State's a slumlord, suit says

A class-action lawsuit filed yesterday against the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority alleges tenants at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, two of the oldest and largest public housing projects in the state, are living in squalid, unsanitary conditions, with elevators that don't work, apartments infested by roaches and rats and faulty sewage lines that cause "brown wastewater to fill housing units."

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, also says disabled tenants are not being afforded bare-bones accommodations, including accessible showers.

"It's tragic today that we find the state ... (as) the largest slum landlord we have," said Victor Geminiani, Lawyers for Equal Justice executive director, at a news conference at Kuhio Park Terrace. "We represent a group of low-income, disabled tenants that have been forced to endure these horrendous conditions" for years.