Housing crisis? What housing crisis? Our state Legislature, based on the results of the 2015 session, seems to have forgotten that they acknowledged our state’s housing crisis in 2011.
SMS Research & Marketing’s Hawaii Housing Planning Study, completed at the request of Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corp. (HHFDC) in November 2011, verified what many of us in this industry already knew: We have a severe shortage of affordable housing, and affordable rental housing in particular.
The study showed that for all income groups, the total number of rental units needed for the state from 2012 to 2016 is 16,399.
Households with the greatest need are those whose incomes do not exceed 50 percent of the area median income (AMI); 59 percent of the total 16,399 units need to target this income group! The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develpment (HUD) annually issues the AMIs based on family size. The median family income for a family of four in Honolulu for 2015 is $86,900. The same-sized household at 50 percent AMI has an income of $47,900. Has demand increased since the study was completed? Yes! Are we even close to meeting the pent-up demand for rental housing? No!
Why not? Because to serve these lower income levels, it takes public-private partnerships. Mission-based developers need free or low-cost land, capital subsidies to cover the development costs while keeping the rents and mortgage low, and if available, project-based rental assistance would help even more.
Given the declared housing crisis touching thousands of families and seniors every day, what did our 2015 Legislature do?
Gov. David Ige received lots of good press early in the session with his announcement of a $100 million CIP (capitial improvement program) infusion for the Rental Housing Trust Fund (RHTF), a key funding source. Apparently he understands the need — mahalo, governor.
However, only $40 million of that $100 million made it to the RHTF — and it was just a one-time infusion of funds for fiscal year 2016 only. Why only $40 million during a housing crisis? Other priorities took precedent.
In addition, our legislators capped the amount of conveyance tax revenues that fund the RHTF to $38 million, starting July 1 for fiscal 2016.
The RHTF is funded by 50 percent of the conveyance taxes collected. Should we have caps on funding and expenditures of affordable housing programs when we have a housing crisis? Ask the thousands of Hawaii residents waiting in line for housing and see what they say.
Homeless advocates have acknowledged that providing permanent affordable rental housing is part of the solution to homelessness. But those with the power to make a difference are not listening, not understanding, not concerned or have other priorities. Perhaps our legislators should review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs where shelter and sleep are part of our basic needs, and reset their priorities.
This 2015 legislative session was similar to many previous legislative sessions — lots of positive talk up front and little action in the end. On the bright side, without champions like Sen. Suzanne Chun-Oakland (Human Services chairwoman) and Rep. Mark Hashem (Housing chairman), the situation could have been worse with even less funding.
As developers of affordable rental housing, we need a consistent and reliable source of funding. If we start a project today, we need to know that the funds will be there two or more years from now when we are ready to begin construction. EAH Housing and others committed to affordable, economically diverse communities will continue our efforts to educate our legislators, and anyone else who will listen, on what it takes to provide homes for those most in need.
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Kevin R. Carney is vice president in Hawaii for EAH Housing.
