State considers getting out of handling Hawaii public housing

Honolulu Advertiser
November 11, 2009

By Mary Vorsino

Advertiser Staff Writer

The Hawaii Public Housing Authority is considering a radical solution to decades of backlogged repairs, aging projects and limited resources: selling properties or units and ending state oversight of public housing.

The proposal, which officials stressed is still very preliminary, is part of a draft “vision” before the housing authority board that includes “self-sufficient families living in units that they own that were previously public housing” and the authority — the largest affordable-housing landlord in the Islands — “no longer in existence.”

The draft says the “public housing shelter model has been broken for 40 years” and “having an ownership stake in their housing encourages people to take pride in their physical surroundings and become responsible for their future.” Under the proposal, the agency would sell some units to tenants and also redevelop rental projects under a mixed-income model aimed at deconcentrating poverty while preserving affordability.

It’s not clear how many units would be sold and how many would remain rentals, but authority officials say public housing properties would remain affordable. The vision is meant to plan the agency’s next five to 10 years.

The end of state oversight would be the most dramatic change in the 74-year history of public housing in Hawaii, which is considered a critical safety net for the poor and today houses 20,000 people in communities across the state.

Linda Smith, a member of the housing authority and special adviser to the governor, helped draft the vision and said housing would still need to be provided for the elderly and for those transitioning out of homelessness. But the vision says those projects need not be state-managed. She added that the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands provides a model for helping move low-income families into home ownership.

“What is the best plan for (families) to move toward a goal of not having to be dependent on the state?” Smith asked. “This is the very beginning of the process. What we’re really looking at is the structure” of the agency.

National public housing experts say they have heard of no other housing authority of the Hawaii agency’s size ending oversight of projects, which some see as a critical component to ensuring housing units set aside for the most vulnerable remain affordable.

There is some precedence, though. In 2007, the San Diego Housing Authority did leave the federal housing program, instead receiving subsidies for 1,366 public housing apartments.

Meanwhile, advocates and some lawmakers are wary of the discussion, saying the state is obligated to make sure those on the waiting list for public housing are served.

National experts also say that the idea of selling public housing units to tenants has been attempted before, with little success. Units were sold in small numbers to tenants after a federal push for homeownership in the 1980s and ’90s. But income requirements for ownership meant many families weren’t able to take on a mortgage.

Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, of which Hawaii’s agency is a member, said the vision “does run contrary to what we’re seeing in most of the major metropolitan areas.” She added that selling public housing to tenants “went nowhere as a proposal. It didn’t make sense economically.”

affordability fears

Local advocates worry — despite agency assurance — that remaining rental units won’t stay affordable.

“I’m a little bit nervous,” said state Rep. Rida Cabanilla, chairwoman of the Housing Committee, adding she plans to take up the question of selling public housing in the coming session. Cabanilla, D-42nd (Ewa, Waipahu, Honouliuli) also questioned the wisdom of getting rid of state oversight.

The housing authority manages 6,200 federally and state-funded public housing apartments and also oversees state homeless programs (which officials are trying to move directly under the Department of Human Services) and the Section 8 rental voucher program. In recent years, as the state pushes to tackle a homeless crisis that appears to be worsening, public housing has taken a large number of homeless families from shelters.

Today, there are 7,740 families alone on the waiting list to get into federal public housing projects.

Some 6,480 families are waiting to move into state-funded projects.

For years, the housing authority has been mired in problems, with seven executive directors in the last decade and an aging inventory rife with maintenance needs, estimated to top $1 billion over the next 30 years. But recently, it has worked to whittle away at the number of units left vacant because of needed repairs, has increased its rent collection and has preached a message of personal responsibility to tenants in an effort to clean up projects.

Chad Taniguchi, the agency’s executive director, declined to comment specifically on the vision. The board announced in September that it was looking for a new director, saying it was unsure Taniguchi had the leadership capabilities needed to lead the agency. He has applied for his job, as have about 30 other people.

Taniguchi did say, in an e-mailed statement, that he is “optimistic about the future of public housing.”

