Advocates were calling on lawmakers to consider a bill that would have set baseline protections for tenants displaced by the construction of a new affordable housing development.
The bill would have affected projects under the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation completed with public funds. Tenants displaced by these projects would have received at least three months of rent, or they would have been allowed to return to a comparable unit in the new development at the same rental rate.
The measure passed out of the House and Senate but died Friday while awaiting a conference committee before it could go to a final vote.
Public housing residents at Kuhio Park Terrace in Kalihi had been advocating for the measure this legislative session. The housing area is in the process of being redeveloped; some people have been displaced.
"To have a community that can be cohesive and stable and have safe and decent housing is crucial to people's health,” said Jesse Lipman from Kōkua Kalihi Valley, a community health center. He’s helped support their efforts.
"We want to continue to build a close and tight-knit community. A lot of the people at KPT who are being pushed out have kids in the neighborhood schools. They have neighbors and family members they live their whole life with. They have doctors down the street, and they're getting pushed out to other places.”
Lehua Willets, a resident being impacted by the KPT redevelopment, explained that she and other advocates tried calling lawmakers to get the bill a hearing.
"We just wanted to know why the tenant protections and keeping our local families in our community are not a priority for our state senators ahead of the massive redevelopment projects already planned for health public housing,” Willets said. “ The bill includes enforcement measures to hold developers accountable for the right to return. That was our major goal.”
However, Senate Housing Chair Stanley Chang explained that the HHFDC can already impose these standards on developments.
"In their testimony, HHFDC explained that they already require the types of tenant relocation assistance services that the bill is requesting,” he said.“So it would be redundant beyond what's already being done.”
The Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority also must follow its own set of standards that could provide stronger protections than those in the bill.
However, HHFDC still supported the bill because it would have set a benchmark for all projects. Right now, it operates on a case-by-case basis.
"We have consistently supported HB1325 because it would establish a benchmark that is applicable to all projects,” said HHFDC Executive Director Dean Minakami in a written statement.
"While the HHFDC board can impose conditions for relocation assistance on a case by case basis, we support the bill because it establishes a uniform standard.”
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