Government does not have the best record of owning and managing residential property, and that’s putting it mildly.

The problem facing the state Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. (HHFDC) is more how it can responsibly turn over ownership without undue disruption of the tenants it is chartered to serve.

The board of the HHFDC has decided to sell the leasehold interests on six state-owned properties to a partnership of Stanford Carr Development, a Hawaii company, and Los Angeles-based Standard Property Co, in a $170 million deal.

The deal offers protection for existing tenants — assuming the state agency replenishes its shrinking Rental Assistance Program fund that helps them now.

If that support remains adequately funded, this sale represents a positive outcome for the state at large. That’s largely because the state reaps millions in sale proceeds and financing savings that can be reinvested into more rental inventory.

The projects, comprising 1,221 units, are home to a mix of lower-income earners. When they were built two to three decades ago, they were aimed at the population earning at or below the 80 percent of area median income (AMI) mark. But over the years, the tenant population shifted to comprise largely the 60 percent AMI income group.

Under the deal: After five years in which annual rent increases are capped at 2 percent, they can go up further, by 5 percent a year, in all but one project serving senior citizens, Pohulani Elderly. Those tenants will be kept to 2 percent annual increases for as long as they stay. For some, the year-by-year increases may be too much to afford, especially if the subsidies lag behind.

There’s almost certain to be churn in the tenant roster. And once a tenant leaves, the unit could go up in rent to be affordable to those earning 80 to 100 percent of AMI.

That prospect is being pilloried by affordable housing advocates such as Victor Geminiani, co-executive director of Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice. Geminiani said HHFDC should have done a better job of managing rental income and financing the routine maintenance of the projects, to steer clear of a fiscal crisis.

That is reasonable, and so are his fears that substantial evictions of current tenants would merely compound an already existing homelessness crisis in Hawaii. HHFDC and the new owners must work to avoid this.

However, the fact remains that the state owns these six housing complexes, 26 years old on average. This deal will yield a renovation program by the new owners at their own cost, totaling $53.9 million, to be completed in three years. It also saves the state $6.3 million a year in debt financing payments.

And in the end, the state will have $81 million to plow into new housing development.

This is key: The state should forge a partnership to produce units affordable to lower-income renters, particularly aimed at the price point needed by tenants at risk of eviction from the six units at issue in the Carr-Standard deal.

It is encouraging to see Gov. David Ige’s preliminary budget request addressing the housing need. In his proposed budget unveiled Monday, the governor listed housing among his priorities, seeking an infusion of more than $100 million.

That amount includes: capital improvement program requests for $25 million and $50 million, respectively, for the Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund and the Rental Housing Revolving Fund, both geared to support new development projects.

The state may find itself in even greater fiscal constraints in coming years, with an anticipated reduction in federal support.

For that reason and a few others, HHFDC has the duty to ensure that this sale will ultimately make the most of limited resources — without propelling even more people toward homelessness.