KAILUA-KONA — Crowding into a temporary office space for The Michaels Organization, residents waited to find out whether luck was on their side Tuesday. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — Crowding into a temporary office space for The Michaels Organization, residents waited to
KAILUA-KONA — Crowding into a temporary office space for The Michaels Organization, residents waited to find out whether luck was on their side Tuesday.
They were hoping to land a spot giving them a chance to be one of Kamakana Villages’ first new residents later this year.
The affordable housing development, located off Ane Keohokalole Highway in Kailua-Kona, will provide 170 units when it opens up for move-in.
“I’m excited; I’m hopeful,” said Kona resident Lehua Williams, one of the pre-applicants waiting with her two boys to see the results of the lottery Tuesday afternoon. “I have faith it’s all gonna work out.”
The 23-year-old professional caregiver said she had applied for section 8 housing, but was overqualified for the program. She currently lives with family.
“We have a baby on the way, and we need to get our own place already,” she said.
Being selected for one of the apartment units would give her, her husband and boys a place of their own.
The 170 units are split between the project’s two components: Hale Makana Ohana for families and Hale Makana O Kupuna for seniors. Of the combined total, one unit will be a manager’s unit and 35 have been set aside for project-based vouchers.
“It means a lot,” Williams said of the opportunity to move into one of the new units. “It’s a big step in life, yeah? Opens the door to more opportunities.”
A total of 826 people submitted their names for the waiting list lottery for the Hale Makana Ohana, said Brandon Hegland, managing director for Interstate Realty Management Co. in Hawaii. The waiting list for Hale Makana O Kupuna included 230 names, which required applicants to have at least one household member at least 62 years old to qualify for a rental.
The lottery assigned a random number to every name on a spreadsheet containing all the pre-applicants for each development. With just a couple clicks, the waiting list was finalized and potential residents lined up to see where they landed on the lists.
Hegland said the decision to do a lottery gives everyone a fair chance to place near the top. The first person to submit his or her pre-application has the same chance as the last person to do so.
Williams said she liked that about the process.
“That way it gives everybody a chance and it’s not first-come, first-serve,” she said. “Everybody has a chance.”
And Hegland said that even if a pre-applicant doesn’t place at the very top, it doesn’t automatically mean he or she won’t get one of the development’s units.
Eligibility to live in one of the developments’ units is based on, among other factors, household income limits, which are in turn based on the area’s median income, determined each year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Units in the developments are divided among income levels for those making below 30 percent of the area median, incomes between 30 and 50 percent of the area median and incomes between 50 and 60 percent of the area median.
Income limits are based on household size, meaning larger households have a higher income limit.
Those on the waiting list still need to go through the full application process and ensure they qualify for residency at Kamakana Villages.
“There’s a very good chance you could be number 300 and still get an apartment,” Hegland said.
The next step, he added, will be to start contacting those on the list, starting from the top, to begin filling out the full application and for the developer to determine potential residents’ eligibility for one of the units.
Gail Anderson, 75, said after seeing her position on the list, she believed she’d qualify for a unit in the senior development. She would be living with her partner.
She had put her name in for both of the developments, she said, and landed a better spot on the waiting list for Hale Makana O Kupuna.
“Frankly, at my age I’d rather be in the elder (development),” she said.
Anderson said she had seen construction was happening at the development and that a family friend told her she ought to get on the waiting list. She commended the developer for being very forthcoming with information about its progress.
In her five years living here, she said, rents have doubled. Her Social Security, which is her primary source of income, hasn’t.
“So housing is really hard to come by that I can afford,” she said. “Even with someone else, it’s really, really hard.”
