Kalihi tenants urged to work together after fatal stabbing

The state will hold a meeting with Mayor Wright residents

Honolulu Star Advertiser
February 1st, 2012

By Rosemarie Bernardo

Tenants of Mayor Wright Homes need to work together to create a stronger and safer community, a board member of the tenants association said in the wake of Friday’s fatal stabbing of a Mililani man who was visiting the Kalihi public housing complex.

“Where do we go from here as residents?” Marleen Lafaele, secretary of the Mayor Wright Tenants Association, said during a prayer vigil Tuesday. “For anything to change, we need to come together as one.”

Lafaele was among about 30 people, including Mayor Wright tenants as well as clergy from the Faith Action for Community Equity group, who participated in the vigil, which was held to pray for change in the community.
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Mayor Wright Residents Hold Prayer Vigil

KITV
January 31st, 2012

By Paula Akana

Video on KITV site.
Please click below to see.

Click here to see original article and video.

Mayor Wright residents come together for prayer vigil

KHON2
January 31st, 2012

By Olena Heu

Residents living in Mayor Wright homes say its time to take back their community and make it a safe place to live again.

The call to action is sparked after another life is lost right outside their front doors.

These women sing a song of hope and faith to stop the violence at mayor wright homes in Kalihi.

“We pray that you god of life would bring out of violence death new life,” says Rev. Kerry Grogan.

Residents and clergy held a prayer vigil Tuesday morning to bring harmony to a community that’s been torn a part after a fatal stabbing last week.
33 year-old Benjamin Rekis died friday night after a fight on property.

The suspect, a resident at mayor wright housing, was released and the case dropped because prosecutors believe he acted in self defense.

“Hopefully he can bring the peace over here,” says Virgil Amoroso, Family of the Living God.

The pastors from differing faiths, from across the island, united to make one community whole again.

“We are one family that has faced tragedy and let us heal together and build together,” says Nite Kristoph, resident.
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A Rare ‘Affordable’ Portfolio Sale in Honolulu

Wall Street Journal Blog
November 23rd, 2011

By Maura Webber Sadovi

A housing portfolio is going on the block as Honolulu tests investors’ appetite for affordable apartments in a high-rent paradise.

The city and county of Honolulu hope to fetch more than $28 million for a 65-year lease on 12 affordable apartment complexes containing 1,257 units, according to Sam Moku, director of the city and county of Honolulu’s Department of Community Services. The properties were last appraised at $28 million in 2009, near the trough of the financial downturn, and values have since risen, Mr. Moku said. CBRE Group Inc. has been tapped to market the properties.

Apartments have recently been one of the hottest sectors of the commercial real estate market. And the same forces fueling demand for market-rate apartments are generating increased demand for affordable apartments, analysts say.

“Demand for apartment properties has grown broadly since the recession, with rental demand increasing as people got kicked out of houses,” says Ben Carlos Thypin, director of market analysis for Real Capital Analytics. Real Capital estimates the volume of affordable housing sold in 2010 rose about 80% from the year earlier, though 2011 is on pace to be slightly lower than last year.
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Sell-off of city’s housing following reassuring path

Honolulu Star Advertiser
September 19th, 2011

Editorial

There is reason for optimism about the process under which Honolulu is privatizing its low- to moderate-income rentals. While it may be well into 2012 before any papers are signed, the city seems to be doing its due diligence, for the benefit of the tenants and the taxpayers who have been underwriting a money-losing enterprise for years.

For starters, a series of meetings with the community has begun, giving residents of the 12 affordable-rental complexes a chance to get their concerns on the record at an early stage. And city officials have committed to a search for a single leasehold purchaser with the experience and financial backing needed to upgrade the properties and manage them efficiently.

The meetings, which continue today at Winston Hale on River Street, should help to gauge the priority projects needed to bring some of the buildings into shape. The operation of the city’s rentals, about 1,200 units in all, have lost about $3 million annually, which is why the upkeep has lagged miserably.

Of course, the No. 1 concern of especially the lower-income tenants in the projects is the pace and degree of increases to the monthly rent. And the answer to these questions, said Keith Ishida, won’t be known until at least the end of the year, when the city expects to send out its request for proposals.
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City pursues plan to find managers for rental property

Honolulu Star Advertiser
Sept 17, 2011

By Rosemarie Bernardo

The city is moving forward with the search for someone to lease and manage 12 affordable rental complexes.

The administration retained CB Richard Ellis, a real estate brokerage firm, to review proposals and assist with the sale of the residential buildings, which have 1,257 affordable and market-rate rental units. During a news conference Friday, Mayor Peter Carlisle described city officials as “lousy landlords.”

