The state's agency in charge of public housing continues to have problems keeping up with its inventory of low-income units, even as all levels of government push for more affordable housing.

About 487 of the 5,359 federally subsidized low-income units — about 9 percent — are vacant because of repair and maintenance issues.

While that number is a vast improvement over the more than 750 vacancies reported six months ago, it is roughly the same as was reported to the Legislature in January 2005.

The waiting list for public housing hovers above 13,000 applicants, and anecdotal evidence indicates the homeless population is on the rise.

The high number of vacancies is among several criticisms leveled at the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i in recent years. Other issues include the length of time it takes to get a family into an open unit (seven months at one point), and units that still need repairs more than a year after becoming vacant.

Though the agency has seen gradual progress since undergoing a complete administrative overhaul in 2003, overwhelming demand, competing priorities and a persistent backlog of maintenance projects keep improvements from being as substantial as needed.

For example, the agency has made a concerted effort to get recently vacated units turned around faster — the goal is 25 days, said Stephanie Aveiro, the agency's executive director.

"We've worked overtime. We've enlisted volunteer efforts. We're using whatever resources we can," she said.

A year ago, the average turnaround time was 210 days. While there has been major improvement, it still takes about 100 days to turn over the key to a new tenant.

The situation facing Hawai'i — and the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i — is daunting, Aveiro said. "We have this tremendous crisis with the homeless and a shortage of affordable inventory," she said. "We are one of the safety nets, and the safety net is doing its best."

Aveiro said the average turnaround time is skewed by the backlog: units that have been vacated for a year or more because of extensive damage.

"It took years to get to this amount of backlog and we're under a lot of pressure to turn them around immediately," she said.

AGENCY SPLIT PROPOSED

Some of the pressure comes from the state Legislature.

"I've seen some improvement, but I think the administration has been given more than enough time to get up to speed, to address the concerns about public housing. More progress needs to be made," said Sen. Ron Menor, D-17th (Mililani, Waipi'o), chairman of the Consumer Protection and Housing Committee.

Menor is promoting legislation that would split the agency in two: one part to deal with existing public housing, the other to develop and finance more units.

"That indirectly will help the state address the problem of units remaining vacant for long periods of time," Menor said.

Both Menor and his counterpart in the House, Housing Chairman Rep. Michael Kahikina, D-44th (Nanakuli, Honokai Hale), point to a bill that could provide $10 million or more to repair vacant units. That's significantly more than the agency has received in recent years.

"We need that funding to kickstart repairs so we can get some people living in them," Kahikina said. "It's very deplorable to see how many vacant units we have."

With the session ending in just over two weeks, lawmakers should know soon how much money they plan to direct at the repairs and maintenance.

Homeless services consultant Michael Ullman wonders just how much more money will help, as far as speeding up the work.

"Their expediency with using the money, I think, is going to be problematic, unless they're going to contract with outside companies," he said. "They have too much stock for their staff to handle. That's a given. That's pretty obvious."

According to Aveiro, many of the vacancies are due to large-scale modernization projects at Kalihi Valley Homes, Lanakila in Hilo, and Ka Hale Kahaluu, where buildings have been gutted and are being rebuilt. At the beginning of the year, more than 200 of the vacancies were at those three projects alone.

In other cases, maintenance workers have to deal with big structural problems rather than individual units, such as the case in a couple of high-rises, where rusting rebar has swelled and burst through the walls.

Then there are the little, but still time-consuming, issues: "Our projects are aging and they're very, very difficult to keep going, and that's kind of adding to it," Aveiro said.

In many occupied units, workers are called back continually to fix a toilet or a light fixture. "Besides having this backlog ... we're going back to the same unit to do the same repair over and over and over," she said.

$350 A MONTH RENT

To those stuck on the waiting list, this all just lengthens the time in line.

Erry Eter is one of the lucky ones. He and his wife and four children just moved into a four-bedroom apartment at Mayor Wright Housing on April 7 — after 15 months of living at the Institute for Human Services.

The family stayed with relatives when they first moved to Hawai'i from Micronesia but soon found themselves at the homeless shelter.

Workers there helped them to get on the waiting list for public housing, the beginning of an occasionally frustrating process.

"Sometimes we really want to move into an apartment very soon," said Eter, 52.

The family found all their needs taken care of at the shelter, he added. "When we stayed there, we enjoyed that place. We love it," he said.

But an apartment for $350 a month is even better. "I'm very glad to have the unit," he said.

Margot Schrire, chairwoman of Partners in Care — a coalition of homeless service providers — and the public relations manager at IHS, said in general, the shelter tries to get families into permanent housing within three months, but that requires affordable housing rentals and public housing units to be available.

"That's why we're advocating for fixing the public housing ... and better utilization of the affordable housing inventory," Schrire said.

When hundreds of units are in disrepair, "That's a significant number of units that could be utilized by groups that shelters like IHS are housing," she said.

Fixing the public housing is an important step in tackling the homeless problem, along with making sure the maximum number of beds are available in the shelters and more affordable units are in the pipeline, she said.

As rents rise, so does the number of people who are "precariously housed," Schrire said. "There's a huge growing problem right under the surface."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.