The Hawaiian Community Development Board is giving its tenants more time to move out of a transitional housing complex in Māʻili.
HCDB came under fire last month when several tenants expressed frustration with having to find shelter by late February.
The Ulu Ke Kukui apartments, which sit on Hawaiian Home Lands, are being repurposed into long-term affordable rentals for Native Hawaiians on the DHHL waiting list.
Ulu Ke Kukui was developed in 2007 by the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority to provide short-term, 30-day stays for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Tenants were initially ordered to relocate by Feb. 20, but that plan has since changed, according to Jackie Kahoʻokele Burke, chair of the Hawaiian Community Development Board.
"We decided to phase out the moving, like doing two buildings and then doing another building and then at the same time we’re able to give some tenants, they need a little bit more time they found a place we made some promissory notes for deposit and things like that," Burke said.
"So we’re slowly and gently moving them, you know, building by building ... and then at the same time giving them all the support services, we’ve had resource fairs on site, and I’ve gone down there personally to meet them so that they don’t feel like we’re so distant."
Burkey said more than half of the tenants have since relocated.
Once relocations are complete, the new affordable housing complex will offer 40 two-bedroom, two-bath apartment units to Native Hawaiians on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waiting list.
