When Kahului resident Wendy Janes first received a voucher from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, it didn’t seem like it would do her much good.
“If you look on Craigslist, almost all of the ads say ‘no HUD,’ ” said Janes, a 54-year-old Air Force veteran. “The amount of housing that’s out there for people with the HUD voucher is very limited.”
Janes was living in transitional housing, struggling to find a job and a space to rent. Finally, after a year and a half of searching, she and a Veterans Affairs social worker found a landlord willing to rent to her. In February, Janes moved in to the Harbor Lights apartment complex, not far from the University of Hawaii Maui College campus where she plans to enroll in the fall.
Janes, who first moved to Maui in the 1980s, said she just got lucky.
“A lot of my friends have vouchers but can’t find housing,” she said. “We need more low-income housing on Maui . . . not even just for HUD, but just for renting.”
A crowded market combined with the hesitance of property owners to rent through HUD is making it harder than ever to find low-income housing. Taking a cue from other islands, Maui is appealing to local property owners to help meet demand.
On June 20, a Landlord Summit will be held on Maui, bringing together landlords, state and county officials, real estate agents and social service agencies to find ways of connecting those in need with available rentals on the island. Maui is the latest to test out the concept; Oahu and the Big Island have recently hosted their own well-attended summits.
“We need more housing for the housing-challenged members of our community, so we are reaching out to property owners and property managers in an attempt to find those rooms, ohanas, apartments or houses that have been so far held out of the rental pool. They are so needed,” said Carol Reimann, director of the county Department of Housing and Human Concerns.
“We have people, including families, who have the assistance necessary to pay market-rate rents, but still cannot find a place to live,” Reimann said. “The purpose of the Landlord Summit is to help us fix that problem.”
In 2015, Maui County had about 1,140 homeless, 56 percent of whom were unsheltered, according to a state point-in-time survey. A 2015 U.S. homeless assessment report also showed that Hawaii had 692 homeless veterans, 60.3 percent of whom were unsheltered, the third highest rate in the country.
Through HUD, families or individuals can find housing and have their rent subsidized depending on their income. Maui County is allotted 1,464 HUD Section 8 vouchers a month, according to county statistics.
However, last year only 47 percent of those who received HUD vouchers in Maui County were able to get rentals, Council Member Bob Carroll said last September while proposing a tax exemption for landlords renting to low-income tenants.
For the county, this meant a loss of federal funding. For residents, it meant the loss of vouchers.
In 2014, after the father of her four kids was sent to jail, Maui resident Roxanne Perreira had to move her family out of its home. Unable to find a place in the three months allotted to her, she lost her voucher and wound up taking her kids to Ka Hale A Ke Ola, an emergency and transitional shelter in Wailuku.
Perreira, 35, was recently selected for a voucher in the HUD lottery. In September, the family’s two-year time limit at Ka Hale A Ke Ola will be up.
“Finding a place is stressful to me because I know I already lost my voucher (once before),” said Perreira, who works full time at Uptown Chevron. “I’m super stoked I got chosen. But I’m not holding my breath that I’m actually going to find a place.”
Wailuku real estate broker Donna Ting said many landlords are reluctant to rent through HUD because “they’ve got to go through a couple of hoops.” The process involves government inspection of the property, additional paperwork and a longer wait for first month’s rent check.
“Just to get a HUD contract can take two to three weeks, sometimes a month,” said Dee Kahuhu, a Maui Economic Opportunity housing specialist. “Some landlords no like wait. I understand because they’ve got to pay their bills too.”
But while landlords may have to wait a little longer to get their first check, “after that, it’s consistent,” Kahuhu said.
In addition, some homeowners have stereotypes of low-income renters, Ting said.
“You need to get over it. Life is not black and white,” Ting said. “Everybody’s entitled to a chance . . . I have given chances and regretted it. But I also have people who rented from me for more than 20 years.”
Ting said it’s “a give and take on both sides,” teaching new renters how to be good tenants and convincing landlords to give them the opportunity. Kahuhu said some property owners simply don’t know what is required to rent out low-income housing and hoped the upcoming summit would help get everyone “on the same page.”
“This community is only as good as what you put into it,” Ting said. “It may be a little more work (to rent through HUD), but it could be rewarding. You’d be giving someone the opportunity to live in a safe place, and maybe have their lives changed.”
Janes, for one, plans to make the most of her new living situation. With UH-Maui College “right out my back door,” the former paralegal wants to pursue her liberal arts degree and learn about web design.
“Now I can concentrate on going back to school and things like that,” Janes said. “Being in transitional housing, it was a godsend, but . . . you’re under somebody’s thumb all the time. Now I’m on my own.”
For more information or to register for the Landlord Summit, call 270-7805 or send an email to director.hhc@mauicounty.gov.
The registration deadline is Wednesday.
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.
