City-owned Property Residents to Meet

Residents of the City and County of Honolulu owned affordable rentals are organizing with the help of former Hawai'i State representative, Beverly Wolff Harbin.

At Marin Tower, Chinatown Gateway, Harbor Village, Kulana Nani and Winston Hale, each of these places have had tenant meetings or are planning to meet soon.

An assembly of all tenants from all the housing units is planned at the Harris United Methodist Church located at 20 South Vineyard Blvd. Honolulu from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. on Saturday May 26 2007. Gavin K. Thornton from the Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i, a housing lobbyist, will be present at the meeting.

The Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i was founded in 1950 and is a housing advocate acting to prevent homelessness.

In the Hawaii Business Magazine on Feb 1, 2007, Reverend Bob Nakata, former state legislator, states the following. "The existing stock of affordable work-force housing needs to be preserved and expanded.

Mayor Hannemann has maintained that finding a solution to homelessness is a state problem, along with other standard city municipal services such as sewage but Honolulu has already been consolidated for over a century as the City and County of Honolulu.

In November 2006, Honolulu voters passed the affordable housing charter question regarding land conservation and affordable housing funds, however in February 2007, Hannemann stated, "The will of the electorate demand that the city get out of the housing business."

Mufi says there no timetable for the sales, nonetheless Winston Hale has been painted and numerous new installations of umbrellas, security cameras, electronic locks, handicapped lift and a awning since the start of Mufi's first term in office.

Half of all the properties are in Chinatown where the Grand Central Station for Mufi's railroad will be.

Kickstand

He lives in Ala Moana Beach Park and goes by the street name "Kickstand." For seven years he lived in A'ala Park on the outskirts of downtown Honolulu.

That is how the news article in the Honolulu Advertiser begins about a biplegic man who has been homeless for seven years in Honolulu. The news story posted on Monday, April 22, 2002 can be found by googling Kickstand + homeless. Google returns it as #1 top response.

Kickstand couldn't get a place because his handicap scared private landlords about insurance costs if he were to fall on the staircase. If it weren't for Winston Hale - he would still be homeless.