The EAH Housing community Kukui Gardens in Honolulu, HI has been chosen as the winner of the Preservation category in Affordable Housing Finance Magazine’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards for the Nation’s Best Affordable Housing Developments.

Kukui Gardens was selected over other affordable housing communities from throughout the nation for this prestigious award. For over 40 years, Kukui Gardens has provided 389 apartments for working families and older adults in the urban center of Honolulu. As the price for housing is continually being driven up in Hawai’i, local working people are having an increasingly hard time finding a place to live. Kukui Gardens allows people who work in Honolulu to live close to their jobs, friends, and families, by providing crucial affordable housing that creates a sense of community in an otherwise urban area.

Just a few years ago, Kukui Gardens faced the very real possibility of being shut down and converted into market rate housing, which would have resulted in the eviction of thousands of residents. EAH Housing worked with its development partner Devine & Gong, Inc., as well as residents, activists, and government officials to preserve this much needed affordable housing community in Honolulu.

Recently, EAH Housing partnered with Devine & Gong, Inc. to conduct property wide renovations at Kukui Gardens, preparing the community to provide housing for countless future generations of working families and older adults.

Congrats to this outstanding affordable housing community for earning much deserved national attention! Thanks to all who voted and helped to share this inspiring story with a new audience.