Fetu Kolio, the public housing resident who was earlier this year convicted of second-degree theft for stealing $1,400 from the Mayor Wright housing project, is appealing the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s recent  decision to evict him.

The appeal was filed last Friday.

Kolio was an active member of the project’s tenants’ association and had served as its president since 2009. He was known for advocating for improvements to the homes, according to the lawsuit. 

At a hearing earlier this month the HPHA’s eviction board decided to kick him out on the grounds that he violated his rental agreement.

But Kolio’s attorneys, through the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, are arguing that the eviction decision was unwarranted.

“The Board ordered Mr. Kolio’s eviction based on a decision that was clearly erroneous, arbitrary, and capricious, an abuse of discretion and based on error of law,” reads the lawsuit.

According to the appeal, Kolio doesn’t have anywhere else to live. 

— Alia Wong