EDITORIAL
Public housing woes cannot be ignored

In so many areas, ranging from prisons to education for special-needs students, Hawai'i has developed a reputation for allowing problems to linger and rot rather than dealing with them.

The common denominator, sadly, is far too often the fact that those affected by neglect are the voiceless, the powerless and the poor.

The latest example was outlined in a lengthy article last weekend by staff writer Jim Dooley. He reports that the state's public housing agency is on notice from Washington that unless it completes an extensive (and expensive) overhaul it could lose millions of dollars of federal support.

The agency, called the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai'i (HCDCH) has been in Washington's gun sights for some time.

Former Hawai'i GOP Sen. Mike Liu, now head of the Housing and Urban Development Office of Public and Indian Housing in Washington, has been aggressively pushing the HCDCH to get its act together for two years.

In 2002 Liu forced the resignation of the executive director of the HCDCH and eight of its nine-member board.

There were suggestions that Liu's move was political. But clearly the pressure has continued even though the state has changed hands to Republican Linda Lingle.

Progress has been slow, and at times it comes only through the determined efforts of individuals, such as Rodelle Smith, an HCDCH resident on the Big Island.

Smith has organized tenants and has pushed hard to improve the physical and social conditions at Ka Hale Kahalu'u, where she lives.

It should not have had to come to that.

The bottom line is that the state has committed to the federal government and to Island residents who qualify that it will provide safe, adequate housing.

Once the promise has been made it should be kept.