County Council Tables Nonprofit Housing Lease Plan Again After Neighbor Opposition

Neighbor opposition strong enough to drive one nonprofit out of a deal has now twice derailed a Hawaiʻi County plan to lease publicly owned homes to organizations serving the island's most housing-insecure residents.

The Hawaiʻi County Council Finance Committee voted unanimously on March 17 to table Resolution 425-26 until an April 7 committee meeting, marking the second time the panel has shelved the proposal. The resolution would authorize leases of six county-owned residential properties to nonprofit organizations for $10 per year each, with the stated purpose of providing "long-term permanent housing for underserved populations who face significant barriers to secure, safe and affordable housing."

Nearly all testimony before the committee came from one neighborhood. All but one of the speakers were residents of the Makani Circle neighborhood, opposing the resolution and "voicing the same concerns about potential residents having a negative impact on the family-oriented neighborhood, and a perceived lack of transparency by the county surrounding its plans for the property and the others."

That pressure already claimed one property from the plan. A home at 76 Makani Circle in Hilo's Waiakea Uka neighborhood, purchased in October by the county's Office of Housing and Community Development for $809,000, was removed from the resolution's inventory after the backlash. The controversy proved consequential enough that Going Home Hawaii, the nonprofit slated to lease that property, pulled out of the deal entirely.

The five remaining properties span the island and carry a combined county purchase price of roughly $4.91 million. In Kona, the county bought a home at 73-4338 Napoo Place in Kona Palisades for $1.28 million, with Hale Kipa as the prospective lessee, and another at 74-5068 Kealapua St. in Kona Chocho Estates for $990,000, earmarked for Mental Health Kokua. A third Kona-side property at 81-994 Hale Keekee Place in Kealakekua, purchased for $1.25 million, would also go to Mental Health Kokua. On the Hilo side, Hope Services Hawaii is the prospective lessee for a home at 15-1393 29th Ave. in Hawaiian Paradise Park, bought for $530,000, while the Big Island Substance Abuse Council is lined up for 2089 Kinoole St. in Waiakea Homestead Houselots, purchased for $860,000. All properties were bought in October.

The Finance Committee's April 7 meeting will be the resolution's next test, though the organized resistance from Makani Circle residents, which persisted even after that neighborhood's property was removed from consideration, suggests the broader concerns about county transparency and neighborhood compatibility remain unresolved.