He added that “I have been focusing on making public housing work, as it does in the vast majority of states and communities in the U.S. In contrast to being one of the weakest state agencies financially in July 2008, HPHA is now one of the strongest state agencies because we are largely funded through federal funds and rent collections, which can sustain operations.” He also said he has seen a “tremendous rise” in residents in public housing volunteering to clean up projects and take “stronger roles” in communities.

Authority board Chairman Travis Thompson said the board will take up the vision draft again at its regular meeting on Nov. 19. It will also go before tenants in public meetings, probably in early 2010. Thompson stressed that the plan is in early stages, and also said that the board understands the continued need for affordable housing.

But he did say the long-term plan is about brainstorming ideas for fixing a system that has largely failed to help low-income families move up, and in many cases has only succeeded in getting them stuck in poverty-dense housing projects. Public housing “doesn’t work the way it should,” he said. “I like the notion of trying something different.”

He added that public housing was designed to provide low-income families with stability, until they could save up to move on. But many haven’t done that. About 39 percent of those in federally funded projects in Hawaii have lived in the projects a decade or more.

Nationally, about 29 percent of families have been in public housing for a decade or more.

Advocates argue the difference is the high cost of housing in the Islands. But some board members say families might also need a push to be self-sufficient. “People get very comfortable, and they stay there,” Thompson said.

There would likely be a host of hurdles to the long-term vision, not least of which is how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would react to the plan. HUD provides the state with a subsidy — about $12 million annually — to maintain federally funded public housing projects. In return, the state must seek approvals for major changes at projects, and comply with rules and housing standards.

Advocates, meanwhile, say the state’s vision runs contrary to the mission of public housing.

And they question how selling units — even to tenants — would help the greatest number of people.

Jun Yang, an advocate for Faith Action for Community Equity, a nonprofit that has been working with residents at Kuhio Park Terrace as the project is pegged for a pilot redevelopment project, said he’s concerned about the direction in which the agency board is moving and wonders how people on the waiting list will be served if units are sold to tenants.

‘huge … shortage’

“We’re in a huge housing shortage,” he said. “If HPHA were to leave the housing business, there’s no one to pick up the slack. There’s no one to make sure that affordable housing stays affordable.”

The Rev. Bob Nakata, longtime affordable housing advocate, said the authority has an obligation to make sure public housing is well maintained and managed so people who are eligible have a shot at getting in.

He said even if a private entity oversees day-to-day operations, the state needs to remain involved.

“The government cannot abdicate its responsibility,” he said.

The vision comes as the housing authority prepares to kick off the $316 million redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes. Michaels Development Co., a New Jersey-based developer, will model the redevelopment on successful redevelopment projects in other states, which add near-market- or market-priced units to bring in more money for maintenance and to deconcentrate poverty, while ensuring a one-for-one replacement of affordable units.

Construction on the project is to start in 2011 and last a decade.

As part of the plan, the buildings at Kuhio Park Terrace will be sold, while the land at the project will be leased.

potential solution

Leasing the land, the agency has said, ensures the state retains control.

The mixed-income redevelopment being piloted at Kuhio Park Terrace — the last public housing high-rise west of the Rockies and the largest public housing project in the state — is seen as a potential solution for addressing a host of maintenance concerns at public housing projects and is the second major component of the long-term vision.

The vision asks the housing authority to identify all projects that lend themselves to mixed-income redevelopment.

Housing authority board member Rene Berthiaume, who also helped draft the vision, said public housing units should remain affordable in perpetuity, but weren’t meant as a “multigenerational entitlement.” He said the long-term plan is meant to give tenants a bigger stake, either through owning their units or living in a redeveloped project.

“The idea is rooted in the fact that our public housing is deteriorated quite a bit,” he said.

The proposal comes as the city seeks to sell its 12 affordable housing properties because of increased maintenance needs and costs. The first, Kulana Nani in Kaneohe, will go on the market next year, the city said.

