City to convert empty building into 30 affordable apartments

The city has purchased another three-story building in town — on Young Street, Ewa of McCully Street — which will add another 30 studio apartments for people who earn just over $36,000 per year.

The project, tentatively scheduled to open a year from now, is part of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s plan to increase the number of affordable units on Oahu to ease the pressure on a community struggling with the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation.

“It’s for those who are on the edge of becoming homeless,” Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It could be housing those who are working homeless … but just can’t afford a place, or those living in cars.”

Sandy Pfund, executive director of the city’s Department of Land Management, said low-income tenants with Section 8 vouchers — or homeless people with housing vouchers — also would be eligible to occupy the units at 1902 Young St.

The city bought the vacant building for $6.28 million in November and plans to spend $5.5 million to renovate it into 30 studio apartments, which would include one for a resident manager. The building also has 28 parking spaces on the ground level.

Pfund said the City Council funded the project as part of its efforts to address homelessness and provide affordable housing.

“It’s through their funding allotments that we’re able to continue to acquire properties,” Pfund said.

The building joins a portfolio of new and newly renovated affordable units the city has developed from Waianae to Sand Island to Chinatown, including a three-story building on Beretania Street that the city bought last year to provide affordable rental units.

In addition, modular units are scheduled to be delivered the week of Dec. 18 to the city’s Halona housing project in Waianae, which is aimed at homeless families.

And businessman Duane Kurisu’s Kahauiki Village project near the H-1 freeway viaduct is scheduled to open in January to provide housing for 150 homeless families. Kahauiki Village is just makai of the scene of two recent, large homeless sweeps.

The building at 1902 Young St. was built in 2010 as a construction business but was never completed.

“It was never occupied,” Pfund said. “The inside is like a big empty shell. We don’t have to tear anything out to create the interior renovations to create 30 studios. It looked ideal.”

It’s aimed at housing people who earn 50 to 60 percent of so-called area median income. At 50 percent AMI, a single person would earn $36,650, a couple would make $41,850 and a family of three would earn $47,100.

As the landlord, the city will be able to hold down rental costs and is committed to providing affordable housing, Pfund said.

“The city owns it as a permanent rental project,” she said.

Central Union Church and Olivet Baptist Church, located near the Beretania Street project, have welcomed their new neighbors, along with low-income and formerly homeless residents who moved into a separate city project on Piikoi Street.

Church members have donated household items and invited residents to church functions, and Pfund plans to reach out to them again to help residents moving into 1902 Young St.

In the meantime Caldwell said he is committed to providing affordable housing to both help low-income families and ease Oahu’s homeless crisis.

As he served Thanksgiving meals at the Blaisdell Center, Caldwell recalled serving a man “who later came back with his wife and daughter and said, ‘I want to tell you that I was one of the guys on the street.’”

“My wife and daughter got tears in their eyes,” Caldwell said. “We’re doing the right thing.”