Judge decides Front Street housing must stay affordable
Suit challenged developer’s attempt to increase rents to market rate, sell property without restrictions.
Judge torn on fate of nuke victims’ care
A group of 7,700 Pacific island migrants in Hawaiʻi who suffer from the long-term effects of U.S. nuclear testing await a federal judge’s ruling on a request to dismiss a class-action lawsuit that seeks to restore their medical benefits.
Lawsuit: state discriminates in care for Micronesians
New cuts to medical benefits for low-income residents based on nationality amount to discrimination, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed Monday against the state of Hawaiʻi on behalf of disabled Micronesians.
Federal judge has granted TRO to Micronesians over health care plan
A federal judge has blocked cutbacks to state-funded medical care for about 7,500 adult Micronesians from taking effect today.
Health plan faces legal challenge
Lawyers for Equal Justice is considering legal action to delay implementation Tuesday of a new state health plan key legislators say “could be a death sentence” for some residents.
State must live up to public housing safety goals
Among the responsibilities of state government is to help provide basic needs for citizens’ whose own means fall short. Where shelter is concerned, the state acknowledges this through its public housing projects.
It’s time to step it up on public housing
Last week, tenants filed class-action lawsuits against the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority for its continuous failure to comply with federal laws mandating fair treatment for disabled residents and to remedy the substandard living conditions they are forced to endure every day.
Public housing neglect threatens tenant safety
The problems at two state projects aren't cosmetic—they are real threats to tenants’ health and safety and should not be disregarded.
Kuhio housing residents sue
The federal case alleges that the public housing project violates the American with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Act. The state case alleges a breach of obligation by the state under its warranty of habitability.
Suit filed against Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority
The suit makes claims of hazardous conditions and discriminatory obstacles at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes.
State’s a slumlord, suit says
The suit alleges tenants are living in squalid, unsanitary conditions, with elevators that don’t work, apartments infested by roaches and rats and faulty sewage lines that cause brown wastewater to fill housing units.
Suit puts 88 more homeless students in school
U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor ordered the Education Department to revise enrollment forms and computer registration programs to better identify, track and service homeless students as part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987.
Homeless students can ride buses
The state will assist families to ensure they attend school.
Buses required for homeless students
The settlement requires the state to improve transportation to and from public schools for students living in shelters, cars or on beaches, as well as to improve programs to locate and identify children in need of such services.
DOE gets deadline to track homeless
The Feb. 19 order comes about a week after a judge sided with three homeless families who sued the state for allegedly failing to provide them an adequate education under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987.
Children left behind
Homeless families sue the DOE for failing to educate their children in accordance with federal law.
Hawaiʻi violates equal-access law, ACLU says
The state violates a federal law that mandates equal access to education for homeless students by making them switch schools when they move and not letting them enroll in new schools without documentation, according to lawyers suing the school system.
Community Matters: Interview with William Durham of LEJ
Despite receiving federal monies, Hawaiʻi schools are turning homeless children away at the school house door, forcing them to change school multiple times in a single year, and denying them basic transportation services necessary to attend.
Suit alleges Hawaiʻi fails homeless kids
The state has failed so badly at helping homeless children get to and from public schools that federal courts should intervene in the situation, according to a class-action lawsuit