The Honolulu City Council is pushing for a city program to assist Oahu residents displaced by the future construction of city-funded affordable housing projects.
Introduced in June by Council member Matt Weyer, Resolution 185 calls on the city to create a residential relocation assistance program, including a dedicated full-time position, to assist with such needs.
Weyer’s resolution requests the program be placed within a city department of the mayor’s choosing.
To that end, the Council on Sept. 3 voted 8-1, with Val Okimoto dissenting, to formally adopt Resolution 185.
“In situations where residents who need relocation assistance due to the development or redevelopment of an affordable housing project are not afforded such assistance, their likelihood of experiencing homelessness increases, ” the resolution asserts.
It adds the city “has been actively incentivizing the development of affordable housing, maximizing city financing programs, and securing partners to expand housing production.”
In a statement after the meeting, Weyer said it was important to “minimize negative impacts on the surrounding community ” as the city expands affordable housing. “This proposed program would provide assistance to individuals affected by any city-supported project, ” he added.
After the meeting, Kevin Auger, director designate of the city Department of Housing and Land Management, said relocation assistance is currently being administered by his agency.
“Where relocation assistance is required by law, the city ensures those requirements are met, ” he explained. “In this sense, the intent of the resolution is already being fulfilled.
“Relocation assistance is an integral part of how we approach housing and redevelopment, and we fully support the resolution, ” Auger said.
At the Council meeting, no one from the public spoke for or against the resolution.
But in prior written testimony submitted to the Council, the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaii—based at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law—supported Resolution 185 due in part to what it perceives as a lack of resources to those directly affected by new government-subsidized development.
“Currently, there are almost no clear and enforceable state or county level displacement protections or services for tenants in projects that are being re-developed under state and county schemes, ” Deja Ostrowski, the group’s staff attorney, wrote. “While federal law does provide some long-term relocation assistance for limited demolition projects, there are no clear requirements in city or state projects.”
She noted there are also no regulations that require displaced tenants to get relocation services or the first preference or right to return for projects funded by the county or state.
“Learning from the lessons of redevelopment projects currently displacing tenants, our city must move to protect and prioritize our community first, by supporting tenant relocation that include all three prongs of good anti-displacement programs, ” she wrote.
Ostrowski noted the city should offer tenants relocation assistance, provide relocation counseling and offer the right to return or first preference for families in the new development.
“Without support, tenants are left with, at best, miscommunication, and at worst, community pushback. This has been made abundantly clear in the redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace low-rise, where a private developer is implementing a $200 million project that displaced hundreds of tenants, ” she wrote. “Serious problems and likely unlawful actions—including miscommunication, lack of language access, sending tenants to housing that was in disrepair or didn’t exist—led many of the tenants to file suit against the state Public Housing Authority because of these failures to provide mandated relocation counseling.”
She asserted that without relocation counseling, “or with poor relocation counseling by for-profit, out-of-state entities that do not know our community, local families are displaced and anti-development sentiment grows.”
“We urge the county to make clear that displaced families receive services, and implement a position to ensure that the counseling is provided by people and entities who know, and are accountable to, our local community, ” Ostrowski wrote.
According to Auger, since 2021 the city has helped deliver more than 2, 000 affordable housing units on Oahu.
“Of these, approximately 500 units were projects that underwent substantial rehabilitation programs, which preserve existing affordable housing and extends the affordability period, ” he said. “Looking ahead, since the establishment of the DHLM earlier this year, the city is in the process of creating a pipeline of ground-up affordable housing developments on city lands that is estimated to support an additional 2, 500 to 3, 000 affordable units.”