By the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s own reckoning, the state’s shortage of truly affordable housing has been a growing problem for at least 50 years. In most of those years, the agency responsible for managing and maintaining public housing wasn’t granted a budget large enough to keep up with maintenance, much less add to the state’s housing stock.
All that is about to change, and quickly, under a moon-shot plan to replace more than 1,000 decrepit units and add as many as 10,880 more homes for low- and middle-income households, while using a private master developer to oversee the statewide work.
Planning multiple projects simultaneously with a private master developer can reduce costs and save time, with a “single point of accountability,” HPHA Executive Director Hakim Ouansafi told the Legislature, at an April 20 briefing.
It’s the right thing to do, and the prudent thing to do. The ongoing neglect and growing obsolescence of HPHA’s existing housing projects demands action, and each delay in action adds to the potential cost of replacing and building units.
The need is certainly real. Each time HPHA opens its wait list for affordable rentals, “thousands” of people apply, Ouansafi said: “There is a tremendous amount of need for the folks who are most vulnerable.”
The build-out will also allow for a significantly and properly changed approach to designing Hawaii’s public-housing projects, by changing the mix of tenants held. Senate Bill 2251, enacted last year, empowered HPHA to develop sites with a mix of incomes and more options for financing. Ouansafi says these are both more financially viable and socially stable than public housing models of the past.
This could be transformative, by ending the segregation of people with very low incomes away from others with more means.
To be successful, though, a competent and trustworthy master developer must be chosen. HPHA must also work in concert with state agencies and the Legislature to fund the redevelopment. It’s imperative that these bodies give HPHA the support needed to move forward quickly.
Some doubt has been expressed about this vision’s “public-private” setup. And indeed it is the most complex undertaking in HPHA history. But this plan has not been developed in a silo; instead, it stems from findings by a multi-agency state task force, signaling a coordinated approach that is also prudent.
Building and redevelopment would take place at nine low-income rental housing subdivisions. All of the 1,187 existing apartments at these sites — about one-third of HPHA’s current housing stock — would be replaced, and 10,880 units added. Many of these rentals would be sited near Oahu rail stations, meshing with Honolulu’s transit-oriented development plans.
At Kamehameha Homes in Kalihi, the biggest project, 2,950 new units could be added to the 16-acre site, and 221 apartments replaced. Adjacent to Kamehameha Homes, all 152 units at Kaahumanu Homes would be replaced, and another 1,550 added.
Mayor Wright Homes in Kalihi will replace 364 units and add another 2,450. Rounding out the four biggest properties in the plan is Puuwai Momi in Aiea, where 260 units will be replaced and 1,550 homes added. Five smaller projects, in Pearl City and Nanakuli, and on Hawaii island, Kauai and Maui, are also part of the plan, dubbed Ka Lei Momi, or “The Pearl Garland.” One project, planned with 1,000 units near the rail line, is a trial of another new strategy: building leasehold condos, for sale with 99-year land leases on state land.
After years of stagnation, HPHA is moving forward quickly now, as it should. Ouansafi said the master developer should be chosen within 60 days, and construction is expected to begin by the end of this year.
Housing for people with low and very low incomes is arguably Hawaii’s most pressing need of this era, and it can no longer be ignored or half-stepped. HPHA’s housing plan is the ambitious undertaking that Hawaii needs, and the state must fully commit to a solution.
