When Hakim Ouansafi took the helm of the Hawai‘i Public Housing Authority some 15 years ago, he spent three months living at Mayor Wright Homes, a large and aging public housing community in the Kalihi Pālama neighborhood "just to see and feel what our tenants experience every day."
Built in 1953, Mayor Wright Homes has 364 public housing units in 35 two- and three-story walk-ups. Problems there have long been documented.
But on Oct. 22, ground broke on the first phase of a redevelopment project that leaders say will breathe new life into the community.
Ultimately, the existing 364 units will be replaced with nearly 2,450 new affordable and workforce homes, but work on phase 1A, which is underway now, will replace 64 units in eight buildings with 308 units in one tower.
"We have made a commitment then and to see today coming to fruition, it's just a dream, actually," Ouansafi, HPHA's executive director, told ASD ahead of the ground breaking and blessing ceremony Thursday. "We made few attempts in the past and they were not successful for a lot of reasons."
Ouansafi says the families affected by the phase 1A redevelopment have already been relocated, either within HPHA's public housing inventory or in the private market with the authority providing a Section 8 voucher and guaranteeing a right of return, as long as they remain in compliance.
The complete Mayor Wright redevelopment is anticipated to take about 10 years, but will depend on the availability of tax credits and funding, he says.
"We're ready," Ouansafi says. "We basically know what needs to be done. We have done all the necessary studies. Phase 1B, that's 258 units, it's already permitted, ready to go as well, so we're going to go as fast as the funding allows us to."
What's changed in the 15 years since he's lived in Mayor Wright?
The urgency, Ouansafi says, and, crucially, the governor's view on housing, "making it a health emergency and really opening a lot of doors that were closed to us. Then you have the Legislature that [has] made it a priority by providing some funding. We found the best developer. It seems like all the stars lined up."
"Mayor Wright has been in rough shape for decades and now we have a chance to breathe some new life into it," Honolulu City Council Member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who represents District 6, told ASD before the groundbreaking ceremony. "My focus is making sure the residents here, as well as the surrounding neighbors, are kept updated on the progress, so we're going to keep having community meetings and keep engaging with them.
"It's certainly exciting," he continued. "We've had a couple of community meetings ... over the past few years and I think it's time for a change, but again, we want to make sure that this project is going to be continuing to serve our low-income community, continuing to prioritize them, and I think it will."
When asked what he's hearing about the project from residents and neighbors, Dos Santos-Tam says there's "cautious optimism."
"Dramatic change is hard and having high rises here is going to be a dramatic change, but especially the longtime residents remember when Mayor Wright was really, really rough," he says. "Fifteen years ago, the residents here were protesting because they had no hot water. Now we have a chance to renovate it and bring in additional apartments that are definitely needed in the community, so I think the surrounding neighbors are looking at it cautiously, but with the realization that it is going to be an improvement over these low rises, which are 70-plus years old."
Gloria Castro has lived at Mayor Wright Homes for more than 40 years. She told ASD after the ground breaking that she was initially upset about the development, "but it's OK. We need more affordable housing for people because we need to get the people off the street."
Ouansafi, however, says residents of the community are excited and that the redevelopment is long overdue.
"Prior to my tenure, they were promised redevelopment; that didn't happen," he told ASD. "They're so excited. It's 70-year-old buildings, you can only maintain it so much. The infrastructure needs to be changed. We've been doing, for the last decade, the best we can [to] make it safe, decent and sanitary, but this takes it to the next level. This brings another 40 years worth of life, new atmosphere and, equal as important, is [we are] able to deconcentrate the poverty."
According to a presentation made earlier this year, the mixed-income community will include the one-for-one replacement of public housing units, affordable rentals, workforce housing and an affordable for-sale component, along with 50,000 square feet of community retail and services and more than 1.8 acres of parks, gathering areas and public open spaces. You can see that presentation here.
"It's a start of a new community, a vibrant community, mixed-income community, and equally as important, [it is] providing not just roofs and walls, we're providing a space for children to do their homework. We're providing space for the communities to build new families, to have their own children, to raise good families. It's just very special."
Ouansafi was joined by Gov. Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Highridge Costa Development Co. President Moe Mohanna and others for the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.
The redevelopment is part of the Ka Lei Momi Project, a statewide initiative to replace and create more than 10,000 affordable hosing units at nine public housing properties across the Islands.
Highridge Costa was tapped to be the master developer for Ka Lei Momi in 2023. HPHA and Highridge Costa received approval from the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting to move forward with the Mayor Wright redevelopment in early 2024.
"The state of Hawai‘i should be very proud. City and County of Honolulu should be very proud," Mohanna told the crowd gathered Thursday. "This is an amazing team. This is an amazing achievement. Nowhere else in the nation has a state or a county or a government or a Legislature stepped up to take care of its people, to address affordable housing, to make it the No. 1 priority in every campaign. That is Hawai‘i. I am humbled to stand here, but I'm very proud to be part of this team."
(ICYMI: HPHA and Highridge Costa earlier this month celebrated the opening of another affordable housing development in Honolulu for seniors 55 and older, Ho‘ohiki Senior Living. Read more about that here).
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
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