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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
City Council Chairman Ernie Martin has “a new idea. a new concept” about the future of the Blood Bank of Hawaii building at 2043 Dillingham Blvd.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin wants the city to buy the Blood Bank of Hawaii’s headquarters on Dillingham Boulevard in Kalihi and turn it into an all-in-one center devoted to helping homeless families.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation this month restarted contentious condemnation proceedings regarding 4,451 square feet of space in front of the blood bank’s building in Kalihi to be used for the city’s rail project.
But Martin wants the city to buy all of the blood bank’s 27,176 square feet of land and the entire 15,723-square-foot building.
He then wants to upgrade the building to provide a range of services to help homeless and low-income families, including the possibility of housing; a “hygiene center” where homeless people can shower and use the bathroom; and a “navigation center” where they will be surrounded by social service case workers who could potentially help with everything from substance abuse to job placement.
The center would be located on the rail line, which Martin hopes will be a critical link between homeless people and the jobs and schools that could improve their lives. It will also be close to Helping Hands Hawaii, which assists the mentally ill and homeless.
Details still need to be worked out, such as the cost to buy the property and exactly what kind of services would be provided.
But Martin hopes to accommodate “probably significantly more” than the 80 to 90 homeless people who are expected to eventually move into the city’s Hale Mauliola transitional shelter, which is made out of converted shipping containers on Sand Island.
The Blood Bank of Hawaii already moved its permanent donor facility to Young Street in Moiliili in January because of the rail project, but still uses the Kalihi building for blood processing, testing and distribution.
In a statement, Kim-Anh Nguyen, president and CEO of Blood Bank of Hawaii, said: “HART’s acquisition of the Dillingham portion of our property by eminent domain will put at risk our ability to meet our overarching priority — providing a safe and reliable blood supply for the people of the Hawaii. The rail construction and operation will obviously impact us beyond just the taking of our land, because blood processing, testing, and distribution facilities like ours are hugely affected by noise and vibration, and we need safe entry and exit points to our facility around the clock.
“While we will continue to strive for a resolution with HART and welcome solutions proposed by Chair Martin and Honolulu City Council, we owe it to the community to remain steadfast to ensure patient needs are met, and that our property and relocation rights under the law are respected,” she said.
Councilman Joey Manahan, who represents Kalihi, supports Martin’s idea and believes it would keep HART on schedule with the rail project while addressing the largest per capita homeless population in the country.
“It’s a new idea, a new concept altogether,” Manahan said. “We have a lot of homeless folks there already. I know it’s not a cure-all, it’s not a silver bullet, but it addresses a lot of the issues we’re grappling with.”
Since the city broke up the Kapalama Canal homeless encampment in his district last year, Manahan said, “there are still pockets of encampments where people are trying to survive. A hygiene center would address a lot of issues. We’ve got to do something.”
Martin said the Blood Bank of Hawaii land and building provide “a unique opportunity for the city to acquire some property that I believe has enormous potential to address some of the issues facing the community with respect to our homeless population.”
Martin said the project would “complement what the mayor has done on Sand Island focusing on singles. We would address working homeless and homeless families with children. In the short term we can address some immediate needs.”
Martin introduced a resolution Thursday urging Caldwell’s staff and HART to work together to acquire the property.
His resolution will go to the City Council’s Budget Committee on Wednesday. If it passes, it could go before the full Council on March 16.
In a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, city spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said: “Mayor Caldwell is pleased that Chair Martin put forward this proposal and he’s happy the council and administration are working together to create housing.
“Chief of Staff Ray Soon and Office of Strategic Development Director Sandy Pfund toured the site a couple months ago. The location is ideal, but the building is not designed for residential living; funds would need to be appropriated for renovations to make it habitable. With such funding the administration would be eager to move forward with the proposal.”
With Caldwell presenting his budget proposal to the Council on Tuesday, Martin said “it’s the perfect time” to buy the Blood Bank of Hawaii property.
This proposal still reeks of an ultimatum to the Blood Bank: Sell to the City or be condemned by HART, either way you’re out. And congregating the homeless near rail stations does not bode well for the fare-paying customers. Just ask the elderly who are denied access to some bus stops because they are occupied(still) by the indigent.
The useless cops refuse to get out of their cars to move these people along. Despicable.
