The run-down condition of the 45-year-old Kalihi Valley
Homes public housing project has spurred the state
to start putting together a renovation plan.
Kalihi housing
project renewed
Renovation of the complex is set
By Craig Gima
to start late next year and will
cost about $40 million
Star-BulletinAipopo Aipopo Jr. has lived in Kalihi Valley Homes for 30 years and has raised six children there. Now, as president of the Kalihi Valley Homes Resident Association, he's helping to plan the renovation of one of Hawaii's oldest public housing projects. Kalihi Valley Homes opened in August 1953 and its age is showing.
Residents complain about the plumbing and other fixtures, about upstairs bathrooms that leak water downstairs.
There are also mice, roaches and ants that find many places to hide in the decaying facility.
But Aipopo's biggest priority is the children.
"There's just a small playground for all the kids," he said. "At the basketball court, when the big boys come in, the little ones got no place to go."
The state is hoping to spend $40 million over the next 10 to 15 years to renovate the 400 units at Kalihi Valley Homes, located on Kamehameha IV Road.
The first stage of the process was to have a meeting called a charrette. It was held in September to let the residents talk about what they would like to see happen with their homes.
About 400 people attended and, based on the charrette, the state hired the Group 70 architectural and design firm to work on preliminary plans for the renovation. The state still must hire an architect to draw up the plans, and construction of the first phase of the renovation could start by December 1999 or in the year 2000.
The residents association and a group that includes several churches called FACE -- Faith Action for Community Equity -- surveyed residents and presented the results of the survey at the charrette.
Besides the improvements to the homes, better parking and playgrounds for the children, FACE also would like the building contractors to employ and train residents of the project.
Another priority is to make sure residents are not displaced by the construction, and that residents are able to return to their homes.
"I rather remodel than break it all down," Aipopo said. "If demolition, we don't know if they going to build again. My worry is where all these tenants going if they demolish this place."
Aipopo said he has seen some early sketches of what could happen with the renovation and is encouraged.
"This place going to look like a house now," he said. "We don't have no flat roof, we going to have a house roof."
He said there also should be playgrounds and additional parking for buildings further up the mountainside on Kamehameha IV Road.
Aipopo said he and the residents will get a chance to see drawings of what the renovation could look like at a meeting Dec. 2 with Group 70 and state officials.
