KKV’s 1997-1998 Annual Report ran a series of short stories from interviews with the families and workers at Hauiki Hale public housing. KKV was introduced to Hauiki in 1995, when we began staffing the community hall. The narrative reprinted here is based on an oral interview with KKV’s Community Assistance Worker Wanette Twiggs about her experiences at Hauiki.

Hauiki Part I: First Days 

When I first started here, everyone gave me hard time you know. A few adults and teens came out and help me. If they help me, I gave them one certificate of appreciation and letter of reference. It was like three years ago. They came out, all the kids were fighting, there [were] a lot of kids in the beginning. Everyone had one attitude and I…had to talk to everyone individually, let [them] know what our services are, why we are here, that we [are not] cops. I had to repeat myself over and over again until they really had confidence and were comfortable with KKV being over here. And the kids they used to fight all the time, not just arguing, but fist fights and I had to stop the fights and make them apologize to each other and they had to give each other a hug.  After a few months, the fighting stopped.  I guess they didn’t like the hugging part.  Now, when something goes wrong, they call an adult or they call me. 

Part II: First Days 

More adults got involved in the community. I started working with Sandra and Tammy. They started going out and getting information. They went to all kinds [of] meetings out of the community and brought back the information to the community. We would all talk. They would send out memos to tell people what was going on. The association board kept sending them away. But those two wahine and Olie, they went out and brought the information back to the community. They started telling the tenant association what they should be doing. It’s a continuous thing working in the hall.  Ernest, Jerry, Olie, Sandra, they clean up the hall, clean up the park, clean up the weeds. 

Part III: The Giant Gameboard 

The giant board game was the first big event.  We chalked it all on the floor. It was for reading, math, English, and science.  The whole floor was covered with things they had to do along the way, like one regular board, the humans were the pieces. The teens ran it. We had easy kind questions for the younger kids. They all had fun drawing the giant board game. It came all the way to the steps. 

Part IV: The High School Class 

How the high school class started. The association didn’t want educational things in the hall. So Sandra got a letter written by the old board president and walked the letter around for others to sign. The housing manager still didn’t want it because the board didn’t, so we did it anyway. I called Farrington High School. They said we needed at least 15 people. We had 17 and ten graduated. 

Part V: Painting the Community Hall 

After the high school class, we did the painting, the planting, and not just the community was here, but some people from down the road came up to help. And a lot of the community really came out to [work].  Ollie brought me an article from the newspaper, on Green Up Clean Up, to clean up the community.  It was a Foodland grant. The community really wanted to see whether we could get this place painted up. The community getting together, doing the lunches, arranging for the T-shirts.  Getting the plant stuff together, getting involved in the meetings.  That was the beginning. Some of these people never [had been] involved in the meetings. We did one big celebration for the planting, painting, and the graduation. [There was even] a cake! 

Part VI: The Eviction 

The good part about it is the community came together to help her out, when they found out she was being evicted. She was one of the people who helped me out in the beginning, that’s why I couldn’t turn my back.  She hid it from all of us until the final eviction, she never let us know [anything]. She was evicted and we [all] found out. We wanted to do something to help. Sandra got involved and got Island Tenant On the Rise involved. They are a young group of people who go around and let tenants know what their rights are. They are [somewhere] in between housing management and tenants.  We had a meeting with the Assistant Director of Hawaii Housing and she went and took it to the Governor’s attorney to ask if she could be reinstated. They said they couldn’t [reinstate her] because they would be [going against] their rules and regulations. They did everything by the book.  But still, [our aim] was to get her reinstated before Christmas. She was evicted one week before Christmas. She lives with her brother and five kids. [We wrote an article] in the paper [and it] raised more than $1,500 to help her out, pay back [overdue rent], and help her find housing. The Assistant Executive Director of Hawaii Housing, Sharon Miyashiro, went out of her way and finally our tenant was temporarily reinstated to housing. 

Part VII: Stopping Smoking 

Island Tenant came with this flyer [saying] that [the] American Lung Association was handing out free patches. So we were going to start one teen and one adult group to support each other [to stop smoking]. We had five adults and four teens. We got our patches.  We’re working on it.  I feel guilty about this. I really need support. [Because] the last time I tried to quit, the teens [were] mad at me [because] I was grouchy. The teens all quit. One of them came to me and said, “How come you never quit yet?” I said, “I got my patch already.” I really feel proud of the teens [and] they [pushed] the adults to quit. “You the one that said you going to quit, ah? January 1st!”