I’ve said it for a while now — the State and City will dump all the homeless in Kalihi and Waianae. If you live in Kalihi or Waianae, be sure to thank your representatives at the next election.
We got our share in Kaimuki.
The rail project and the blood bank both take blood from people. The blood bank from donors and rail project takes blood from the tax payers.
We have the largest per capita homeless population in the country due to extremely high taxes, rent, and low pay, fix that first!
Projected costs?
Where’s the reimbursement money from the feds for COFA? The city wants to build all this stuff for the homeless on the backs of Hawaii’s taxpayers when the feds created a major part of the problem. We have useless senators in DC that need to get off their @$$ and get the money owed to the state.
nicely said.
Those “senators” are working for their respective “PUPPET MASTERS” and wiring stolen funds to their individual “OFFSHORE RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS”…
As usual, our dysfunctional elected bureaucrats, Council Chairman Ernie Martin, failed to say where he would get the funds to buy the property and do all the upgrade work. Ernie, do not even look at taxpayers for more money. Not going to happen.
Ernie. Do your job and make cuts of wasteful spending of taxpayer’s money and use the funds to pay for all these expenses. No more new taxes, no more raiding funds Ernie. Do your job.
He want’s to be the next Mayor.
Another bad idea by Council chairman Martin. First he wanted to buy the Hilo Hattie building on Nimitz and now the Blood Bank building and property.
Better to spend money to expand the “temporary” homeless shelter on Sand Island and invest in a city/private partnership to build low income rental housing.
I sure do hope that others besides “photo op Caldwell” and Martin run for Mayor. We sure need some smart and innovative people to run. Both Caldwell and Martin are losers and
really are not much different from each other in my opinion.
The homeless will vote for him. Like Sanders, take from the rich and give to the homeless. Another social program on the backs of the taxpayers. The horde of homeless will only increase if his proposal is acted on or passed?
Politicians making more & more attractive to be homeless here
The Hawaii Tourism and Lodging Association should buy it and put Mufi’s office right there in the corner closest to Dillingham Boulevard. The City Council should also move their office there along with Carlisle and Caldwell. That way they can marvel at their fraud, waste, and corruption and the so-called Rail Oriented Development that will take place along the route.
ALL SHOULD BE IN JAIL
bad idea; the residents including businesses in the area will surely complain, they don’t want homeless in their area. martin only can think narrowly, does not consider other viewpoints; he believes only what he wants and believes that he is right. poor council member/chairman and will even more make a poor mayor.
the city should purchase (not hart) the property from the blood bank so they would not have to pay moving expenses since it would not be a condemnation proceeding as the city would use it as a homeless shelter. watched the proceedings of the city council meeting today and the blood bank is trying to be underhanded. they want hart to purchase the whole property instead of just taking a small portion of the land, so that they could qualify for moving expenses. they don’t want the condemnation action go to court because they know that their position of adverse effects is fault, that is why they are persuading hart to purchase the whole property. if the city purchases the property to use as a homeless shelter, no moving costs will be allowed, since it would be a regular sale. and their asking price of $4.8 million appears inflated, the city should not pay more than $4million or even less for the property. the blood bank is making all kinds of false claims regarding the condemnation, they are not truthful, the director appears to be not a person of high integrity.
Knock the whole building down. Don’t forget last month a BBofH rep stated that there is in fact a small chance you can get HIV from donating blood.
Keep homeless people away from public areas.
Ernie and Joey: read this. WE DON’T WANT THEM HOMELESS HERE. Move them into YOUR neighborhood. We have enough problems already with the influx of Micronesians and other nationalities that feel that they are ENTITLED to everything without working for it. STOP DUMPING PROBLEMS IN KALIHI, put in Kailua, Kaneohe, Niu Valley (where Hakim Quansafi lives), Kahala, Waimanalo. How stupid of an idea is this?
Want to get re-elected? Then do the jobs you were elected to do. Sorry but I’m already fed up with putting and dumping problems in Kalihi. Ernie Martin, I will personally conduct a campaign to get you NOT re-elected because of all of your stupid ideas.
We pay your salary, REMEMBER THAT. Us folks that live here in Kalihi are fed up with it being a dumping ground.
Welfare is for people to get on their feet. That means they cannot live on the sidewalk, be a nuisance, collect rent subsidy and welfare all at the same time.
If they are mental they belong in an institution. If they are incapacitated veterans the VA should be taking care of them.
What is the problem?