Seniors need help with rentals

Senior citizens represent the fastest-growing segment of Hawaii’s population, and in many cases, the most vulnerable.

That fact was brought into focus by Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Allison Schaefers’ analysis of the housing situation in Waikiki, where older residents are being squeezed out by rising rents as their own earning potential declines, or face eviction altogether by landlords eager to sell as the real-estate market rebounds in Oahu’s main tourist district. Social service agencies report an increase in the number of older residents seeking help with housing, health care, food and other crucial day-to-day needs.

While the need for affordable housing is a concern statewide, the issue is especially acute in Waikiki, which has a higher percentage of residents older than 65 than the state overall, and where housing prices, for both home buyers and renters, are more volatile, depending on the tourism market. While the district obviously is renowned as a resort hub, the neighborhood also possesses many qualities that urban planners cite as ideal for aging communities. It’s compact, walkable, with relatively easy access to transportation, shopping, health care and social activities.

The 2011 Hawaii Housing Planning Study estimated that the state needs to add 19,200 more affordable rentals for lower-income households by 2016, a goal that island neighborhoods won’t come even close to meeting, as Schaefers reported. "There are hundreds of units coming when we need thousands," said Janice Takahashi, chief planner and interim director for the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.

Given that Hawaii is years behind developing the number of affordable rentals it urgently needs, and that the state’s population is aging, perhaps it’s time to turn the challenges so evident in Waikiki into opportunities to experiment with innovative housing solutions that have been resisted in the past. One of those potential solutions is rent stabilization, which limits a landlord’s ability to raise the rent on long-term tenants.

This subject has been a non-starter at the Legislature as recently as in 2007, when members of the House and Senate proposed that the Legislative Reference Bureau study the legality and effectiveness of programs elsewhere; a concurrent resolution was never adopted.

It’s a shame that the feasibility study was not completed; in the intervening years, more and more of Hawaii’s people have ended up on the streets, or are teetering on the edge of homelessness.

Although decades of research have discredited the strict price ceilings of all-out rent control, finding that such policies inhibit housing construction and investment, the results of milder rent-stabilization programs are more promising.

Under such programs in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and the District of Columbia, landlords are allowed to raise the rent within limits, and long-term tenants — like many of the older people being priced out of Waikiki — receive the most protection. Hawaii is among 11 states that neither prohibit nor encourage such rental policies, according to the National Multi Housing Council.

This option, while controversial and certainly not a foolproof solution, should be on the table. A pilot program in Waikiki might be a good place to start, before more residents discover that their "golden years" are anything but.