All 12 will remain affordable, city officials say, with lease restrictions.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com

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City needs a housing agency

By Rev. Robert Nakata

Ever since my first introduction into social justice and politics in the eviction struggle at Waiahole Waikane in the 1970s, to the struggle at Kukui Gardens last year, I have seen the needs of our people pushed aside. My life has taught me that if we are to have a moral society on our islands, we will have to make it for ourselves. Currently, Honolulu is facing one of its toughest economic downturns where we are seeing families being forced into homelessness. The time is ripe for leadership from our city government to recreate an office of housing to address this crisis.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Faith Action for Community Equity held a prayer vigil at Honolulu Hale Thursday calling on Mayor Mufi Hannemann to tackle the problem of homelessness on Oahu. The Rev. Samuel Domingo, watched by the Rev. Robert Nakata, FACE Oahu president, presented Rae Gee, the mayor's executive assistant, with a symbolic broom urging the mayor to not sweep the problem under the rug.

Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) is urging Mayor Mufi Hannemann to reestablish the city’s Housing Department. Upon serious reflection of the city’s proposed River Street Transitional Shelter for the homeless, we believe that the project is emblematic of the deeper problem in our city, namely that housing policy is adrift at the time it is needed most. This problem is at the root of many of the symptoms of inequity on Oahu today. We believe that the problem transcends the visible social ills of homelessness and the failure to create new affordable housing. At the most basic level there is no coordinated housing policy for the City & County of Honolulu. While this would be a serious problem at any time in the county’s history, it is particularly glaring now during several consecutive years of the worst housing crisis that Oahu has ever faced.

We see the increasing population of homeless people, the scarcity of affordable rentals, the failure to act to preserve the existing affordable housing stock, the struggles of families facing foreclosure as all traceable to the stark fact that Honolulu has no housing department, and thus no way of crafting strategies to address these problems or to make long range plans to deal with the reality of our current situation. In addition, the lack of a housing department negatively impacts the business of real estate development on Oahu by creating a needlessly complex bureaucracy that is widely criticized for its lack of transparency and coherence.

The River Street project, while it has considerable merit on its own, is not a housing policy. Instead, it is another series of disconnected decisions that undermine each other. This is not the fault of the staff of the various departments — many of whom have performed admirably within their silos; rather it points to the overarching failure of the county to have a single planning body for housing. As we look ahead to the ways that the rail will transform our metropolitan area we are convinced that the county can no longer afford to function without a professional Cabinet-level staff to advise the mayor, and serve both the developers and consumers of housing, affordable and market rate.

The mayor’s strong opposition to city involvement in addressing the issues of affordable housing and homelessness is clear. He has said that those are state, not city, issues. He has backed up that position by 1) trying to sell the city’s stock of affordable housing and using the proceeds for other purposes; 2) not maintaining these housing projects; 3) not lifting a finger to help the Kukui Gardens residents; 4) refusing to develop and getting in the way of developing coherent affordable housing policies; and 5) systemically evicting the homeless from city parks without seeking alternative shelter for them, resulting in the homeless congregating in Waikiki and Chinatown, where they are a problem for business and industry. This is a large part of the genesis of the River Street Project, which FACE conceptually supports but fears the project will be neglected by the city once it is built.

We therefore call on the mayor to act immediately to initiate the creation of a Cabinet-level housing department — either through the City Council or by direct charter amendment. We suggest that this department administer mortgage assistance, neighborhood stabilization, manage federal pass-through funds, and be given bonding authority.

We further suggest that it be urgently tasked to create a comprehensive strategy in three areas: addressing and reducing homelessness, maximizing the affordable housing opportunity presented by the creation of a rail system; and combating and preventing the spread of foreclosures.

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The Rev. Robert Nakata is Oahu president of Faith Action for Community Equity, a grass-roots group of church and community groups.

Group asks Hannemann to help homeless people

By Mary Adamski

A faith-based community group marched on Honolulu Hale yesterday, calling for the mayor to create a policy and a department to deal with a widespread housing crisis on Oahu.

