The Hawaii Public Housing Authority has reduced the amount of time it can spend meeting with Honolulu tenants in the low-income housing program. That cutback combined with other changes across the state are frustrating tenants and their advocates over what they say is the agency’s increasingly slow and inconsistent communication efforts.

“Maybe from 2021, 2022 onward, the processing times with the Section 8 office have become incredibly slow,” said Fernando Cosio, an attorney at the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaii. “Months and weeks go by without a response.”

Administered by HUD, Section 8 is the federal government’s major voucher program for assisting low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford housing in the private market. HPHA administers the Section 8 program under its Housing Choice Voucher Program using federal funds provided by HUD.

Through the HCV Program, HPHA pays a portion of eligible families’ rent each month directly to the property owner. 

Last month, Cosio said, communication with the agency became even harder.

The agency declined repeated interview requests from Civil Beat made over a period of more than three weeks. Instead, HPHA spokesman Dallis Ontiveros provided a written statement.

According to the statement, staff members at the Honolulu-based office are no longer available to meet in-person with applicants every day. Some are unavailable for as often as three days a week. 

HPHA attributed this change to a growing workload. The agency said that staff members will be focusing on working in the office and processing information for tenants who have already submitted their paperwork.

But this change, compounded by the agency’s pre-existing communication delays, could create accessibility issues and lead to further processing delays, Cosio said. He explained that such delays often do more than just create an inconvenience — they leave tenants with big bills that threaten their housing security and put them at risk of an eviction.

Automated Responses

Cosio said he initially became aware of HPHA’s new limitations in the first week of July, when he reached out to the agency via email to follow up on a case that he’s been working on since January.

His client, a Section 8 voucher holder, had had her identity stolen. On paper, her income seemed to be skyrocketing. Because Section 8 housing is based on a tenant’s income, so was her rent.

“She could face an unnecessary eviction, she really needs to have this information corrected,” Cosio says he told HPHA. “That’s when we started getting the automatic responses.”

Numerous individuals in communication with HPHA reported receiving similar automated responses from HPHA staff members. One response stated that the HPHA Section 8 office would be working on an “ongoing special project” and that it would be closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the foreseeable future.

The details of the project were not disclosed in the response, and HPHA’s Ontiveros said that he did not know about either the project or the office’s closure.

“No one seems to know exactly what’s going on there, and I don’t know what sort of special project would allow the state office to essentially close its doors to the public,” Cosio said. 

In its statement, HPHA said that some of the earlier automated messages from staff members were poorly worded and inaccurate. The agency said its office is still open five days a week — the only difference is that now, some staff members aren’t holding in-person meetings with clients everyday.

But the changes could still hurt tenants, some individuals in communication with HPHA say.

Pearl Sheck, the Public Housing Coordinator at Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, said that in-person meetings are often the most effective form of communication for tenants.

“It’s been challenging for our people in the community, mainly because they don’t have access to emails or phones,” she said. “They have to go physically over there to actually get help.”

She added that those who do call the office are not often answered.

Staffing Shortages And Increased Work At HPHA

HPHA said that it is dedicated to addressing the needs of its tenants efficiently, but that things have been more difficult since the pandemic. Since then, there has been a substantial increase in the volume of participants and applicants; the agency’s workload, HPHA said, has increased threefold.

According to the agency, this is made more difficult by an ongoing staffing shortage, the result of a lack of qualified applicants and a lengthy hiring process. Even without a full staff, HPHA handles around 10,000 tenants and is required to conduct both yearly recertifications and interim certifications whenever any household member experiences a job change, HPHA said.

HPHA added that most of its Section 8 staff has been on the job for only a few months, something that can contribute to processing delays. The need to obtain documents or verify information also can slow the process.

David Derauf, chief executive of Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, recognized the difficulty of HPHA’s work but also said that the state needs a more effective way to deal with this kind of situation.

“People are oftentimes in really complex life circumstances, and they’re trying to keep a roof over their head, and they’re trying to make things as stable as possible for their family,” he said. “It’s just a lot. We need to develop a system that really makes it accessible.”

He highlighted the importance of holding the agency accountable in order to help people maintain housing security.

“Everyone’s like, ‘what are we going to do about homelessness?’” he said. “Well, starting, let’s keep people housed.”