Posted on: Friday, April 8, 2005
In Makiki, price is right for elderly renters
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Affordable rental housing for the elderly on O'ahu got a big boost yesterday with the dedication of a recently completed 62-unit apartment project and the groundbreaking for a new 47-unit building in Makiki.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser Kina'u Vista, a $10.7 million, eight-story senior rental project on Kina'u Street near Pi'ikoi Street, is the group's sixth completed project. The building has proved so popular and the need so great that it's already full.
Tenants, HHDC board members and others associated with the projects gathered for the dual ceremonies yesterday.
Four new tenants — Ardith Hoover, Winifred Garcia, Dolores Kruger and Margaret Fenick — have just moved in or are in the process and already have become fast friends.
The women, who would only give their ages as "over 65" because that is a requirement of being allowed in the building, were happy to have a new affordable home.
• Since 1999, HHDC has opened affordable and senior housing at the Birch Street Apartments, with 53 family-affordable rentals; the Wisteria Vista, with 91 senior-affordable rentals; Kalakaua Vista, with 80 senior-affordable rentals; Artesian Vista, with 53 senior rental units; and Wilder Vista, with 54 family-affordable rentals. The projects are financed with a mix of city, state, federal and private-sector money. • Prudential Locations is the property manager for the two newest projects, Kina'u Vista and the planned Pi'ikoi Vista. Kina'u Vista is already full. Call 738-3100 for more information. "I feel lucky," said Hoover, who pays $315 for her one-bedroom unit. "It's new, clean and close to Safeway and Times."
Garcia said if she didn't get this unit she would be living with her son. "It's better to be independent," she said.
Fenick said the location on Kina'u Street across from Ka'ahumanu Elementary School is near the bus lines, churches and is "nice and quiet."
Senior residents must earn at or below 30 percent to 60 percent of Honolulu's median income to qualify for an apartment. Units rent for $313 to $556 a month.
The building has a community room with a kitchen, TV lounge and computer. Residents will be assigned individual garden plots, called victory gardens, for the therapeutic benefits of getting outside and working with their hands. The air-conditioned, one-bedroom apartments have about 415 square feet of interior space, and a full laundry is located on each floor.
To foster the developers' "aging in place" concept, Catholic Charities has an office on the second floor to provide counseling and physical assistance as needed to help residents remain independent and secure.
Pi'ikoi Vista, expected to open next year, is on an adjacent parcel and also will have one-bedroom apartments with much the same amenities for seniors who earn at or below 50 percent of the median income.
Last year Gov. Linda Lingle said the state is lacking 30,000 affordable homes, of which 17,000 would be rental units.
"The Kina'u Vista and Pi'ikoi Vista affordable housing apartments bring us another step closer to helping to fill the need for affordable housing in our state," Lingle said yesterday.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
The finished Kina'u Vista and the planned Pi'ikoi Vista are developed by the nonprofit Hawai'i Housing Development Corporation. The group was established in 1993 by community leaders to provide rental housing for people with low incomes in Honolulu's high-priced market.
Margaret Fenick, left, tries out the furniture while Ardith Hoover, right, helps Winifred Garcia unpack in Garcia's Kina'u Vista apartment.
"You can't find anything better than this," Kruger said.
LOWER RENT, BETTER LIVING
