Residents celebrate as legal battle to keep rent from rising comes to an end.

Kapālama residents fed up with what they say is substandard public housing conditions filed class-action lawsuits in state and federal courts yesterday against the state for the alleged lack of repairs.

The state has chosen a New Jersey-based company to undertake a $316 million redevelopment of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, which will include a one-for-one replacement of public housing units along with the addition of 276 subsidized, senior and market rate rental units.

Among the responsibilities of state government is to help provide basic needs for citizens' whose own means fall short. Where shelter is concerned, the state acknowledges this through its public housing projects.

Disabled tenants at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes have to worry every day about meeting their most basic needs, but after years of suffering, they have new hope it's about to change.

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

The federal case alleges that the public housing project violates the American with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Act. The state case alleges a breach of obligation by the state under its warranty of habitability.

Calling the state ''the largest slumlord'' in Hawaii, Lawyers for Equal Justice filed federal and state class-action lawsuits Thursday against the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority.

The state will assist families to ensure they attend school.

The state has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit filed last year that alleged homeless children around the state are being denied equal access to public education.

A federal judge has given the state Department of Education until April 30 to revise its enrollment forms and computer registration programs to improve how it identifies, tracks and transports homeless students as required under federal law.

Homeless families sue the DOE for failing to educate their children in accordance a with federal law.

Lawyers for Equal Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi yesterday went to court seeking an order that would immediately stop the state from enforcing laws and policies they claim make it hard for transient students to find stability in their schooling.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of hundreds of homeless K-12 students to ensure they have the right to continue attending the school they were in before their families lost their homes.

Lawyers for Equal Justice & the ACLU of Hawaiʻi have filed a lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of homeless K-12 students to ensure their continued access to education, as protected by federal law.

The state has failed so badly at helping homeless children get to and from public schools that federal courts should intervene in the situation, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU and two other parties.