“We’re getting out of the business and putting it into the hands of people who are capable of doing it far better than government has ever been able to,” Carlisle said. While a private entity will manage the buildings, the city will make sure that they remain affordable.

Officials estimate the annual loss of managing the properties at $3 million. Sam Moku, director of the Department of Community Services, said the complexes will be sold on a long-term leasehold basis with rental restrictions subject to approval by the City Council. The city will retain ownership of the land, while the new property owner will manage and maintain the residential developments.

Moku said they plan to seek proposals by the end of the year.

Officials informed residents of the city’s plan to retain CB Richard Ellis, which was involved in the sale of the affordable rental housing project Kukui Gardens.

Cat Wong, president of the Ohana Housing Network Oahu, said residents are pleased with the city’s open communication. “For the first time there is accountability and transparency within the new administration,” said Wong, a resident of Chinatown Gateway Plaza.
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Writing down mortgages could create jobs in Hawaii

Pacific Business News
August 18th, 2011

By Janis L. Magin

A new report says that Hawaii’s economy could gain nearly 3,300 jobs and get an annual stimulus of $223 million if banks wrote down every underwater mortgage in Hawaii.

A mortgage is underwater if its amount is higher than what a home is currently worth. You could also call it upside down.

Either way, it means that someone is paying more for his or her house than they could sell it for.

Here in Hawaii, there are 22,403 mortgages in that situation, according to the report released by a national campaign called The New Bottom Line, a coalition of community, faith-based and labor groups, including Hawaii’s Faith Action for Community Equity, or FACE Hawaii.
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After Years, Kalihi Housing Gets Hot Water

State Installs Tankless Heaters At Mayor Wright

KITV
June 17th, 2011

HONOLULU — After years of hot water problems at Mayor Wright Homes, the state completed construction of a backup system this week.

Residents at the state housing project have complained for years about the lack of hot water. The tankless water heater backup system was completed on Wednesday.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie met with residents in March to discuss the problem.

“The completion of this project is a temporary solution to a longstanding and unacceptable problem,” Abercrombie said. “This is just one of a long series of investments we will make in our public housing — to ensure that families have safe and dignified housing as they move toward self-sufficiency.”
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Fannie Mae Skirts Landmark Hawaii Foreclosure Law

Honolulu Civil Beat
June 15th, 2011

By Robert Brown

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has found a way around what some consider the nation’s strongest foreclosure law.

Fannie, a government controlled mortgage finance company, which operates in the secondary mortgage market, announced this week the company will convert all of its new and pending non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii to judicial foreclosures effective immediately — essentially allowing them to skirt Hawaii’s new law.

“Our announcement is consistent with Hawaii law and was made in response to recent Hawaii legislation,” Andrew Wilson, a Fannie spokesman told Civil Beat in an email. “The judicial foreclosure process allows homeowners to raise any challenges to the foreclosure in court. Fannie continues to encourage homeowners to reach out as early as possible to their servicers to pursue modifications and other foreclosure prevention solutions.”

In May, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed Act 48, a measure requiring lenders to meet face-to-face with homeowners for mediation before foreclosing on a property. Additionally, the bill places a moratorium on all new non-judicial foreclosure actions until July 1, 2012, for foreclosures covered under Part 1 of the state statute governing foreclosures, and requires lenders to prove they actually have the authority to foreclose on a property.
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Foreclosures might swamp isle courts

Fannie Mae eschews a quicker, nonjudicial process in response to a new Hawaii law

Honolulu Star Advertiser
June 15th, 2011

By Andrew Gomes

One of the nation’s biggest owners of home mortgages has made a move that could add to an already overburdened Hawaii court system’s caseload.

Fannie Mae, a publicly owned company created and overseen by the federal government, recently instructed companies that handle foreclosures for its loans to file all new Hawaii foreclosures in court.

Fannie Mae also told the firms known as loan servicers to cancel any pending nonjudicial Hawaii foreclosures and restart them in court.

Fannie Mae took the steps in response to Hawaii’s new foreclosure law enacted last month. Critics are concerned Fannie Mae might be attempting to sidestep the main intent of the law, which was to engage mediators to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The vast majority of residential foreclosures in Hawaii in recent years have been conducted out of court through a nonjudicial process because it was quicker and cheaper than going through court.

The law was changed in part because the nonjudicial foreclosures left borrowers with little opportunity to contest repossessions even in cases where they believed a lender was improperly taking their home.

The new law, Act 48, gives qualified owner-occupants of Hawaii homes the option of having a dispute resolution professional assist with foreclosure mitigation in front of a lender representative before a foreclosure sale can proceed.
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