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Housing project
residents demonstrate
at Honolulu Hale

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Some say they are being bullied and kicked out of their homes for no reason by the management company overseeing the city's 160-unit Kulana Nani housing project.

Others, however, support Hawaii Affordable Properties' crackdown on rule violations and say it's made the Kaneohe complex safer and a better place to live.

Meanwhile, the city Department of Facility Maintenance says it is proceeding with an improvement program for the project that includes addressing accessibility issues.

About 25 Kulana Nani residents protested at Honolulu Hale yesterday what they described as unfair treatment.

Marcel Kahue said her family was given a 45-day notice to vacate the unit she's lived in for 19 years. Kahue said the notice did not give reasons why she was being removed.

"They told me they don't have to give me a reason," she said.

Mary-Lynne Ludloff said some 30 families have been either evicted or given removal notices in the last year. Ludloff, who has lived in the complex for 16 years, also was given a 45-day notice.

Other residents at yesterday's protest also brought up other problems including poor maintenance response and what they felt has been harassment and heavy-handed treatment by Hawaii Affordable Properties, particularly resident manager Richard Brooks.

Resident Dorothy Pale said many of her neighbors are afraid to speak out against Brooks.

Pale said raw sewage was seeping into her unit for 10 months before management addressed it by moving her family out.

Doctors attributed illnesses in two of her children to the sewage, she said.

Brooks, reached by telephone, said only six families have been given eviction notices -- all for not paying rent. Three other families, who were not on annual leases but on a month-to-month basis, have been given 45-day notices because of violations of "house rules."

Brooks said the majority of residents support his actions.

"What's happened for so many years is that nobody enforced the rules and people have been allowed to do what they've wanted to do for years," he said. Resident Franchesca Craft, who has lived at Kulana Nani for 24 years, is among Brooks' supporters. Said Craft: "They don't like that he's cut down on the drug crime over here. They want to be able to loiter and do their thing."

Mike Sohriakoff, property manager for Hawaii Affordable Properties, said protesters have not highlighted the fact that since his company stepped in a year ago, renovations have been made, a community activity room has been set up for tenants and programs for children were created.

Ross Sasamura, the city's director of facility maintenance, said complaints against Brooks have been investigated but not substantiated.