After World War II, you could buy a house in Palolo for $5,000, and in the 1970s, in Manoa for $30,000.

Today the average price of a house is over half a million and condos are selling in Kakaako for millions. But Honolulu has the highest level of homelessness in the nation compared to similar-sized cities, and Hawaii’s serious shortage of truly "affordable" housing leads to homelessness, even for many working people.

Hawaii needs to build economically affordable housing again. Modular, easily replicable container apartments are cheaper and quicker to build. New York’s one- and two-bedroom shipping container apartments cost $50,000 to $80,000. Modular container construction can be done assembly-line style — doors/windows framed, floors/walls, plumbing, electrical installed, etc. — in protected off-site settings year-round. Only the steel container shell is different from traditional construction; everything else is the same as stick-built.

Very durable steel shipping containers are stacked several stories high, then locked together — rock solid — for their ride across rough oceans. They are a construction option ready-made to easily stack into multistoried apartment buildings in record time. With less build time and labor cost than stick-built construction, this ease of stacking is where the savings are with container buildings.

Containers are insulated against heat and noise — and in Hawaii, we’d need ventilation with windows that open and ceiling fans to make container apartments comfortable. With large windows, mirrors visually enlarging the space, bathroom, kitchenette and living area, containers are successfully adapted for use as apartments.

Private developers say the market can’t build "affordable" housing. But rather than give in to excuses for not building economically affordable hous- ing, we should look to Utah, which is on track to eradicate homelessness in its state by the end of 2014 (housingworks.gov); and to New York, where it is possible to build micro-units for singles. In Hawaii, 81 percent of those experiencing homelessness are single individuals, said Jenny Lee of the Hawaii Appleseed Center.

A 20-foot-by-8-foot container micro-studio for a single person (160 square feet) can be constructed for about $25,000 ($156 per square foot). Economies of scale would probably lower the cost. The comparatively short build time of container apartments — in one case in Brighton, England, 14 weeks versus one year for a comparable stick-built building — helps to lower costs. Reasonable rent for the micro-unit would pay it off in a few years. Larger containers can be made into studios or one-bedroom dwellings.

Critics say retrofitting a container costs as much as building a unit using traditional construction. If the unit is the only dwelling on the lot, that might be pertinent. But, realistically, savings from rapid assembly time and the ease of "building up" (stacking) makes modular container apartments more affordable. Without cheaper container apartments, we will be hard-pressed to satisfy the huge need for economical housing.

Building truly economical container apartments would be in addition to what private developers stick-build for the market. And with the additional plumbing, electrician, masonry, welding, carpentry, painting and rigging needs, we’d have more good-paying jobs.