Happy holidays. Now would you kindly find alternative rental housing in one of the tightest markets in recent memory? Though it didn’t exactly come delivered that way, two Princeville women – one a single mother and the other in a
Happy holidays. Now would you kindly find alternative rental housing in one of the tightest markets in recent memory?
Though it didn’t exactly come delivered that way, two Princeville women – one a single mother and the other in a wheelchair – have been asked to move out of their apartments at Sandpiper Village by the end of January.
But, unlike others who have been asked to vacate rented premises so that landlords can reap the much better money generated by short-term vacation rentals, Elizabeth Horning and Erin Burt are being asked to leave by an owner who wants to move his family into the units.
Of course, that doesn’t make house-hunting at the holidays any easier, or less stressful. Horning, Burt and her two young children have until the end of January to find new places to live. Neither have any leads.
Horning, 53 and suffering from multiple sclerosis which put her permanently in a wheelchair six months ago, has a sister in Hanalei and a daughter and granddaughter in Kapahi, but prefers to live on her own.
Burt, whose 8-year-old son recently had open heart surgery, works cleaning houses, has a 4-year-old daughter and nowhere to turn once the end of January arrives.
Landlord Geoff Culverhouse, who is general manager of Ching Young Village Shopping Center in Hanalei, said he needs his Sandpiper unit to house relatives, including one currently living in a tent at Ha’ena and a teenage couple with a young child. He said he gave his tenants the 45-day notice state law requires, and gave Horning an additional month to find an accessible unit.
He said he offered Burt a two-bedroom apartment in Kapa’a, but that she didn’t want to live there because her children attend Hanalei School.
Burt is living in Culverhouse’s two-bedroom Sandpiper unit, and Horning is in the adjacent studio apartment, called a “lockout” because it can be accessed through a separate door and used as a separate unit if the owner desires.
In court, Culverhouse said, he also offered to forgive Burt back rent he claimed she owes him. And, he said, he offered her that two-bedroom Kapa’a unit, if she would just move out. According to Culverhouse, she refused that offer.
Another court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday at the Hanalei courthouse. According to court documents, Burt was actually supposed to be out of her unit the middle of this month.
“They have nowhere to go,” said Kapa’a resident Margaret Olsen, an acquaintance of the women who has had to move three times this year when her rental housing was converted to vacation rentals.
“You can’t wheel a wheelchair in the sand,” she added, referring to Horning.
The domino effect which is causing the need for Culverhouse to put his family in his Sandpiper unit began when the landlord at his family’s Kilauea rental house asked them to leave.
Even though this isn’t a case where people are being asked to leave so the owner can realize a better return on his or her investment by converting the unit into vacation-rental housing, Culverhouse said blaming the housing shortage on owners who turn homes, apartments and condominiums into vacation rentals is shortsighted.
Since Hurricane ‘Iniki, he said, a lot of people have moved here, and the housing supply hasn’t kept up. He said Kaua’i County or someone needs to build and offer affordable rental housing in the range of $400 a month for a one-bedroom unit to $600 a month for a three-bedroom model.
“Who can afford $1,200 a month unless they have about five roommates? And that defeats the idea of family housing,” he said.
Housing is needed for workers on the island who make around $8 an hour, Culverhouse continued.
“We have to build affordable apartments for people to live in,” said Culverhouse, who said it is time to re-examine the possibility of allowing trailer homes on the island. Such units would help alleviate the housing shortage and allow people to own their own homes, although they’d be on the small side.
“We’d better start building some affordable homes,” he said.
Like others, Olsen is frustrated about the trend of converting what had been long-term rentals made available to Kaua’i residents into vacation rentals.
“Who’s going to take care of vacationers if the residents have no place to stay?” she asked. “What about those people who have nowhere to go?” Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at[pcurtis@pulitzer.net] or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
