Mayor Wright Housing Tenant Needs Assessment Report

From Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE)

The Mayor Wrights Tenant Needs Assessment (TNA) was created after interviewing over two hundred residents in person, and extensively covers eighty-five units dispersed throughout the complex....

Residents were deeply committed to the process of producing this report and we hope it will demonstrate the value of their local knowledge of the complex.... 

Public Housing has been plagued by so-called "experts"--architects, engineers, people with degrees in managing the lives of the poor.  Mostly it hasn't worked very well...

Fortunately in Hawaii there has been a turn in recent years towards independent and serious resident involvement. Starting with the Lingle administration and continuing through the Mayoral terms of Hannemann, Carlisle and Caldwell there has been a new effort on lifting up resident voices and ideas as housing is sold, rehabbed or redeveloped.

Mayor Wright Housing represents the first foray into redevelopment under Governor Abercrombie’s administration and its outcome will say a lot about the legacy of our current Governor and his housing team. The redevelopment of Mayor Wright offers our state a tremendous opportunity to get things right. Part of getting it right is listening carefully to resident voices like the ones in this report....

Many of the tenants are worried about the lack of a social environment that promotes tenant interaction and community building. It is a very big concern when several tenants write that there is "no social environment at all."

FULL TEXT: Mayor Wright Tenant Needs Assessment

KITV: Mayor Wright tenants: Roaches, rats just part of major problems

May 29, 2013:  Chinatown Tenants: FACE does not Represent Us

June 2, 2013: Mayor Wright: Ouansafi Orders Tenants Not to Listen to FACE

Background: Tracing the Financial Outlines of Socialism in Hawaii