Waiākea Uka Residents Oppose County Plan to Convert Home Into Transitional Housing

Residents of Makani Circle packed a County Council Finance Committee meeting last week to confront county officials over what they called a lack of transparency surrounding the $809,000 purchase of a single-family home in their Waiākea Uka neighborhood, with plans to convert it into transitional housing operated by a nonprofit.

The property at 76 Makani Circle is a three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home on a third-acre lot, purchased in October by the County of Hawaiʻi's Office of Housing and Community Development using federal funds. Neighbors said they had no meaningful notice of the county's intentions until days before the committee meeting, when some residents left flyers on neighbors' doors.

Akim Seu Kelly, who has lived on Makani Circle most of her life, told council members she first became suspicious when she noticed the county was buying a residential property. "I got curious as to why the county of Hawaii is purchasing a single-family home," she said. Her suspicions about the intended use took longer to confirm. "I did not find out about the house being used for Going Home Hawaii until (the Sunday before the committee meeting), because our wonderful neighbors had left the notification on my mom's door."

Kelly said she had been given assurances that the neighborhood would be spared from this type of placement. "I was extremely disappointed and extremely upset, because I was told by them that we wouldn't be having this type of people coming into our very small, very close-knit kind of community," she said. "Don't get me wrong, I support it. But Makani Circle, it's just not a fit for it."

County officials defended the process. Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan, the civil attorney representing OHCD, told the committee that because the purchases were funded entirely with federal dollars, OHCD was not required to seek council approval before buying the properties. The county is, however, legally required to obtain approval from the council before entering into any lease agreements for the sites. Wan and county official Costa also noted that public notices about the purchases had been published in newspapers, though they did not specify which publications or the dates of those notices.

The Makani Circle home was not the only property OHCD acquired in this round of purchases. Costa told council members that the county also bought the Dolphin Bay Hotel in the Puueo neighborhood of Hilo for $2.68 million. That property was left out of the resolution under discussion because the county placed it under a property management agreement rather than a lease structure; it is slated to be converted into 18 affordable rental units.

The lease agreement for 76 Makani Circle has not yet been finalized, meaning the county still requires legislative approval before Going Home Hawaii can formally begin operating the site. That approval process may offer Makani Circle residents their next opportunity to be heard.