The attempt to circumvent the wait list process for affordable senior citizen rental housing through Catholic Charities (CC) is a failure. There is almost no way to directly contact any person by phone at the other end. A caller must leave a voicemail message. Then, a representative would return the call sometime later. Unless the "smartphone" is carried around obsessively, the return call would be missed. A "phone tag" situation ensues.
Needless to say, CC will only provide assistance to senior citizens who are either homeless or close to being homeless. Other low priority cases can request a list of senior citizens rental housing and make application on their own. The initial intake process for CC is just to get on the wait list to see a "housing specialist" (the same job description for IHS homeless shelter employees).
Is it really worth the time and effort to get into affordable senior citizen rental housing? Gym buddy, Chip, mentioned that he observed long lines of people waiting along Maunakea Street in Chinatown for a couple of days. He surmised that they were waiting to get on the recently opened wait list for a couple of affordable rental housing projects. "Nobody was speaking English," he added.
That's about right. The immigrants, mostly Chinese, appear to have an inside track on when wait lists for affordable housing open up. Thus, most of the affordable rental housing, regular and senior citizen, are populated by immigrants (documented or otherwise). Imagine residing in a high-rise affordable rental project populated by immigrants. Lots of noise, lots of domestic problems, lots of unauthorized occupants.
There are "kapuna" senior citizen rental housing, usually government subsidized, that are much less immigrant-intensive. However, all of those projects no longer accept names on their wait lists. The formerly-homeless buddy resides in such a project in Waialua. Ordinary senior citizen rental housing has its drawbacks as well, mainly lots of decrepit senior citizens. Very depressing.
So, the affordable rental housing situation, especially for senior citizens, is fucked up. The whole housing strategy has been usurped by sheer stupidity. What is the alternative? “Wing it,” of course!
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