Partnership – at least where providing rental housing for elderly Kauaians is concerned – is personified by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Senior Apartments at the former Lihu’e Theater. Besides the Weinberg family foundation, the state Rental Housing Trust Fund,
Partnership – at least where providing rental housing for elderly Kauaians is concerned – is personified by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Senior Apartments at the former Lihu’e Theater.
Besides the Weinberg family foundation, the state Rental Housing Trust Fund, Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle and Kaua’i Housing Development Corporation joined forces to save the facade and lobby area of the historic theater on Kuhio Highway, while gutting the hurricane-damaged remainder of the building and constructing a three-story, 21-unit apartment complex for seniors.
It is one of two Kaua’i projects to win U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Best Practices 2000 local awards.
The project took five years from idea to occupancy, explained John H. Frazier, executive director of Kaua’i Housing Development. And while the apartment complex started slow in terms of residency, it has been totally full, with a waiting list, for over a year, he said.
“Well, it’s wonderful,” Frazier said of the national recognition. “It’s very nice for them to honor us.” While he appreciates the recognition, he said the entire Kaua’i Housing Development Corporation and its board of directors share the honor.
He said preserving the historic theater was a major goal, which resulted this year in a Historic Hawai’i Foundation preservation award.
The other Kaua’i winner of a HUD award is the Kaua’i County Home-Buyer Loan Program, which provides down-payment assistance to qualifying homebuyers by holding a second mortgage for the buyers.
The buyers don’t have to make payments on that second mortgage for seven years, allowing them to use all of their purchasing power to obtain a first mortgage to buy homes.
It is a program the county Housing Agency in the county Offices of Community Assistance would continue with, said Executive on Housing Ken Rainforth, except for finite funding and the perceived need to allocate much of the department’s “meager finances” to construction of badly needed, low-income housing.
Since $187,300 is the ceiling for sales prices of homes in the HUD home-buying program, and most homes on Kaua’i sell for more than that, Rainforth noted there are few further opportunities for the program.
Still, there are some other ideas the county may implement to help would-be homebuyers achieve the American dream of home ownership. HUD recently changed its Section 8 rental housing subsidy program rules to allow participants to use portions of their subsidies toward the purchase of homes, Rainforth said.
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka said the entire community should be proud of the HUD award-winning projects.
“The Lihu’e Theater restoration is an excellent example of meeting a community need, while preserving history in the process,” she said.
“I’m also extremely proud of the county’s Home-Buyer Loan Program, which has given more than 100 families the support they needed in order to become homeowners for the first time.” A Waianae, O’ahu project won one of just 100 top national Best of the Best Awards. Along with a pair of program and geographic winners, the Kaua’i projects and 14 other local award-winners were recognized Wednesday at an afternoon awards ceremony at the HUD Hawai’i office in Honolulu.
The HUD Best Practices awards program honors local programs, methods, techniques and projects that make a significant difference in the local community and lives of the people served. They show the greatest innovation and the best use of resources and are able to be replicated in other areas of the country, HUD officials said.
Partnerships such as that in the Lihu’e Theater project are another characteristic of a best practice, officials said.
Gordan Y. Furutani, senior community builder with the Honolulu HUD office, said the two Kaua’i projects earned the federal recognition “because they were good practices.” HUD evaluated all nominated projects – 2,900 nationwide – and based on various criteria felt the Kaua’i and other projects in Hawai’i were deserving of awards, he continued. Projects on Kaua’i, Maui, Moloka’i, O’ahu and Big Island won at least local awards.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext.224)
