HILO — Do public housing tenants have a personal right to seek legal redress to their complaints, or must they rely on government agencies to defend their tenant rights?
That question is at issue in a federal lawsuit filed by Lanric Hyland, who lives at Ainakea Senior Residences in Kapaau. He’s filed suit against real estate management company Hawaii Affordable Properties Inc., a county contractor, and the county Office of Housing and Community Development.
The 30-unit, low-income senior apartment complex charges rent as a percentage of income, with the remainder subsidized by taxpayers in a U.S. Housing and Urban Development program popularly known as “Section 8” housing.
Hyland claims the facility’s management company violated his rights by not having tenant grievance procedures, by refusing to allow the formation of a tenant advisory association, by terminating and threatening to terminate leases and in the way security deposits and base rents are calculated.
“It’s not fair to run kupuna housing projects like you were running a prison camp,” Hyland said Monday.
Federal Judge Leslie Kobayashi on Friday breathed new life into the tenant rights case, overturning part of a magistrate’s June 2016 order.
Now armed with attorney Margaret Wille, a former Kohala Councilwoman, Hyland has until July 31 to file an amended complaint.
“This is a big step,” Wille said, adding that the case had to meet a “very high standard” to be reconsidered.
Wille said tenants’ individual rights in HUD housing become “hollow rights” when tenants have to rely on HUD to enforce them.
County attorneys disagree.
“Simply because plaintiff does not like the federal regulations, this does not provide a basis for him to bring suit against the entities which have provided him with an affordable and decent place to live,” former Deputy Corporation Counsel Melody Parker said in a December, 2015, response to the lawsuit.
Corporation Counsel Joe Kamelamela said Monday he can’t discuss details of the county’s defense. Attorneys for Hawaii Affordable Properties Inc. could not be reached for comment by press time Monday.
Hyland, best known for his successful ethics complaint against former Mayor Billy Kenoi, has also filed suit against Hawaii Affordable Properties Inc. and the county for the right to smoke medical marijuana in his unit. A federal judge on June 21 kicked that case back to state court for further action.