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Living Aloha at Kuhio Park Terrace

Jun 08, 2009 | By Olin Lagon


I grew up in Kuhio Park Terrace (KPT) and Palolo Valley Homes public housing projects.

When I tell people this, the reaction I get is usually, "YOU lived in public housing?!"  When I ask people why they react this way, they often say, "Well, I'm impressed." I know I should feel appreciative, but to be honest, this reaction make me sad. If someone is impressed because I lived in public housing, then it means that expectations for folks living there is somehow lower than for others. I realize my own feelings about this are a bit biased, but the truth is I have seen and continue to see unfair judgments and assumptions about folks living in our public housing communities.

Last Sunday, the Honolulu Advertiser ran the story Public housing: Deplorable conditions demand action. If you have time, I recommend you read this article to get a sense of the extraordinary challenges these folks face. Some units and areas are infested with roaches, rats, and bedbugs emitting strong noxious odors. Disabled residents must cope with chronically broken elevators, sometimes relying on family members to carry them up slippery stairwells.

Some of the stories are truly heartbreaking: One woman can't get upstairs to bathe or use the toilet because of an amputated leg. Until another unit is available, she uses a plastic toilet in her living room and takes sponge baths in the kitchen sink, something she has been doing for five years. Speaking from my own experiences living there and serving on the KPT-based board of Parents and Children Together (PACT), life there simply is not easy. The need for repair and maintenance is a big part of the problem.

The suffering is not limited to current residents of KPT. A maintenance backlog means that homeless people suffer, too. The waiting list for public housing is 8,000 people long. But, many units remain vacant because they need simple repairs before someone can move in. Priority people on the list are homeless working families and victims of domestic violence. These people wait 12 to 18 months. Others may wait much longer.

The Public Housing Authority suffers too, as staff are lost or furloughed, capacity is stretched, and work piles up even further. There is today a $300 million backlog of maintenance and repair projects that the HPHA must tackle. Now, the Housing Authority is being sued for the longstanding backlog, at a moment when a slumping economy is backing the State into a fiscal corner.

Critical service providers like IHS and PACT are stretched thin as budgets are cut while need rises. Citizens at-large are outraged by public housing conditions, and by the fact that, as taxpayers, we will foot the bill for both improvements and lawsuits.

Thankfully, we all have an opportunity to be part of the solution. On Saturday June 20, public housing residents, Kanu volunteers, the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, and service providers like IHS, will come together to make this place a little better. We may not be able to move all 8,000 families off the waiting list, or repair the elevators, but we can make KPT a little more livable. Our actions will say, louder than any words, that we find the current conditions to be unacceptable. And, just as important, we'll demonstrate that to "live aloha" means raking, planting, cleaning, and painting together sometimes, even if we stand on opposite sides of an issue or neighborhood boundary.


Sign up to volunteer at KPT or at service projects across the islands on June 20.

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