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THE SENATE |
S.C.R. NO. |
39 |
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TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
S.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
URGING THE GOVERNOR TO INCLUDE THE KUKUI GARDENS AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT IN THE STATE'S LIST OF SHOVEL-READY PROJECTS FOR THE PRESIDENT'S PROPOSED ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN.
WHEREAS, there is a lack of affordable housing in Hawaii, and more than half of all renter households in the State cannot afford Hawaii's fair market rent rates; and
WHEREAS, Kukui Gardens is one of the State's largest affordable housing projects, containing eight hundred fifty‑seven low-income housing units; and
WHEREAS, for the last several years, the fate of Kukui Gardens and its residents has been in limbo due to the sale of the property from Kukui Gardens Corporation, a nonprofit corporation, to Carmel Partners, a for-profit corporation, which caused many of the complex's residents to fear that Kukui Gardens would be torn down and replaced with market-rate housing; and
WHEREAS, in December 2007, a compromise was reached whereby Carmel Partners agreed to sell half of Kukui Gardens to Ecumenical Association for Housing, a nonprofit housing corporation that agreed to preserve the approximately four hundred units it purchased as low-income housing and planned to build additional units to replace the original units to be converted into market-rate housing by Carmel Partners; and
WHEREAS, the economic crisis has made it difficult for Ecumenical Association for Housing and other developers to find investors to fund the purchase of Kukui Gardens; and
WHEREAS, if investors or alternative sources of funding are not secured, Kukui Gardens may be converted in its entirety into market-rate housing, threatening the nearly two thousand five hundred residents of Kukui Gardens; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Legislature urges the Governor to include Kukui Gardens in the State's list of shovel-ready projects submitted for inclusion in the President's proposed economic stimulus plan; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor of the State of Hawaii and to each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.
Kukui Gardens; Economic Stimulus Plan