Movin' on up

[Jenny]

From Yahoo News:

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU - Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.

Tears spilled down Kahale's cheeks as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto the key to a white, columned house with a circular driveway, a stone staircase and a deep porcelain bathtub. Her family will live there rent-free, but must pay utility bills.

"I'm shocked. I'm overwhelmed," Kahale said. "From the little box we had to what we have today."

Kawamoto, whose own eyes started welling up as Kahale cried, handed over two other homes Thursday to homeless or low-income families.

Kawamoto, one of Japan's richest men, said he plans to open eight of his 22 Kahala homes to needy Hawaiian families. They will be able to stay in the homes for up to 10 years, he said. He also gave each family 10 $100 bills to help them move in.

Native Hawaiians are disproportionately represented among the state's homeless and working poor.

Kawamoto owns dozens of office buildings in Tokyo under the name Marugen and his been buying and selling real estate in Hawaii and California since the 1980s.

He has been criticized for evicting tenants of his rental homes on short notice so he could sell the properties, as in 2002 when he gave hundreds of California tenants 30 days to leave.

Two years later, he served eviction notices to tenants in 27 Oahu rental homes, mostly in pricey Hawaii Kai, saying they had to leave within a month. He said he wanted to sell the houses to take advantage of rising prices.

Kawamoto selected the eight low-income families from 3,000 people who wrote him letters last fall after he announced his plan. He has said he tried to pick working, single mothers.

Giving away mansions shows more dedication to helping Hawaii's homeless than just handing out wads of cash, he said. Asked whether he was concerned about losing money on the effort, he laughed and said: "This is pocket money for me."

Kahale's new house is worth nearly $5 million, an average price for the mansion-like dwellings on Kahala Avenue. It is one of the more modest homes in the neighborhood, many of which feature ornate iron gates, meandering driveways and sculptured gardens.

Kahale became homeless two years ago when her landlord raised her rent from $800 to $1,200, putting the apartment beyond reach of her salary as customer service representative for Pacific LightNet, a telecommunications company. She first stayed with relatives, then moved to a shelter in September.

"What we need to do is appreciate," Kahale said after getting the keys to her new house. "As fast as we got it, it could disappear."

Some neighbors are unhappy with Kawamoto's plan, speculating that he is trying to drive down real estate values so he can snap up even more homes.

"Everyone's paying homage to him, but in reality, he's the problem," said Mark Blackburn, who lives down the street from Kahale's new home. "Houses are homes. They're made to live in; they aren't investment vehicles."

He suggested that the Waianae Coast, a heavily Hawaiian community on the other side of Oahu that has been hit hard by homelessness, would have been a better place for Kawamoto to carry out his charity work.

Kawamoto countered that those in the Kahala neighborhood who don't want Hawaiians next door might want to leave the islands altogether.

"The people who don't want to live near Hawaiians should move," Kawamoto said.

Lyn Worley, 40, who got the key to another Kawamoto house, said she believes her neighbors will grow to love her family.

The elementary school clerk has been living in a house in Waianae with her five children and brother for the past four years. Their lease ran out — and then Kawamoto's offer came along.

"We prayed so hard and cried so much for God to drop something from the skies, and he did," Worley said. "And he did, he really, really did."

[daslied]

That's great, but who's paying the electric bill and property tax?

[miamisammy29]

You and me.

[Jenny]

It says in the article that the family has to pay the utilities...as for the property tax, that's probably Mr. Millionaire's responsibility.

Otokichi, is this guy for real or a scammer?

[miamisammy29]

Nah. It just sounds like he has some extra property lying around and wants someone to get the benefit of using it. The property is still his for later resale, if it's not destroyed by the new "tenants".

[Otokichi]

Genshiro Kawamoto is the "last man standing" of a flood of Japanese "Bubble Economy" investors searching for $$$$$ properties to buy/invest in the 1980's. At that time, he was public enemy #1 locally for raising property tax assessments to stratospheric levels. Note: In Hawai'i, property taxes keep local government running for CIP stuff. The "Bubble Economy" of Japan was kept afloat by incredibly high land value assessments, which made many ordinary Japanese land rich enough to afford tours to foreign lands to buy designer goods. When the crash came, Japan's economy spun into mutliple waves of recession, which it has been trying to emerge from for a decade+. The Hawai'i real estate market was headed skyward for the past few years, and is starting to level/cool off. One theory is Genshiro Kawamoto is engaging in "economic/cultural blockbusting" on a small scale, depressing land values of neighboring properties for another round of acquisitions while the local real estate market is in flux. (You know, the usual "buy low/sell high" thing.) I can't believe that I live in a 60-year-old suburban tract home valued at over $500,000 fee simple! (#$%#@^& those real estate "flippers"!)

Edited April 1, 2007 by Guest

[Rayzor]

This guy is quite smart. He gives $5 million homes to the poor people and the posh neighbors will find that the neighborhood has lost it's "classiness". If you get street punks in a rich neighborhood it's not the poor people who suddenly gain class, but the rich who feel surrounded by "commoners". The neighborhood will drop in value because of this and that Kawamoto guy will buy the entire neighborhood for less than it was originally worth.

When the 10 years of free living are up, the poor people will have to leave, making the neighborhood terribly expensive once again.

This guy is a genius!