About 75 people, clapping blocks of wood together to emphasize their chant, joined the demonstration sponsored by Faith Action for Community Equity, a grass-roots group of several local church and community organizations.

Speeches in the City Hall courtyard were addressed to Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who is away on a trip to Asia. The mayor’s executive assistant on housing, Rae Gee, accepted their presentation of an old-fashioned yardman’s straw broom and their plea that housing problems not be swept under the rug.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Dennis Brouillette, right, reacted to speakers inside Honolulu Hale yesterday during a prayer vigil put on by Faith Action for Community Equity.

FACE Executive Director Drew Astolfi said Honolulu is the only American city of its size that does not have a housing department.

“We have no policy, no department, no go-to person,” he said.

Astolfi said the shrinking amount of affordable housing on the island, the increasing homeless population, foreclosures — which totaled 1,186 in the third quarter of 2009 — and development of a transit system are interwoven but are treated as separate issues by the city administration.

“Forty percent of the homeless are families; 25 percent are children. There are thousands of homeless children out there,” said the Rev. John Heidel. “There is a growing number of families who are squeezed out of the housing market, working people on the street. We call ourselves the land of aloha.”

Reslin Pinano described her family life, sleeping nights in their parked car. She works at two part-time cashier jobs. Her husband is looking for work. Their daughter is 3 years old.

“This is not the life we want,” she said.

The Rev. Bob Nakata, Oahu president of FACE, said, “This is not a tolerable situation. We are here to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves.”

A city department of housing is not likely soon.

“We don’t have budget for it now,” Gee told the group as it crowded into the mayor’s reception room. “Thank you for your clear message. The mayor doesn’t want to make anyone homeless. I have shared your message with him.”

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Restore housing office, group urges

Advocates pressing mayor for agency on affordable homes

By Mary Vorsino

Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Affordable housing advocates and low-income residents gathered at City Hall yesterday to call for the re-establishment of a city housing office to tackle a growing homeless problem and the dearth of affordable housing.

“We are homeless!” shouted Reslin Pinano, 38, who lives in a car with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, during the gathering on the first floor of Honolulu Hale. After speeches and a prayer vigil, some 75 people who gathered for the event walked up to the mayor’s office to sing and present a broom so the issue is not left “under the rug.”

Rae Gee, city executive assistant on housing, told the group that she would relay their concerns to the mayor.

The city has said there isn’t enough money to re-establish the housing office.

Before the event, Gee said the mayor “still feels that there’s no need for a housing office.”

The gathering was organized by Faith Action for Community Equity, which is pushing for the city to do more to address the lack of affordable housing. The Rev. Bob Nakata, the O’ahu FACE president, said there is no better time for the city to start looking more closely at ways to address affordable housing. “The city needs coherent housing policy, he said.

He said Honolulu is the only city in the nation with more than 200,000 people that does not have a housing office.

And, he pointed out, the other three Hawai’i counties all have housing offices.

“It doesn’t do to say housing and homelessness are not county issues, he said.

The city housing department was dismantled after the ‘Ewa Villages scam in 1998. Mayor Mufi Hannemann has disagreed that a special office needs to be set up to help create affordable housing.

“The people of Honolulu voted overwhelmingly to abolish city’s housing department more than a decade ago, believing the city should not be in the business of developing and maintaining affordable-housing projects, and realizing that the private and nonprofit sectors could develop and manage affordable housing more economically and efficiently,” city spokesman Bill Brennan said yesterday, in an e-mailed statement.

“That being said, the Hannemann administration stands ready to work closely with those who would develop and maintain affordable housing for our community.”

But affordable housing advocates say the office needs to be part of a bigger solution to help tackle a growing homelessness issue. “We need to restart this thing,” said FACE advocate Jun Yang. “There’s no place to go (for help).”

The gathering came as the city is in the midst of selling its 12 affordable housing properties.

The properties will remain affordable, and the first is expected to go on the market early next year, city officials said.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.pressing mayor for agency on affordable homes