When Monique Delgado moved out of her unit at Kapilina Beach Homes, she knew she hadn’t paid her rent or utilities in months. 

It was a conscious decision. The U.S. Navy’s operations at the Red Hill fuel storage complex contaminated the tap water in 2021, turning the home into a “nightmare” that made her sick, she said. Unlike military families who were relocated to hotels in the early days of the crisis, Kapilina gave its civilian residents no such option.

Delgado, her husband and their twin boys were relying on bottled water they purchased themselves and showering with a cold water rinse kit intended for camping. Appliances through which contaminated water flowed, like the dishwasher and washing machine, were not replaced. 

Soon after the contamination came to light, Delgado and others sued their landlord to stop the landlord from charging for rent and utilities. The case is ongoing. But last month, Delgado was hit with a collections notice for more than $30,000.

“When do the blows just stop happening?” Delgado said in an interview. “Do we just keep getting beat up for years from this thing?”  

The Kapilina Beach Homes community is a former military housing complex on Iroquois Point. Now run by a private company that rents to civilians, the development remains a customer of the Navy water line that serves the residences and military buildings surrounding Pearl Harbor.

Delgado is one of several former Kapilina residents to hear from a debt collector in recent weeks. Attorney Jim Bickerton said at least a half dozen of his clients are among them. While the residents of most of Kapilina’s 1,400 households continued to pay their bills during the crisis, Bickerton said they should not have been required to.

“These collections are for periods when people withheld rent because they were not receiving a habitable dwelling,” Bickerton said. “To come after them on collection is to add insult on top of injury, damaging their credit. The landlord is completely responsible for providing potable water, and when they don’t do it, they can’t charge rent.”

The notices are causing added stress for people whose lives have been altered by health problems tied to drinking fuel-contaminated water. Delgado, who said she was previously healthy, is now medically disabled, unable to work or drive and suffers from regular bouts of pneumonia. The toxic exposure prompted Delgado, who grew up in Hawaii, to move to Texas in the hopes of relieving her symptoms.

“As far as we knew, this would all be handled in court,” Delgado said of the unpaid bills.

Blackstone Inc., a private investment management company that acquired the housing development last year, declined to say how many Red Hill-impacted households it sent to collections. 

However, in a statement, the company said it supported residents who were affected by the contamination, including offering a $1,000 grant to each household, waiving water bills and allowing tenants to end their leases early without penalty.  

“We have always encouraged those with a past-due balance to get in touch to discuss their circumstances and how we might be able to help,” the company said. 

The company said it delivered water coolers and jugs to residents and local schools and provided free compostable utensils, access to shower facilities and reimbursement for laundry delivery services. It also held community events “including complimentary food trucks and entertainment.”

But Delgado said it wasn’t enough. Families were limited to one case of water at a time to cook, clean and bathe with, she said. Laundry services were also limited to a clothing weight threshold easily exceeded by a family of four, she said. Anything beyond that had to be covered out of pocket. And the logistics of showering at a local gym were insurmountable with two little kids, according to Delgado.

Former Kapilina resident Kelly Morris agreed. When she got a collection notice for $8,225 last month, she was shocked.

“I was like, you have got to be kidding me,” she said.

Morris was at the hospital with her daughter in December 2021, trying to figure out why the 18-year-old had excruciating leg pain and muscle tremors that rendered her unable to walk. That’s when she saw the news about fuel contamination on Facebook.

Soon after, Morris stopped paying rent, and she and her daughter moved out in April 2022. Today, Morris has chronic gastrointestinal problems and trouble swallowing, causing her to lose about 60 pounds. Her daughter suffers from heart palpitations she didn’t have before, Morris said.

“It’s disturbing they would treat people this way and send them a bill after everything we’ve been through,” said Morris, who moved to Florida. “It just proves that all they care about is the bottom line and do not care about the residents and any of the problems there.”

On top of everything else, Delgado believes Kapilina’s response to the water crisis may have worsened residents’ exposure. In the early days of the disaster, it was unclear whether Kapilina was on the Navy water line, and Kapilina did not provide clear guidance. As a result, residents there who thought the water was safe drank and bathed in it for days longer than military families living on the other side of Pearl Harbor.

“If we had earlier support and warnings, we wouldn’t have been exposed as long,” Delgado said.

The class-action lawsuit against Kapilina is currently making its way through the state court system. The case was delayed by more than a year when attorneys for Kapilina tried unsuccessfully to move the case to federal court. A state court trial is scheduled for July 2025.

In the meantime, the recipients of the collection notices can challenge the validity of the debt with the collections agency.