With settlement, Mayor Wright plaintiffs win

Congratulations are warranted for plaintiffs who put up for decades with shoddy living conditions at Mayor Wright Homes. This week they’ve secured enough assurances of continuing improvements to settle the lawsuit filed against the state.

The deterioration of Hawaii’s public housing stock has been a longstanding disgrace that in recent years has begun to be remedied. What’s really sad is how much poverty seems to have spread. Even given the inadequate sanitation and hot water serving these tenants, the state of affairs for the island’s homeless is even worse.

It’s bad enough that public housing has become a more long-term accommodation than ever was intended — now there are long waits to secure even that.