Hassinger Project to open in February

Since November, the city has purchased and gutted a former private school in Makiki and plans to open it early next year as the first project of its kind in which the city will serve as landlord to as many as 75 low-income and homeless people.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell regularly uses the term “compassionate disruption” to describe his administration’s approach to clearing Honolulu’s homeless from the streets while simultaneously steering them into long-term housing.

“This is what the compassion side looks like,” Jun Yang, executive director of the city Office of Housing, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser during an exclusive tour of the so-called Hassinger Project on Tuesday.

In November, the city spent $5.5 million to buy two adjacent two- and three-story buildings near Piikoi and Hassinger streets that were once owned by Island Paradise School and more recently by Loveland Academy for autistic students.

The pace of the renovations by architect Group 70 International and general contractor Ralph S. Inouye Co. was sped up through a series of emergency proclamations by Gov. David Ige that allowed state and county agencies to waive normal procurement and bidding procedures to address the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation.

Many details still need to be worked out for the Hassinger Project, including the exact mix of low-income and homeless people — and determining who would manage the property and who would provide social services.

But as the 42 studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments take shape on a 20,000-square-foot lot, some members of the Makiki Neighborhood Board found an ally in Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who wants the project to be set aside for homeless people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The neighborhood board doesn’t share Caldwell’s vision of turning some of the apartments into Housing First units to be rented to homeless people who might have drug, alcohol or mental health issues that would be addressed by social service agencies.

So the Hassinger Project, located in the heart of urban Honolulu and near several bus stops, could be a barometer of how willing Oahu’s neighbors are to welcoming the homeless into their communities.

“The neighborhood is not happy with what the administration is doing,” said Kobayashi, who represents Palolo and Makiki. “It’s very difficult for deaf, homeless people to get a job and they face a lot of discrimination. They thought that would be a perfect place to stay together. They have special needs.”

Kobayashi said Wednesday the idea is being pushed by the Hawaii nonprofit Georgia E. Morikawa Center — or GEM, which says on its website that it’s dedicated to helping people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

It’s unclear how many homeless people on Oahu are deaf or hard of hearing or how many of them would want to move off the streets and into the Hassinger Project.

No one at GEM on Wednesday responded to emails or phone calls.

City spokesman Andrew Pereira said Wednesday that using the Hassinger Project exclusively for deaf homeless people would run afoul of federal law.

“Setting aside the Hassinger Street property exclusively for deaf people, while a noble cause, would be considered discrimination under federal fair housing laws,” Pereira said. “The administration reached out to GEM on several occasions for a business plan on how they plan to utilize the facility and how many deaf homeless clients could move in, but never received a response.”

Aside from a desire to help homeless deaf people, Kobayashi said, some nearby residents are worried that a Housing First project will attract “those on alcohol and drugs, etc. The deaf community would ensure their people are safe. I’m always in favor of having housing. But it has to fit into the neighborhood, because that’s who I represent.”

The Hassinger Project represents Caldwell’s newest tool to get more homeless people off the street.

It follows ongoing efforts to regularly sweep homeless encampments and encourage the homeless to enter shelters or join the city’s nascent Hale Mauliola community on Sand Island, which welcomed its first residents in November.

So far, unlike in cities such as Seattle, Hawaii officials at various levels have been unwilling to build units dedicated to Housing First apartments. And Ige and Caldwell have pleaded with landlords and property managers to rent their fair-market units to homeless people.

So the city is going into the Housing First landlord business on its own and pledging to rent at least some of the Hassinger Project’s apartments to homeless adults and families.

In a statement, Caldwell told the Star-Advertiser:

“This Makiki property is one of many investments my administration is making across Oahu to create truly affordable rental units for households and individuals with very modest incomes. This building was sitting unused, and soon dozens of Oahu families and individuals who are at risk of experiencing homelessness will have a home there. Our policy of buying properties to create housing had not been taken on by the city for decades before my administration, and is one of several new strategies leading to success, including Housing First, the Hale Mauliola Housing Navigation Center at Sand Island, Pauahi Hale Hygiene Center in Chinatown, and partnerships with the visitor industry. This is a strategy we could not implement without the support and guidance of the entire City Council. By continuing to work together, we will look for more opportunities such as this one.”

At the Hasssinger Project construction site on Tuesday, Sandy Pfund, director of the city Office of Strategic Development, said the two buildings represent one of many efforts to find more affordable housing for the homeless and low-income residents.

“We really need more permanent housing and this is an attempt to reach that goal,” she said. “Just think if we had to build this from the ground up.”

Mark H. Tagami, vice president and chief operating officer for the Ralph S. Inouye Co., estimated it would cost the city $10 million — and perhaps years — to build an identical Hassinger Project from scratch.

At the same time, Pfund’s staff of two continues to be outbid on similar large, vacant buildings that could house even more of Honolulu’s homeless.

Two bids on similar buildings remain outstanding, including one building that could be a large urban hygiene center where the homeless could take showers and use the bathroom, Pfund said.

As the city prepares to welcome the first tenants to the Hassinger Project in February, opposition to non-deaf homeless residents continues to build on the Makiki Neighborhood Board.

“When you say ‘homeless,’ what do you mean by homeless?” asked board member Sam Mitchell. “Drug addicts? Children? … More than anything, they (neighbors) want to be assured that they will have a safeguard for their community.”

Board treasurer Diane L.H. Chong said the Hassinger Project has been discussed at every meeting the neighborhood board has had so far this year.

Much of the concern, Chong said, surrounds the question, “What comes with the homeless?”