or on the list for major contracted reconstruction work, said Chad Taniguchi, Hawai'i Public Housing Authority executive director. About half of the 300 units need major repairs.

In recent months, several other organizations — including YouthBuild and the Hawaii Carpenters Union — have come forward to augment work by contractors and state maintenance crews. Prisoners also have pitched in, though not for free, sometimes working on other maintenance projects to free up personnel for renovation work.

Those efforts have made a dent in the backlog of empty units waiting for repairs, but housing officials point out there is still a lot of work to be done.

And Taniguchi said every bit of help is appreciated.

"We can definitely use the help," he said. "We need help from the residents, as well as nonprofits."

Taniguchi invited other groups to pitch in, either as a weekend project or over a longer stretch.

The event at Kalihi Valley Homes starts at 9 a.m. today.

By the end of the day, three apartments will be ready to move in to and two others will be nearly completed, Bepko said. During a break in the work, Mayor Mufi Hannemann will give an IHS family the keys to a unit finished earlier. The unit to be moved in to was not renovated by IHS volunteers.

The event celebrates the birthday of IHS founder Father Claude DuTeil, who started IHS on the day he turned 58. In the past, IHS has marked the day with festivities, music and a big lunch.

But this year, the board of directors wanted to give something back to the community.

Bepko said this is the first year the nonprofit has tied founder's day in with a service project.

If all goes well, she said, it likely won't be the last.

Volunteers for the project are coming from IHS and community businesses.

No one who lives at an IHS shelter will be participating.

There are electricians and plumbers among those who will donate their time. Those who are less technically minded will be charged with everything from dusting and scrubbing to replacing doors and screens, Bepko said, with a laugh.

As part of the project, volunteers have been raising money to earn a "living wage" for their work. The money will be donated to IHS. So far, Bepko said, about $10,000 has been pledged.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.