Honolulu Senior Tower Elevator Sits Broken Since Lala, Residents Miss Doctor Visits

Seniors living at an eight-story affordable housing tower in Honolulu have been climbing multiple flights of stairs for meals, medical appointments, medication pickups and basic errands because the building's only elevator has not worked since Hurricane Lala flooded its pit nearly two weeks ago. Some residents at Kalākaua Vista have already missed medical appointments they could not physically reach, and others who use mobility devices have been confined to their own floors.

The elevator at the 1628 Kalākaua Avenue building, which houses 81 units and is designated for people aged 62 and older, has been out of service since August 15, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. Flooding during the hurricane sent water into the elevator pit — the space below ground level where the elevator car lands — and the water rose high enough to bubble through holes in the elevator car floor, the outlet reported. Kalākaua Vista, built in 2001, was originally developed by the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance & Development Corporation using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and the property is owned by Kalākaua Vista Apartments Limited Partnership and managed by Locations Hawaiʻi.

Resident Jackie Shen described the daily toll of the outage, saying residents with limited mobility now rely on relatives or neighbors just to get supplies. “How are elderly residents supposed to get laundry baskets down there?” Shen asked, referring to the building's laundry room, which sits on the second floor. Amazon and UPS delivery drivers have continued reaching the building despite the outage, but for residents themselves, the stairs have made even routine chores arduous or impossible.

No Firm Timeline Despite Approved Repair Plan

Kainoa Kuamoo, the Locations Hawaiʻi manager who also serves as the Kalākaua Vista building manager, said an elevator repair plan was approved this past Tuesday, and a technician is set to visit the property to begin the fix. Even so, Kuamoo said there is no firm timeline for when the elevator will operate again. Technicians were on site Tuesday performing air conditioning repairs, though that work is separate from the elevator itself.

Amanda Stevens of Hawaiʻi's Department of Human Services said county staff would contact Kalākaua Vista management to check on resident arrangements. The department's Adult Protective and Community Services division accepts reports concerning the safety of vulnerable adults, offering one avenue for residents or family members worried about seniors cut off by the outage.

Kalākaua Vista serves residents whose income does not exceed 50% of the county median, with the single-person county median income threshold set at $53,900. Occupancy at the property is generally limited to non-vehicle owners once its 33 designated parking stalls are assigned, according to a Locations LLC brochure for the building, meaning many residents already depend heavily on being able to move freely within the building itself.

Storm Damage Extended to Other Senior Buildings

Kalākaua Vista is not the only designated low-income senior housing property still recovering from elevator damage tied to Hurricane Lala. Wisteria Vista, another property in the same category of state-designated senior housing alongside Artesian Vista and Wilder Vista, will be without its main elevator for another month, though that building had a second elevator operating as of this past Wednesday. Wisteria Vista is managed by EAH Housing, which handles a broader portfolio of affordable senior housing in Honolulu, and its elevator damage also resulted from Hurricane Lala.

The storm that caused the damage was extraordinary by any measure. Hurricane Lala inundated Hawaiʻi with an estimated 1.3 trillion gallons of rain between August 14 and 16, averaging 11.4 inches statewide and causing extreme ground saturation, according to University of Hawaiʻi News, with peak hourly rainfall reaching up to 4.4 inches in Oʻahu and Big Island mountain runoff zones. That water table surge is what flooded subterranean elevator pits like the one beneath Kalākaua Vista.

Storm Strained Power Grid and Emergency Crews Islandwide

The hurricane's broader impact on Oʻahu help explain why repairs have moved slowly. Hurricane Lala knocked out power to roughly 60% of Hawaiʻi households, pushing statewide outages above 220,000 as high winds and flash flooding damaged main transmission corridors, per Honolulu Civil Beat. Hawaiian Electric had restored power to most Oʻahu customers by August 20, but the scale of the outages illustrates how stretched utility and repair crews were in the storm's aftermath.

The Honolulu Fire Department logged more than 600 storm-related emergency calls during the peak of the hurricane on August 16 and 17, while Hawaiian Electric reported 113,000 simultaneous Oʻahu outages, according to the Office of the Mayor. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi ordered non-essential city offices and schools closed on August 17 to keep roads clear for recovery crews, underscoring how citywide the disruption was even as individual buildings like Kalākaua Vista dealt with their own isolated crises.

State Rules Govern When the Elevator Can Reopen

Any fix at Kalākaua Vista will have to clear a state regulatory hurdle before residents can use the elevator again. Under Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules Title 12, Chapter 229, enforced by the HIOSH Boiler and Elevator Inspection Branch, any elevator taken out of service for longer than one month must be rendered inoperable and pass an official state inspection before resuming operation, per the Hawaiʻi Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. HIOSH also updated its statewide elevator inspection fee schedule effective July 1, adding another procedural step to the reopening process.

Separately, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 521-64 of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code requires landlords to begin repairs within three business days of notice for defects affecting habitability, and within 12 business days for other defective conditions, according to Hawaii Coastal Property Management. Those timelines can be extended by emergency circumstances or the availability of specialized parts, which may explain why Kuamoo has been unable to give residents a firm completion date nearly two weeks after the outage began.

Part of a Wider Pattern in Senior Housing

The situation at Kalākaua Vista fits a pattern Hoodline has tracked nationally throughout the year, with mobility-impaired residents left stranded for weeks in single-elevator buildings across New York, Texas, Florida and Missouri. Single-elevator high-rises leave upper-floor residents effectively isolated whenever the sole lift fails, a design flaw that has repeatedly surfaced in affordable senior housing regardless of state or storm.

Governor Josh Green formally requested a White House emergency declaration on August 22, citing extensive flooding and infrastructure strain across Honolulu and outer counties as well as the approach of Tropical Storm Moke, according to the Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency. President Donald J. Trump approved that emergency declaration for Hawaiʻi on August 26, opening federal FEMA assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts tied to Hurricane Lala. Whether that federal aid will reach mechanical repairs at buildings like Kalākaua Vista remains to be seen, but for now, residents there are still taking the stairs.