Housing chief Nani Medeiros’ resignation raises questions about future of Green’s panel

Hawaii’s chief housing officer, Nani Medeiros — who has been disparaged, sued and criticized in her 10 months on the job — plans to resign, citing recent threats to her and her family.

“Over the last several weeks many lies have been said about me and my family. Threats have been made against me, loved ones who don’t even work for the government, and even children. I love my family, and for the sake of their health and safety, I’ve been left with no choice but to resign my position,” Medeiros said Thursday in a statement.

“With my resignation, the discussions about housing should no longer (be) about me. We need to refocus on the crisis: how we will build more housing for our local people while preserving our environment and respecting our iwi kupuna. We’re already too late for too many.”

Gov. Josh Green praised Medeiros and her compassion for affordable housing, and he specifically blamed former mixed martial arts fighter B.J. Penn for inspiring threats directed at Medeiros.

“Nani Medeiros is a truly compassionate person who has worked tirelessly to help create novel solutions to house the homeless and to build affordable homes in Hawaii — only to face a barrage of personal attacks in person and on social media from those who would rather tear us all apart, rather than help Hawaii move forward,” Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Medeiros’ departure raises questions about the future of Green’s new Build Beyond Barriers state emergency housing development approval panel that the governor created through an emergency proclamation on July 17 and which Medeiros led.

The nonprofit public- interest law organization Earthjustice sued Medeiros and other plaintiffs over the panel.

Senior attorney David Henkin said the plaintiffs represent a wide swath of community concerns, including the Sierra Club, affordable housing and Native Hawaiian advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and some residents in West Maui where the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire killed at least 115 people and destroyed about 2,200 structures, most of them homes.

“Nani Medeiros was clearly on the receiving end of a lot of public outcry” over concerns of “stripping away the Sunshine law, protection for Native Hawaiian barriers,” Henkin said. “The community made it very clear this is important to them. … The community made it clear to Nani Medeiros, who was just a messenger, that the public is not going to settle for this type of exclusionary practices.”

Green’s emergency proclamation expires Sept. 15, and Henkin said the governor has made it clear that he plans to keep issuing new ones to keep the panel running “a year or maybe longer. We hope he will use this opportunity to take a different path.”

State Sen. Stanley Chang (D, Hawaii Kai-Kahala- Diamond Head) regularly introduces bills intended to create more affordable housing and continues to support the Build Beyond Barriers panel.

“First, I want to say that it was a real pleasure working with Nani,” Chang said. “She put her heart and soul into this very difficult job. I’m personally grateful for all of the hard work she’s put in.”

Chang said the group had “only one substantive meeting” and already made efforts to be “more transparent. And that’s a good thing.”

“Whoever takes over as chief housing officer will continue in that direction,” Chang said.

Green accused Penn, who in 2022 unsuccessfully ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, of leading an effort to bully Medeiros.

“The bullying tactics, with obvious violent undertones employed by Mr. Penn and his followers have no place in Hawaii and are absolutely contrary to our spirit of Aloha for others,” Green told the Star-Advertiser. “I won’t tolerate anyone from my team, or anyone in our state, being treated this way. It is despicable.”

Penn did not respond to a Star-Advertiser request for comment.

Medeiros was put in charge of the emergency housing development approval panel, which generated intense public criticism at its first public meeting Aug. 29, when Penn and other speakers blasted its very existence, power and process.

Some critics scolded the panel for not consulting Lahaina community members on proposed projects that could benefit people displaced by the wildfire.

A few others suggested that the 36-member panel, made up largely of state and county officials, represents a scheme to redevelop historic Lahaina into something backed by developers.

Penn accused panel members of ignoring public concerns and wanting to take the family fortunes of Lahaina evacuees and put them in Puna on Hawaii island.

“You guys gonna take the people in Lahaina and put them in Puna,” Penn said. “That’s crazy.”

Long before Green created the panel, Medeiros was criticized in January by state Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point-Kapolei), who brought her to tears at a meeting of the Hawaiian Home Lands Commission when Fevella said she has “nothing, or no knowledge, about our Hawaiian people. I don’t care if she says she’s Hawaiian. Just remember now, the devil also was an angel. Remember that. So just because you’re Hawaiian doesn’t mean you have the passion for the people.”

Green, in response, wrote a two-page letter to Senate President Ron Kouchi condemning Fevella’s testimony about Medeiros, citing Senate rules that prohibit disparaging others.

Fevella later stood on the Senate floor and said, “At this time I just want to offer apologies to Nani Medeiros if I had offended her and her family of the things that I had said. I never meant to hurt her personally or her family. So, again, I apologize for the words that I had said.”

In response, Medeiros later wrote in a text to the Star-Advertiser at the time saying, “This has been a very difficult week for me and my family. I look forward to moving on and focusing on the Governor’s priority housing agenda; there is too much at stake for anything less.”

Green told the Star- Advertiser that the criticisms leveled at Medeiros — who holds a Cabinet-level position in his administration — make it harder for him to find a qualified replacement.

Medeiros started out advising former Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, on homelessness and housing. While Green was lieutenant governor, Medeiros later worked for a hui of builders and developers called Home­Aid Hawaii, which provided materials, manpower and expertise to build Hawaii’s first kauhale of tiny homes in Kalaeloa to provide permanent homes for homeless clients.

In February, Medeiros told the Star-Advertiser that she had spent years living paycheck to paycheck as a single mother — the group most at risk of becoming homeless — and doubted she would ever be able to buy a home of her own in Hawaii.

But her job with Green fueled her desire to make housing more affordable for everyone, she said.

In her statement Thursday, Medeiros wrote: “I’ve never owned a home. I don’t know what it’s like to not have to worry about rent being raised. I don’t know what it’s like to get keys for the first time, to furnish a house exactly the way I’d want it to be because it’s mine, to give my family some sense of permanence in the only community we’ve ever known.

“I took this job because I know I’m not alone, and every year, there are so many more just like me — locals who either can’t afford to own a home or will be forced to leave the islands. … Our regulatory processes are considered some of the worst in the nation. We do not have enough housing for all of our people, we have not been building enough for our population growth, and that is causing many of us to be priced out. I hate seeing our people leave and the face of Hawaii change. I am a native Hawaiian, kanaka maoli, single mother, born and raised in Hawaii, lived only here all my life, and have been committed to this cause.”