Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

[damontucker]

Holy Homelessness!!!!

This is really going to put a crunch on the Housing Rental Market.

http://starbulletin.com/2006/01/12/b...s/story03.html

"The nonprofit Kukui Gardens Corp. announced yesterday that it is looking to sell the 857-unit Kukui Gardens Housing Complex, where 2,500 tenants live on 22 acres near downtown Honolulu."

"With original financing for the complex provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, monthly rents range from $444 for one-bedroom apartments to $818 for four-bedroom units, she said.

Tenants will be allowed to remain until at least 2011, when the 40-year HUD agreement expires, Yadao said. The five-year interval is expected to give tenants adequate time to find new housing, she said."

[Lisheous]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

Oh no, I remember before Kukui Gardens was built. I used to walk through that area from MWH, when I used to go to Central Intermediate School. I wonder what's going to happen when the 40 year agreement expires.

[kimo55]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

not to worry. the inevitable will come about.
K.G. will be leveled. At least 6 towers of at least 35 stories each, will be erected.
To implement "the highest and best use of the land"
and another nail in the coffin for our fragile island.

[timkona]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

At least 6 towers of at least 35 stories each, will be erected.
To implement "the highest and best use of the land"
and another nail in the coffin for our fragile island.

It's easy to grow children on the 35th floor, but we can't grow oranges or graze cattle up there.

If we continue to chop up the land into subdivisions and "1-acre ag" uses, we will have no farmland left in the long run.

Orange County is covered in subdivisions of 1/2 and 1 acre lots. And very few oranges are being grown. Have you ever seen a subdivision bulldozed and replaced with an orchard?

Vertical Development is the ONLY way to preserve Ag and Open space. But the people who promote "low-density" growth patterns are mis-educated about the urban sprawl that is created by low density growth.

The tragedy of the "anti-growth" crowd is that prices rise when supply is restricted. By and large, these same people are the ones who can least afford a house.

Funny how nobody protests growth at the maternity ward?? lol

[MadAzza]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

There is a stunning lack of understanding in Hawaii about basic economics, especially as applied to housing.

People complain about the high cost of housing (rental and owner-occupied). Then they complain when new housing units are built.

Folks, if no new housing units are built, the cost of housing -- for everyone -- goes up. This ain't rocket science. And trying to demand -- through sanctimonious community huffing and puffing or, worse, legislation -- that private property owners use their property the way *you* want them to is hypocritical if you haven't donated your OWN house (or rental unit, or even your car) to be split up and divided among other, more needy people. And certainly nobody offers to sell his house for half the market value, even though that's the quickest and easiest way to lower the cost of housing. No, everyone wants someone *else* to take the hit. And people continue with their fevered rantings that those nasty, evil developers, as loyal spawns of Satan, are hell-bent on destroying the 'aina, poisoning the streams, eating your children, forcing the homeless to work 20-hour days in diamond mines, and building $50 million housing units affordable only to South American drug cartels and, damn them, those effing mainlanders people in Hawaii love to blame for everything bad that happens to anyone, anywhere.

Everyone wants someone else to magically and simultaneously lower the cost of housing and stop the building of housing units -- that is, as long as *they* have a place to live.

And yes, Kona Tim, your point about the maternity ward, while humorous, bears more than a tiny ring of truth.

[kupomog]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

Dang, my grandparents and several aunts/uncles/cousins live there, pretty much have all their lives, and I went there for summer fun with my cousins every year (and I think that lady Donna still works there...). My mom was like the only one who left with dad to get a house of their own outside of that place very early on, but some of her siblings followed a lot later. I can expect all my relatives in Kukui Gardens to being ringing up mom tomorrow afternoon about this

[adrian]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

I wonder if the tenants there could do something about it?

There's a lot of high rise building popping up in downtown recently. Looks like traffic will get worse.

[Miulang]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

New info on the pending Kukui Gardens sale...the state House of Representatives passed legislation last week condemning KG, and in a separate bill, the state Senate wants the property to be sold to a nonprofit agency so there will continue to be affordable housing for the 2,500 residents. Rod Tam on the Honolulu City Council also wants to condemn the buildings and work with a developer to keep housing affordable.

I hope whatever development occurs does eventually benefit the lower income residents in Honolulu, but where do you put 2,500 people while their homes are torn down and rebuilt? Make room over in Waiana'e, TutuSue. You might have more guests coming to stay for awhile.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

Editorial in this morning's Advertiser about options for rehabbing Kukui Gardens. I hope a win-win situation (for the current owners of the development and the residents) can be hammered out. If not, Honolulu will be faced with an even more severe housing shortage for lower income residents who have very few alternatives, and while the use by the State of eminent domain rules is an alternative, it should only be considered as a very last resort.

Miulang

[TuNnL]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

For those who haven’t heard, things have taken a turn for the worse in the Kukui Gardens saga. Here’s a story from Wednesday’s Star-Bulletin. Props to Leila for keeping us informed.

960 sign petition to keep affordable housing

But the managers of Kukui Gardens refuse to accept the petition

By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

Kukui Gardens residents have collected 960 signatures on petitions to maintain low- and moderate-income rental housing beyond 2011.

The residents yesterday tried to present the petition to the owner, nonprofit Kukui Gardens Corp., which is selling the apartment complex in Kapalama, but management would not accept the petition ...

[timkona]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

I am so amused by the ignorant mentality that presumes to have power over private property rights via a petition. Bwahahahaha <cough> <hack> tears streaming down face.....lol

The fact that the owner didn't even accept the petition is even funnier.

If you got a relative in that building, I suggest you start building the Ohana out back of your house.

Most people in Hawaii DON'T want affordable dwellings. Without taller buildings, affordable dwellings are just a pipe dream.

It is classic cognitive dissonance to favor affordable housing AND low-density growth at the same time.

[kimo55]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

I am so amused by the ignorant mentality that presumes to have power over private property rights via a petition. Bwahahahaha

yea. what right do these residents have in thinking they can or should extent a supplication to any owner or manager?
What da hell makes them think they have any right to entreat or request anything to any authority?!

stew peed ignuhrunt natives!

[1stwahine]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

Although they may seem ignorant and laughable, it's all they can do. It is just a gesture of HOPE in which they have. Of course in "Reality" it will not matter. What TimKona expresses - it is true.

My thoughts and prayers goes to my neighbors across at Kukui Gardens.

Auntie Lynn

[Miulang]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

I don't think the owners of Kukui Gardens are going to get off that easily. Already the State and City Council have passed (or are considering) legislation to force the owners to sell the property to a nonprofit organization to keep that housing affordable. The State could also use eminent domain rules to keep the owners from selling the property to a developer.

The current leases run until 2011 under the agreements with HUD for original funding, so there's still time to figure this one out. What's really ironic is that the owners also support their own charitable organizations (Proceeds from the sale of Kukui Gardens would ensure the continued viability of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, which has provided several million dollars to Saint Louis School, Chaminade University, St. Francis Medical Center and other community organizations over the years). So I guess the question becomes, what is more important? Supporting the good work of a foundation that has contributed funding to several prominent Hawai'i institutions, or providing a roof over the heads of 2,500 people?

Miulang

[MadAzza]

Re: Kukui Gardens to be sold 2500 Tenants to be evicted!

Interesting point in Leila's article: Many of the tenants are immigrants.

Come to America and demand low-cost housing!