FACE and ACORN

Recently there have been public allegations made about connections between FACE and ACORN. There are no formal connections between FACE and ACORN, and there never have been. ACORN, despite its troubles is a good organization that works on affordable housing and urban renewal in many states across the U.S. Hawaii isn’t one of them though, and hasn’t been for some time.

FACE’s only contact with ACORN was a single meeting on healthcare in 2008 when they showed up for the launch of our healthcare campaign, along with the Kokua Council, the ILWU, and the Teamsters. We had hoped they would support our campaign, but they dissolved their Hawaii office a week later.

Group Backs Housing Director

Housing Board Seeks To Replace Chad Taniguchi

HONOLULU — A housing and health care advocacy group gathered on Saturday to thank the governor and lawmakers for listening to their pleas about affordable housing this session.

Members of FACE, which is short for “Faith Alliance for Community Equity,” met Saturday.

But some were disappointed that both Gov. Linda Lingle and Hawaii Housing director Chad Taniguchi were no-shows.

The group considers Taniguchi an ally, and members said they were upset to learn the Hawaii Housing Authority Board is looking to replace him.

Some longtime residents at Kuhio Park Terrace are asking the board to reconsider its decision.

“Of the 24 years I have lived at KPT, I have never worked alongside an executive director like I have with Chad Taniguchi,” June Talia said. “This man goes above and beyond the call of duty.”

When reached on Saturday, Taniguchi declined to discuss why the board took the action it did this week.

But he said he would like to reapply for the post.

He is proudest of his work in the past two years, including balancing the agency’s budget, which had long been in the red.

Housing Board Seeks To Replace Chad Taniguchi

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HONOLULU — A housing and health care advocacy group gathered on Saturday to thank the governor and lawmakers for listening to their pleas about affordable housing this session.

.

Members of FACE, which is short for “Faith Alliance for Community Equity,” met Saturday.

.

But some were disappointed that both Gov. Linda Lingle and Hawaii Housing director Chad Taniguchi were no-shows.

.

The group considers Taniguchi an ally, and members said they were upset to learn the Hawaii Housing Authority Board is looking to replace him.

.

Some longtime residents at Kuhio Park Terrace are asking the board to reconsider its decision.

.

“Of the 24 years I have lived at KPT, I have never worked alongside an executive director like I have with Chad Taniguchi,” June Talia said.

“This man goes above and beyond the call of duty.”

When reached on Saturday, Taniguchi declined to discuss why the board took the action it did this week.

.

But he said he would like to reapply for the post.

.

He is proudest of his work in the past two years, including balancing the agency’s budget, which had long been in the red.

.

Go to original article.

Hawaii public housing agency may replace executive director

By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Chad Taniguchi

AT A GLANCE

Chad Taniguchi, at a glance:

The Hawai’i Public Housing Authority is the state’s largest affordable housing landlord.
The agency oversees 5,238 federally funded public housing units statewide, and 864 state-funded units. It also manages a Section 8 rent voucher program, and its homelessness programs branch handles millions of dollars in federal grants annually.
The agency’s total budget is $120 million — about $100 million of which comes from the federal government.

Affordable housing advocates and legislators are puzzled at the Hawai’i Public Housing Authority board’s decision this week to start a search for a new executive director, saying the agency’s current head has made significant strides in the past two years toward turning around an agency that’s been awash in problems for decades.

When Chad Taniguchi was hired in 2007, he became the HPHA’s seventh executive director in nearly 10 years.

He took over a troubled agency with a staggering maintenance backlog, a high number of vacancies and lagging rent collections.

During his tenure he has been praised for balancing the agency’s budget — bouncing back from a projected $4 million deficit last fiscal year — increasing rent collection to 95 percent, cutting the number of vacant units and addressing tenants’ concerns.

Onlookers worry that bringing on a new director would slow that progress and trip up a planned $316 million redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes.

The HPHA board voted Wednesday to start an executive director search.

It has given Taniguchi the option of reapplying for his job, and Taniguchi said yesterday that he will.

The board placed Taniguchi, who has headed up HPHA since May 2007, on probation five months ago, after raising concerns about his job performance.

Board members would not go into details on those concerns because they were discussed in executive session, but said generally that improvements were not being made as quickly as they’d liked and there were concerns about Taniguchi’s ability to handle the planned redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes — a decadelong project that some hope could become a model for revamping Hawai’i public housing projects that are in the worst shape.

“Chad’s done a great job,” said board chairman Travis Thompson. “But there were some weaknesses. We don’t see that we’re moving as fast as we should be.

“Our board just felt we needed to find out if there is some people with additional experience and depth of management.”

Taniguchi said yesterday that he wants to stick with the job. “I love working with tenants and I love working with staff,” he said. “I’d like to continue.”

Thompson said he hopes to have the search for an executive director completed in three months.

The HPHA board has the authority to hire and fire the executive director of the agency. Taniguchi does not have a contract, so he can be terminated at any time.

As the head of HPHA, Taniguchi makes about $90,000 a year. Thompson could not say yesterday whether the board would offer more than that.

