A worrisome situation is unfolding at a Lahaina, Maui, low-income rental apartment project — and it’s likely a harbinger of things to come for similar apartments and their tenants.
About 300 residents at the Front Street Apartments essentially face eviction due to a price conversion now underway, turning the building’s 142 units from low-income rents into market-price ones by August 2019. One disabled couple, for example, now pays $840 monthly for a one-bedroom unit, but a new tenant in the building is already being charged $1,700 for a one-bedroom unit.
Here’s the break in faith: When built nearly 20 years ago, Front Street Apartments was proposed to remain affordable to low-income tenants for 50 years. That expectation gave the developer many perks at the public’s expense. “Fast track” approval by the Maui County Council included exemptions that enabled part of the site to be rezoned from residential to apartment; a 25 percent reduction in required parking stalls; and a waived requirement to provide 1.5 acres for public park use.
There was more: Helped by the state Housing Finance and Development Corp., the project received more than $1.5 million; and since opening in 2001, the land owners and building have been assessed virtually no land and building taxes.
Despite all these giveaways, Front Street Apartments is now evoking a 2012 change in the IRS tax code that basically allows low-income properties to convert to market-priced units after 15 years in service — after going through a complex process that includes an effort to maintain some affordability. Whether that effort in 2015 was done credibly is a contentious question.
At any rate, here’s the context: This is a pivotal time in Hawaii’s homelessness crisis, as shown by the encampment clusters on every major island. Citizens are struggling to get off the streets — while many others, like the Front Street renters, are on the brink, struggling to keep off the streets. Hawaii cannot afford to lose precious existing units that are affordable to low-income tenants.
No room for ‘safe zones’?
Speaking of homeless: The state’s second attempt to identify sites as possible “safe zones” has come up empty. What a shock.
Safe zones are controversial — a legal tent city where homeless people can live temporarily with fewer restrictions than traditional shelters, with access to social services and basic necessities like restrooms. It’s an imperfect option, but given the dire need to provide some stability to a shifting, nomadic homeless population, it makes increasing sense.
The state’s recent exercise in trying to ID possible sites was mandated by Act 212 — it became law this year without Gov. David Ige’s signature — that directed the Hawaii Interagency Council on Homelessness to form a working group to provide a list of potential sites.
Ige’s coolness toward safe zones is shared by those who say they aren’t cost-effective and divert resources from service providers. The zones also are discouraged by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and by a previous working group of the state interagency council in a 2012 report.
So: A directive not endorsed by Ige and by extension, his Land Department, or by the federal and state homeless interagency councils. Any wonder no safe-zone possibilities have materialized after a second try? Maybe a third time will be the charm — or maybe the political will just isn’t there to find a way.
Weigh in on Blaisdell plan
Many of the barriers around Thomas Square have been down for weeks now, revealing a renewed block of park that looks neater and greener than before. It should — it cost $1.2 million for work that included new grass, pruning of trees and a new irrigation system. The challenges now: keeping the square free of homelessness clusters, clean and safe, and activated with wholesome uses. This should be a community gathering spot that needs to be used more than it has been.
To that end, revitalization via a $1.2 million Phase 2 is underway, from South King Street toward the fountain, that will include new walkways. Target for completion is next summer.
And if the current city administration gets its way, Thomas Square’s renewal would be but the start of a major revisioning of the area. Currently under discussion is the Blaisdell Center Master Plan, a proposed overhaul of the 22.4-acre site across King Street from Thomas Square, that includes the Blaisdell Arena, Concert Hall and Exhibition Hall. The city’s third and final public workshop on the Blaisdell conceptual plan will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room. Project cost is estimated at $400 million to $500 million, raised mainly via bonds. This is public funds, your funds, so make the time to have your say.
