HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Seven city-owned plantation homes are deteriorating in Ewa Villages while the city and state struggle to provide affordable housing.

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The houses were part of the Ewa plantation renovation project that promised affordable housing in renovated plantation homes.

Albert Charlton has been living next to one of the deteriorating plantation houses for 30 years. The house began falling apart after the elderly residents left.

The city did not fix it or find a new tenant.

“Nice neighbors, good people. But the house just kept crumbling, and crumbling, and crumbling,” Charlton said.

City bought villages in 1980s

The city bought the villages in the 1980s when the plantation shut down.

In the early 1990s, Mayor Jeremy Harris led the Ewa Village Revitalization project, which aimed to renovate about 270 plantation homes and sell them back at affordable prices to the remaining plantation workers and middle-income buyers.

“I think their hearts were in the right places, but it was a massive undertaking,” said Kevin Auger, city housing and land management director.

From the start, the project was plagued by optimistic expectations and underestimated costs. City housing manager Michael Kahapea was convicted of stealing millions in business relocation expenses.

The scandal led the city to get out of the housing business entirely until Mayor Blangiardi formed a new housing and land management department a year and a half ago.

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The department is focused on bigger multi-unit and high-rise projects near public transit.

“From our perspective, the city really shouldn’t be in the business of single-family homes,” Auger said.

Seven units remain abandoned

The vast majority of Ewa Village houses have been renovated and sold to new owners. The seven abandoned units were mostly rented from the city by former plantation workers or family members who could not or did not want to buy them. They are still city property.

Charlton has been pushing for 20 years for action.

“Trying to have them rehabilitate these houses or sell the lots. I mean, affordable housing, we could, someone would want to buy this lot and build another plantation home here. But they just seem to really, that they don’t want to do anything about it,” Charlton said.

The entire village is designated historic, so a buyer would have to follow strict rebuilding guidelines. The city is now beginning a process to sell them, offering them first to other city departments, then to the highest bidder. Any sale requires City Council approval.

“It would absolutely be in the best interest of the public and the city if we could clear them out and sell them and put them to bed,” Auger said.

Auger says the process of selling could take another year.

“The City and County, the mayor, is the worst neighbor I’ve ever had in my life,” Charlton said.

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