CONCERNS VOICED

Affordable housing advocates said the decision to start a director search came as a surprise, given Taniguchi’s apparent popularity among tenants and the improvements he has made in turning around vacant units and cracking down on delinquent rents.

“We’re shocked and we’re really upset,” said Rev. Alan Mark, president of Faith Action for Community Equity, which has been working with Kuhio Park Terrace residents.

Mark said Taniguchi has gotten support among affordable housing advocates because of his willingness to listen to concerns from tenants. Mark also said he’s worried that bringing in a new director would slow improvements and potentially stall the redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes.

“We’re really concerned that it would jeopardize the development they have in the works there,” he said.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education and House Committee, said a new director might take nine to 18 months to get acclimated to the job. “Unless there’s major reasons why he’s not accomplished” his job duties, Sakamoto said, he shouldn’t be replaced.

“From my perspective, you keep trying to work with who you have,” said Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake).

Taniguchi’s predecessor, Stephanie Aveiro, held the position for three years, retiring in December 2006. Before she stepped in, none of the executive directors of the housing authority from 1998 to 2002 held the position for more than a year.

FEWER UNITS TO FIX

Part of Taniguchi’s focus has been on reducing the number of vacant units in need of repairs. In July, there were about 419 vacant public housing units statewide — about 57 of which were rent-ready. The rest needed repairs before people could move in. That’s a decrease from upward of 500 vacant units in need of repairs last year, and more than 700 at any one time in previous years.

But not everyone has supported Taniguchi’s leadership style. Some have criticized his push to crack down on delinquent renters, saying the program has penalized working households that have fallen on tough times.

Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit by tenants of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, filed against the state over what they say are substandard conditions at the projects, is ongoing. The suit was filed in December 2008.

Go to original article.

Public housing getting facelift

$316M plan will remake Kuhio projects, add units

By Mary Vorsino

Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The state has chosen a New Jersey-based company to undertake a $316 million redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, which will include a one-for-one replacement of public housing units along with the addition of 276 subsidized, senior and market rate rental units.

Construction is expected to begin in 2011, and is expected to last about 10 years.

Michaels Development Co. beat out a California affordable housing development company for the Kalihi project. Michaels has completed several similar rehab projects at public housing projects on the Mainland.

Chad Taniguchi, executive director of the Hawai’i Public Housing Authority, said the two 16-floor towers at Kuhio Park Terrace will remain standing as part of the redevelopment plan. At least one mid-level high-rise will be added to the property.

He said the project will be done in phases to minimize relocations of current tenants. And he stressed that no public housing units — for the poorest residents — will be lost.

In addition to rehabilitating units and adding new ones, the project includes the installation of “green space” on the property and will also improve street circulation and pedestrian walkways.

About 2,500 people live at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes.

The two are among the largest and oldest public housing projects in the state. KPT and Kuhio Homes have 748 units combined. KPT was built in 1965; Kuhio Homes opened in 1953.

The redevelopment comes 10 months after KPT and Kuhio Homes filed a class-action lawsuit against the state over conditions at the projects, saying they were squalid and unsanitary.

Taniguchi said Michaels and HPHA will work with tenants to give them information on the redevelopment and to make sure that relocations to new units go smoothly.

“This is another important step in a process to improve conditions at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes,” Taniguchi said yesterday.

Over the next 18 months, Michaels will be coming up with designs for the redevelopment and will be seeking permits.

The makeover will be modeled on successful public housing redevelopment projects in other states, which add near-market or market units to a property to bring in more money for maintenance and to deconcentrate poverty.

State officials have said that the project won’t require much in the way of direct state appropriations, though it will need state low-income housing tax credits, loans and other subsidies to pencil out. The state is also seeking money from the federal government for the work.

The Hawai’i Public Housing Authority board chose Michaels at its Aug. 20 meeting. In a news release, board chairman Travis Thompson said the redevelopment “marks a turning point for public housing residents and the neighborhoods they live in.”

Affordable housing advocates are also applauding the authority’s decision, though they stress they will continue to watch the redevelopment to ensure there is no reduction in the number of affordable units at the projects.

“The board has made the best decision out of their possible choices,” said Jun Yang, of Faith Action for Community Equity, which has been working with KPT residents.

He added that tenants are excited about the rehab work.

“Most of the residents have felt for a long time that there needs to be something done,” he said.

Michaels officials referred requests for comment yesterday to HPHA.

The redevelopment represents more than a year of work by HPHA officials, who were scrambling to tackle some $162 million in repairs needed at KPT at a time of fiscal crisis.

A class-action lawsuit filed in December alleged tenants at KPT and Kuhio Homes were living in squalid, unsanitary conditions, with elevators that don’t work, apartments infested by roaches and rats and faulty sewage lines that cause “brown wastewater to fill housing units.”

The suit is still making its way through the courts.

Under the redevelopment plan, the state will lease the land under the projects to Michaels, but retain ownership. And while management of the projects will be privatized, the state will continue to oversee operations.

State housing officials have said if the mixed-income redevelopment works at KPT, it could be replicated at other public housing projects in need of major repairs.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.state has chosen a New Jersey-based company to undertake a $316 million redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, which will include a one-for-one replacement of public housing units along with the addition of 276 subsidized, senior and market rate rental units.