Hundreds of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes tenants will receive rent rebate checks from a class-action settlement reached with the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

Since the first week of April, the Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, a nonprofit law firm formerly called Lawyers for Equal Justice, has been distributing rebate checks to tenants who lived at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes from June 2008 to Jan. 31, 2011. The cash rebate is a result of the settlement reached with the state for unsafe and unsanitary living conditions. Under the settlement, tenants will receive a $10 rebate for each month they lived in the public housing complex during the 32-month period.

In December 2008, Lawyers for Equal Justice filed a class-action lawsuit in Circuit Court against the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and Realty Laua LLC, formerly known as R&L Property Management LLC, for substandard living conditions that included broken elevators, roaches, vermin and lack of equipment to ensure access for the disabled.

A settlement was reached in December 2011.

About 770 tenants — 630 at Kuhio Park Terrace and 140 at Kuhio Homes — are entitled to receive cash rebates.

Under the settlement, about $250,000 is allotted for rent abatement, and an additional $250,000 will go toward programs such as job training, home care and transportation for the disabled, on-site legal services and early education. Executive Director Victor Geminiani of the Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice said a request for proposals will go out in early June to find organizations to provide services and programs.

Geminiani described the rebate amount as "embarrassingly low" but took the settlement because a complete revamp of Kuhio Park Terrace is planned.

The intent was to get the housing authority’s attention to the much-needed improvements, he said. "If they didn’t make repairs, we would’ve litigated the case, but we knew at least the renovations were going to be done," said Geminiani.

The law firm has sent out letters to inform tenants who have moved about the rebate. Geminiani said a former lessee will have to show proof of residency for the time covered in the suit, such as a copy of a lease, maintenance orders and rent receipts.

For more information, call the Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice at 587-7605.