The Hawai’i Public Housing Authority (HPHA) announced that Highridge Costa Development Co. will be the Master Developer to redevelop part of the public housing inventory. According to a release by Gov. Josh Green on July 3, there will be multiple phases for the project that will create more than 10,000 affordable housing units for nine properties across Hawai’i.
“All of these pieces work together to really help alleviate the housing crisis,” Green said. “We are grateful to the leadership of both the House and Senate for supporting our shared vision to meaningfully generate significant relief for our working families and our most vulnerable communities.”
According to the release, this is known as the Ka Lei Momi Redevelopment Project. The project has an overall goal of replacing and creating housing units for extremely low-income individuals, families and workforce employees across the state.
Green recently announced the signage of several bills with a focus on alleviating the state’s housing shortage and offering support for people facing homelessness.
The Hawai’i Public Housing Authority is the only statewide public housing agency with a stated mission of redeveloping “safe, decent and affordable housing” to the state’s low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. The Authority administers approximately 6,200 federal and state low-income public housing units across five islands and upwards of 4,000 rental assistance vouchers.
“The Ka Lei Momi Project is the start of our journey to revitalize multiple communities within our public housing inventory,” HPHA Executive Director Hakim Ouansafi said in the press release. “Redevelopment presents an exceptional opportunity to close the gap between the need and supply of affordable housing in Hawaiʻi while also transforming our existing low-density public housing properties into modern, mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented communities."
Ouansafi said regions impacted by poverty will be targeted.
"The only option to serve the waitlists and give choices to our residents to remain near their ohana, is to build more housing especially in areas where there is concentration of poverty,” he said.