Monsignor John Mbinda issued a double blessing Tuesday for a kupuna housing project’s first phase opening and second phase starting construction in Mililani Mauka where rent for residents is as low as $565 a month.

“May the grace and peace of Our Father, the source of all blessings, be with you all,” Mbinda, pastor of St. John Apostle and Evangelist Catholic Church in Mililani, told a group that included residents and builders of the 301-unit project called Meheula Vista.

The initial phase with 75 apartments and one manager’s unit opened in late January, and in recent weeks it has been filling up with residents. To be eligible, tenants must be 55 or older and earn no more than half the median annual income on Oahu.

So far, about a quarter of the one-bedroom units have been occupied, though all the units renting for $565 a month and reserved for seniors earning no more than 30 percent of Oahu’s annual median income — $21,120 for an individual or $24,120 for a couple — are taken. Some units renting for $898 a month and reserved for seniors earning no more than $35,200 for an individual or $40,200 for a couple are still available through Locations Property Management.

Rosalie Tadda, who is 86 and was widowed last year, said it was a blessing that she got one of the apartments.

“This works out wonderfully,” she said, explaining that her limited income wasn’t enough to stay in the Mililani apartment that she had occupied with her late husband, Frank. “My daughter wanted me to stay with her, but that is an imposition.”

Leonor Peralta, 60, moved from Hilo to Meheula Vista, which was an opportunity to return to Oahu, where she was born and raised. “I love it here,” she said.

An affiliate of Catholic Charities Hawaii developed Meheula Vista with local affordable-housing developer Gary Furuta, who began trying to establish low-income rental apartments on the corner of Meheula Parkway and Lehiwa Drive in 2010.

Furuta initially proposed apartments for the general public. But after the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board opposed the plan, Furuta tried to address traffic and school impact concerns by reserving units for seniors who because of their age would be less likely to have school-age children and drive. Part of the adjustment included limiting parking to 143 stalls and not renting to tenants with a registered vehicle once all the parking is assigned.

Though the neighborhood board voted 6-3 to endorse the revised plan in 2011, about 800 residents signed a petition opposing Meheula Vista, and the group Citizens Against Residential Expansion-Mililani, or CARE-Mili-lani, was formed to stop the project.

Some of the opposition was tied to disappointment that long-held plans to develop a performing arts center and businesses on the 7.5-acre site were being abandoned by Mililani’s master developer Castle &Cooke Hawaii, which owned the property.

Castle &Cooke had committed to donate part of the site to the nonprofit Oahu Arts Center, but the organization had trouble raising money for construction. The landowner sold the property to Furuta for $6.75 million in 2011 after declaring that the nonprofit missed a deadline to show it could finance the arts center.

Though the land is zoned for commercial use, state law allows an exemption for affordable housing.

Furuta used a $9.7 million loan from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency that facilitates affordable- housing development, to buy the property and get the project off the drawing board. But he ran into his own financing challenges and ended up turning over the land to HHFDC, which then leased the land to Catholic Charities Housing Development Corp. in partnership with Furuta.

“We had a number of challenges along the way, and as you can see we were able to overcome those challenges,” said Rick Stack, president of Catholic Charities Housing. “We’re very proud to be here today.”

Stack said Meheula Vista is the first housing project built by Catholic Charities. “This really is an important day for our organization,” he said.

Added Terry Walsh, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Hawaii, “We all know that the urgent need for more affordable housing and kupuna care is so great in our state. … We do groundbreaking work to help those most in need.”

The second phase of Meheula Vista, with 75 units, is expected to be finished in about a year at a cost of about $20 million. Two more phases after that with 75 units each should follow, along with a multipurpose building.