A handful of renters is butting heads with a developer over their impending eviction from the Akoa Road Apartments in Kapa’a. Four families and individuals claim the new owner of the 20-unit project promised they could move back in after
A handful of renters is butting heads with a developer over their impending eviction from the Akoa Road Apartments in Kapa’a.
Four families and individuals claim the new owner of the 20-unit project promised they could move back in after the renovations were done.
But the new owner, Stay Kaua’i Rentals, said no such promise was made, only that the four tenants and 15 other tenants could stay until the renovation of the units was completed.
Critics of the renovation said the situation highlights the island’s acute housing shortage and how higher rents could drive longtime, middle-class residents off the island, due to the lack of affordable housing.
Most of those who would be affected are on fixed incomes or are disabled, claimed Healani Akau, a resident of the apartment complex.
Teddy LaPorge, his common-law wife, Akau, their two children and three dogs and another tenant have vowed to fight the eviction.
“If they are going to try to evict me (by the end of the month), I am going to put my family in a safe place and I am going to barricade myself in here,” said LaPorga, a six-year resident, in his one-bedroom unit with a loft.
At the time of his eviction, LaPorga said he will mount a protest using family members and friends.
“I am against violence, but if I am going to lose this place, I will lose it here,” LaPorga said.
The developer has offered each tenant or family up to $2,500 in relocation money and has offered to waive this month’s rent if they move out by Sept. 16. Rents range from $200 to $450 for one-bedroom units.
Fourteen families or individuals have taken the offer. Two others have taken partial payment, leaving only three families who have opted against it, including LaPorga’s.
“The owner understands the high cost of moving, and he wants to help,” said Ricky Toro, a representative for Stay Kaua’i Rentals. “This is a generous offer. I don’t know of any developer that would do this.”
LaPorga said he and Akau won’t leave their unit because “this is our home.” Akau said the move also would disrupt their lifestyle and their son’s education at Kapa’a High School.
LaPorge said he has asked Kaua’i County Council members Bryan Baptiste and Gary Hooser for help. Neither could be reached immediately for comment.
Akau said their living arrangement is desperate.
“We have gone to abandoned buildings and left notes with owners that we would repair them, take care of the home and take care of their yards, but nothing,” she said.
LaPorga said an extensive search for alternate housing has not turned up any promising prospects. “I drive every street in Kapa’a, and I can say I cannot find anything I can afford,” he said.
Toro said the developer wants to help tenants relocate and has placed an advertisement in The Garden Island to find alternate housing for them. A landlord in Kekaha said he would welcome Akau and LaPorga and give them a break on the rent, Toro said.
Up until March, the apartment complex had been owned by the family of Daisy Aguilar and her husband, who have rented their apartments at marginal costs for 50 years, according to a Kapa’a Realtor who asked not to be identified. During World War II, the grounds were the site of a dance hall for soldiers. In intervening years, housing units were built, the Realtor said.
Daisy Aguilar died a few years ago. Her family sold the complex in March to Stay Kaua’i Rentals.
The developer gave notice to tenants in May that they would have to move out by Sept. 30, Toro said.
The impending eviction angered Jimmy Maeno, a retired county worker and a 20-year resident at the complex.
“This place was so beautiful before. People get together. There was ohana,” he said, adding the complex was a place of family picnics and gatherings for many years.
Maeno, 66, said he will take the $1,000 in relocation funds and will go live at the beach because “where else can I go?”
Jessie Jessie, 40, complained the developer should leave the units open for residential use. “Put vacation rentals in resort areas, not in residential areas like this one,” Jessie said.
Toro said the area is zoned for commercial use and no decision has been made on its specific use in the future. She said the relocation of the tenants boils down to the developer “not wanting to kick anybody out,” just “wanting to do what we can do with this property.”
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
