It’s been over five years since bills to protect renters have advanced this far in the legislative session, according to advocates.
“Renter supportive bills and bills that are intentionally aimed at stabilizing and protecting renters and — in particular, low and extremely low income renters — this is the first time they've passed through the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee in five years,” said Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s Director of Housing Policy Arjuna Heim.
Two bills still alive this legislative session await a joint hearing from the Senate Housing and Ways Committee after crossing over from the House.
Protections for displaced tenants
One measure would create baseline protections for tenants being displaced by the construction of a new affordable housing development.
“We as a state are working really hard to facilitate new housing production, build more affordable units, and we are facilitating a lot of change in our neighborhoods, but we haven't implemented a clear process for what happens when people are displaced,” said Rep. Tina Grandinetti, who introduced the measure.
She became aware of the issue in 2023 when Kapiolani Village, an older walk-up apartment complex, was ripped down to make way for Kuilei Place — a high-rise building with both affordable and luxury units.
“For a project like Kuilei Place, there was no legal process, or requirement for how the developer should treat the tenants,” Grandinetti said.
New housing projects can qualify for the 201H process, which grants exemptions to many planning, zoning and land use requirements — if they reserve over half the building for those making 140% of the annual median income or less.
If the bill passes, those projects would be required to grant the displaced tenants at least three months of rent or allow them to return to a comparable unit in the new development at the same rental rate.
If the developer does not comply, the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation could halt the relocation, withhold funding, or even ban the developer from the program for at least one year.
Although the bill language says that the developer would have to allow the tenant to return or provide relocation assistance, advocates want relocation assistance provided in both cases.
During a House committee hearing, Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation Director Dean Minakami told lawmakers that this bill would make more of an impact for private projects.
“I think that they are the most that we can expect as a minimum standard for what's being done,” he said.
In the case of Kuilei Place, tenants were able to secure two months of rent and the services of an onsite relocation specialist from the developer, Kobayashi Group.
The Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation wrote in a statement that if the measure does not pass, it may use Kuilei Place as a standard to provide relocation assistance.
“ We have a bunch more public housing redevelopments coming up. We have 201H projects in the pipeline. So the bill is really about trying to create a baseline standard so that tenants don't have to self advocate for the most basic protections,” Grandinetti said.
“Hopefully, they organize and fight for more, but this will at least create a process that developers have to follow.”
In Kalihi, public housing tenants face displacement
A similar situation is playing out at Kuhio Park Terrace public housing in Kalihi. The Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority is redeveloping a portion of the housing, displacing 60 families.
But because it is through public housing, tenants have more protections, including a relocation plan required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They also will have the right to return to the development once it’s completed.
“At HPHA, we provide significantly higher accommodations than what is typically required under HUD’s baseline relocation standards and under HB1325,” Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority Director Hakim Ouansafi wrote in an email.
“Tenants are also granted the first right of return to the redeveloped property, and when they return, they will continue to pay the same 30% of their income, even for the newly built units. Our approach prioritizes stability, affordability, and tenant well-being beyond just providing a temporary payout.”
However, KPT tenants have raised concerns about confusing communication regarding moving, their right to return and inadequate replacement housing.
Lehua Willets, who has lived there her whole life and now has three daughters, does not want to see her community broken up.
“A lot of folks here want to stay in Kalihi,” she said. “That's what my main concern was. How are you going to keep everyone here? I don't know. It's hard. It's really hard.”
Restricting access to tenants' past rental history
Another measure being considered would make prospective tenants' eviction records more difficult to access in cases where the landlord did not prevail or the judgment was less than $500.
An eviction record — even one at no fault of the tenant — can be a big hurdle to secure housing.
The measure would disassociate the record from the tenant, meaning that when searching for the tenant’s name on the court website, the eviction record will not come up. But it will still be accessible if searching for the landlord involved.
Originally, the bill would have sealed the records, but the Public First Law Center was concerned that it would cut off the public’s right to access court records, so the center suggested instead disassociating the records.
“It's a really high bar if you're going to seal something. The way that the law was originally written was to take that authority of the judge so in these cases, the records are automatically sealed,” said Public First Law Center staff attorney Ben Creps.
“We pointed out where there's constitutional issues with that, but if you just make the records harder to find then there isn't necessarily that same constitutional concern.”
However, Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s Heim said that unlike sealing these types of eviction records, which 17 other states have done in some form, disassociating records has not really been tried in other states.
“ We haven't found it in practice anywhere,” she said. “Landlords typically ask for previous residences… so it just takes a landlord who wants to put in two extra steps on the computer.”
The measure also added a provision that bans landlords from discriminating against tenants because of those types of records.
However, Heim explained that it would be difficult to prove because the landlord-tenant code is a self-help law. That means that the burden would be on the prospective tenant to prove that the landlord is biased against them because of the eviction record.
Renters make up about 40% of the state.
