First Unitarian Church’s minister imparts wisdom of faith with poetry

By Mary Adamski

Other ministers who know him were not surprised to hear the Rev. Mike Young of First Unitarian Church of Honolulu quote poet Robert Frost at a prayer-and-politics rally Tuesday at Kukui Gardens.

It was a familiar line — “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in” — that has been used in songs and appropriated by various causes.

Young followed it up with the sentiment that in Hawaii a home is a place where you have to have a half-million dollars to get one. That’s an ineloquent paraphrase. It was a sentiment that summed up the cause joined by several faith organizations trying to get government and banks to support housing for low-income citizens at the downtown Kukui Gardens project and in our society in general.

Quoting from other writers, be they biblical or classical or modern expressions, is stock in trade for ministers who, at their best, go on to develop the thought in their own words.

Young has the enviable distinction of being a resource that others quote. He writes sermons and mediations for services, and a column in the Unitarian church’s monthly newsletter. He is a frequent contributor to the “On Faith” column on this page.

He tells of using his poem “My Father Wept” in a talk at a ministers conference. A colleague asked him where he had heard it. When Young said he had written it 25 years earlier, the other pastor pulled out a tattered clipping from his pocket. It was the poem that moved him so much that he carried it with him for years.

Praxis International, a Pennsylvania publishing house, has just released “A Preacher’s Poems,” a collection from Young’s 40 years as a minister. The slim paperback volume is available from the publisher and at Amazon.com.

Praxis Vice President Greg Gore found Young’s sermons on the church Web page and used some on the “Zen for the Rest of Us” Web site. When Gore found Young’s poetry, he suggested publishing the book.

Praxis has already had a request from a college to use one meditation, “The Human Touch Who Needs It.” It is a philosophical exploration of how people need, but fear and limit, touch as a way to communicate with each other. Young wrote the piece as a sermon in 1965. He said it has been reprinted in five books, including a psychology textbook and a Disciples of Christ religious education curriculum.

The compositions — what a poetry-phobic newswriter would describe as philosophical musings or lyrical meditations rather than poems — started as seeds of sermons. “I work on an idea, and sometimes part of it works sermonically and another part becomes a poem,” he said.

The body of work is mostly celebratory, with themes of love and understanding and awe, but also questioning death and facing loss and facing personal flaws. There are reflections of Young’s dedication to social justice causes and his advocacy for interfaith understanding. Another poem that has been widely borrowed and quoted is “Friends and Enemies, Half a Dialogue,” a potent peace message written in a voice that seems to praise distrust and hate.

Taking time to write and reflect on life is in the job description, he said. “That is what a minister, at least in my tradition, is expected to do: He is supposed to have a contemplative life of his own.” He said he has the extra stimulus of having “a wife who is also a fine poet.” Nancy Young’s work has been published in the Bamboo Ridge literary journal.

He said, “My best compliment came when a member introduced me as ‘our minister and resident poet.’”

Mary Adamski writes weekly about Hawaii’s houses of worship. She can be reached at madamski@starbulletin.com.

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Kukui Gardens feels pinch

FACE (Faith Action for Community Equity) members Nancy S. Young, chair of the organization’s Affordable Housing Committee, and Patrick Zukemura, holding the microphone, were at the prayer vigil yesterday afternoon, as was City Councilman Rod Tam.

Norman Shapiro | The Honolulu Advertiser Photographer

By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Worried Kukui Gardens tenants gathered yesterday to pray for a breakthrough in the sale of state tax credits — needed to keep the property affordable — and to plead with lawmakers, banks and neighbors for help.

“We’re not in a very good spot right now,” Carol Anzai, president of the Kukui Gardens Residents Association, said before a prayer vigil yesterday afternoon outside the 857-unit, low-income development on the edge of Chinatown. “We still need to be on our toes. Kukui Gardens is still here. We still have to save our homes.”

Kukui Gardens tenants have been in limbo for three years, ever since the former owner of the project offered to sell the property for upscale development.

After months of rallying to save affordable units, a deal was reached in late 2007, when the buyer of Kukui Gardens — San Francisco-based Carmel Partners — agreed to sell half of the project for $72 million to keep it affordable.

The affordable portion is on 11 acres and includes 400 units.

Its buyers also plan to build an additional 400 affordable units.

The state helped patch together funding to keep half of Kukui Gardens affordable by offering $64 million in state bonds and $5 million in state tax credits. The remaining $21 million was to be raised with federal tax credits.

But that plan is in jeopardy because of the nation’s economic downturn.

$26M AT STAKE

Of greatest concern right now is $5 million in state tax credits, which Kukui developers EAH Housing and Devine & Gong of San Francisco are having trouble selling. The preservation of the existing low-income units and the construction of new ones is, for now, — stalled until the credits sell.

That’s because to tap into about $21 million in federal tax credits, which would sell relatively easily, the developers must first sell the state tax credits.

The federal government and states issue tax credits as a way to spur development of affordable housing. The credits can then be sold to investors to help fund construction and renovation costs.

The floundering markets, though, have made state tax credits much less desirable and many are not selling.

For Kukui Gardens residents, the details of the sale are perplexing.

Just a few months ago, they say, they thought their homes were safe.

Now, they’re being told the deal is no longer a sure thing.

“We’ve got to keep our homes,” said Chun Yuk Don, 84, who has lived at Kukui Gardens for 38 years. His friend, 82-year-old Hong Ming Yeung, added that he would have no place to stay if Kukui Gardens is no longer affordable.

