Public housing: Deplorable conditions demand action

The minimum expected of public housing, according to multiple federal laws on the books, is that it be "decent, safe, and sanitary." It's simply unconscionable that there are still public housing projects in Hawaiʻi that can't even reach that low bar.

Yet for years, if not decades, Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes have been plagued by neglect and conditions making them unfit to live in by almost any standard: chronically broken and overcrowded elevators, posing troubling challenges for disabled residents; a lack of proper fire safety equipment; trash chutes boarded up by plywood, posing safety and sanitation risks; unsafe aging stairwells; and severe infestations of roaches, rats and bedbugs.

Built in the mid-1960s, the federally backed, state-run projects are also home for roughly 3,000 lower-income residents. These residents will tell you that the neglect spans multiple administrations, and passed through dozens of legislative sessions.

They'll tell you about elevators that don't run much of the time, of the filthy, wet and slippery stairwells they can be forced to use, sometimes carrying disabled family members up and down; of units with persistent leaks in ceilings and walls; and of hot water that's rarely available due to broken water heaters.