The two remaining tenants at a Kalihi public housing complex slated for demolition, facing eviction, are alleging in a lawsuit that the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority and its executive director did not help them find comparable housing to move to as the law requires.

The lawsuit also states that two former Kūhiō Park Terrace tenants were forced to move to or offered undesirable or unsuitable apartments, including units that didn’t accommodate their disabilities. 

Citing findings similar to those detailed in a February Civil Beat investigation as well as additional subsequent developments, the lawsuit asks the court to halt eviction proceedings against the remaining tenants or prevent any new eviction efforts against them, and find the tenants who are plaintiffs housing comparable to their Kūhiō Park Terrace homes. 

“They’re not trying to stop the project or anything like that, and they’re willing to move,” said Andrew Kennedy, a Big Island attorney who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. “They’ve been willing to move, and they’re not even asking for monetary damages.”

He said talks with the housing authority are continuing in hopes of resolving the situation.

Housing authority executive director Hakim Ouansafi, who is named in the suit, said in an email Thursday that he was aware of it but had not yet been served.

“We can confirm that all relocation efforts at Kūhiō Park Terrace and other HPHA sites have been conducted in full compliance with all federal and state laws — and, in many cases, well beyond the minimum requirements,” he said in an emailed statement. 

The housing authority plans to knock down three sections of the low-income housing complex on Oʻahu, replacing them with a greater number of units of affordable housing. The housing authority promised tenants in writing that they would receive individualized relocation plans and help moving, including financial assistance.

The tenants who have sued the authority are from a group of 64 apartments that are to be replaced with 304 affordable units.

‘Very Stressful’

The relocation process has been troubled. Civil Beat found that tenants were sent to apartments that were already occupied or, in one case, boarded up. Others were sent to homes far from their workplaces, doctors and children’s schools, or that were inaccessible to people with disabilities.

“It has been very stressful,” George Willets, 55, said Thursday. 

Willets has lived in the housing complex his whole life and is one of the two remaining tenants. He said he and his extended family were offered public housing units that they didn’t find suitable — in areas zoned for different schools or that they deemed unsafe — and then told no more options were available in public housing.

He eventually decided to make use of a federal housing voucher the housing authority made available to rent an apartment in the private market. But the search hasn’t gone well, even though the authority was supposed to help.

Landlords have been unwilling to accept the Section 8 voucher, Willets said. His family, which runs a janitorial services business, does not have the income or credit scores other landlords demanded. Some apartments were too small for their family of six.

All they want, Willets said, is safe housing similar to their current apartment and within his grandchildren’s school district.

English Only

In the case of one tenant named in the suit who doesn’t speak English, the lawsuit said, a man came to her door in March and persuaded her to sign a handwritten document in English that said “I no longer have any legal representation.” Before that, she had been receiving legal assistance from a nonprofit. 

The letter, a copy of which is included in the lawsuit, also stated that she agreed to move to an apartment in Hālawa, far from where her children, who have disabilities, attend school. No interpretation was provided, the lawsuit said.

Kennedy said it’s not known who initiated that interaction, and it may have been the private company hired to relocate residents, Seneca Real Estate Services. Regardless, he said, “it was the most appalling thing I’ve seen.”

Tenants told Civil Beat that Seneca representatives were by and large unhelpful, did not work with tenants to fashion the personalized relocation plans that were promised, and often failed to provide interpreters or translations to residents who did not speak English, something it was legally required to do. 

“The most appalling thing I’ve seen”

Attorney Andrew Kennedy

Seneca, in response to requests for comment, in February issued a statement through the housing authority that said of 60 tenants, the company received only one reported issue with interpreter services.

The woman in the new lawsuit was told she would face eviction if she did not move, the suit says, and agreed to take the Hālawa apartment but found it uninhabitable — dirty, littered with animal feces, smelling of urine and other odors, missing doorknobs, with dead cockroaches in the cabinets. 

Later, after it was cleaned, she moved in but the rush of relocating disrupted her son’s schooling and led to her hours at a Waikīkī McDonald’s restaurant being cut in half.

Another plaintiff is a tenant who was offered only apartments with stairs that neither she nor her husband could navigate because of their disabilities.

The couple ended up having to find and rent an apartment on their own, without a Section 8 voucher or other assistance required by law. The lawsuit asks for their housing situation to be reassessed by the housing authority and for them to be offered housing comparable to their Kūhiō Park Terrace home.

In his emailed response to Civil Beat, Ouansafi said all of the tenants have received the assistance they were promised and are due under law.

“The claims in the lawsuit are without merit,” he said. “While we cannot speak to ongoing legal proceedings, we are confident that the facts will show that HPHA acted responsibly, lawfully, and in good faith throughout the entire relocation process.”

Civil Beat’s reporting on economic inequality is supported by the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation as part of its work to build equity for all through the CHANGE Framework; and by the Cooke Foundation.