“I’ll go to ‘A’ala Park,” he said.

Affordable-housing advocates and members of Faith Action for Community Equity, which has been instrumental in saving Kukui Gardens, say they are worried about just what happens if the state tax credits can’t be sold. One possibility for offsetting the loss of $26 million in tax credits, they say, is raising rents.

“We’re reaching out to everybody” for help, said the Rev. Bob Nakata of FACE.

APPEAL TO BANKS

At yesterday’s prayer vigil, housing advocates and Kukui Gardens tenants called on banks to buy some or all of the $5 million in state tax credits. Anzai said negotiations with local banks are ongoing, and appear somewhat promising.

Many yesterday also pledged to keep up the fight until Kukui Gardens is saved.

“We will be here until this project is done,” said the Rev. Mike Young.

Alan Mark, state president of FACE, added that it will take the whole community rallying — again — to make sure Kukui Gardens doesn’t become another victim of the bad economy.

“As we gather here, we are mindful,” Mark told attendees, “we can not only make a difference, we can be the difference.”

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Kukui Gardens prays for stimulus

FL Morris/ fmorris@starbulletin.com
The Kukui Gardens Residents Association and Faith Action for Community Equity held a prayer vigil yesterday on Liliha Street. Residents want help to make $21 million of affordable housing tax credits available for developers to stimulate expansion of the affordable housing project. Yun Don Chun, a 40-year resident of Kukui Gardens, rallied the crowd.

Residents hold a vigil to call for fiscal help for affordable housing

By Mary Adamski

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 28, 2009

Community organizers whose efforts helped save Kukui Gardens as an affordable housing complex were back in action yesterday at a prayer vigil calling for lawmakers and local bankers to support their plan despite the grim state of the economy.

About 30 people gathered on Liliha Street to hear members of Faith Action for Community Equity and Kukui Gardens Residents Association express prayers they hope are heard six blocks away, at City Hall and the state Capitol.

They seek a share of the $825 billion economic stimulus package now before Congress, said the Rev. Bob Nakata, FACE president. “When the money starts flowing, it will flow through the city and the state government. We are trying to get on their lists.”

Specifically they want help to make $21 million of affordable housing tax credits available for developers to stimulate expansion of the project. FACE coordinator Nancy Young said a mainland bank, Massachusetts Mutual, bailed out of a commitment to invest late last year. “We have banks in Hawaii and we need their help.”

Nakata said, “We don’t want to see the victory of a year ago turn into ashes.” FACE and the tenant group filed suit to force the original owners of the 875-unit housing project to find new owners that would keep it affordable. The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. now holds half of the property, which will remain in affordable rentals.

Plans are to build new affordable units to replace about 400 units that were bought by a California developer and can be upgraded to market-rate housing after 2012.

“We love this home, we don’t like to become homeless,” said 82-year-old Yun Don Chun, a Kukui Gardens resident since it opened in 1970. He said he retired from an Outrigger Hotels parking job, never able to afford a more expensive home for his family. His children have moved on, leaving Chun and his wife “happy in this safe place. If we had to leave, I don’t know where we would go.”

Carol Anzai, president of the residents association, said the nonprofit Ecumenical Association for Housing, which leases and administers the low-income housing, intends to build but “can’t move until the state acts.”

The Rev. Sam Domingo, pastor of Keolumana United Methodist Church, urged the crowd to talk to state and city lawmakers. “Prayer is effective when it has legs, arms, movement. Raise your voices, your hands … to help our brothers and sisters have a home to live in.”

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Kukui Gardens Residents Fight For Their Homes

Written by KGMB9 News – news@kgmb9.com

A deal to keep Kukui Gardens “affordable” could come back to haunt tenants. Millions of dollars are needed to replace units where rents will soon rise. But prayers may not be enough to save their homes.

Residents held a vigil outside the complex this afternoon. They’re concerned that funding will dry up for their low-cost housing project. The state needs investors to pitch in $5 million for tax credits to replace 400 units that are being converted to regular rentals.

“We thought it was over, everything was settled, but when the economy turned over, everything went bad,” Carol Anzai from the Kukui Gardens Residents Association said. “So now we’re looking for that money to keep us going, otherwise, there’s a lot of people that’s going to be homeless.”

2,500 people live in the complex paying anywhere from 450 to 1100 dollars for rent. Right now there are 857 units. Half of those will be taken out of the affordable housing pool soon. That was one of the conditions of the sale in 2006.

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Prayer vigil set for today at Kukui Gardens

Advertiser Staff

The Kukui Gardens Residents Association and Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) will hold a prayer vigil on at 2:30 p.m. today at the Liliha Street entrance to Kukui Gardens.

Event organizers said tenants have fought for nearly three years to keep their housing affordable. The state Legislature had appropriated $52 million over the last two years to make this a reality. However, the economic crisis has made it difficult for the state to get investors to purchase the $5 million of affordable housing tax credits which would help build almost 400 affordable units needed to replace units that will be redeveloped to market rate housing, vigil organizers said.

They said the prayer vigil is being held in hopes of gathering support from federal, state, local officials and the public to assist in whatever way possible to get the tax credit sold. Once sold this will automatically trigger $21 million of federal housing tax credits for Kukui.

Kukui Gardens consists of 857 affordable rental units which are home to more than 2,500 residents. The project was sold by the Clarence Ching Foundation to Carmel Partners and the state for $131 million. The project is currently being managed by the Ecumenical Association for Housing (EAH) and Carmel Partners. They will also be in charge of the redevelopments