Two state Senate committees are finally trying to put real money behind the state’s so-far anemic attempts to address Hawaii’s affordable-housing crisis, arguably our No. 1 problem.
Sen. Will Espero’s bill to float $2 billion in bonds for affordable sale and rental homes, greater public housing inventory and more homeless shelters was approved by both Espero’s Housing Committee and the Transportation and Energy Committee.
Twenty of the 25 senators have signed Senate Bill 591, but they don’t include tightfisted Ways and Means Chairwoman Jill Tokuda, whose committee hears it next.
The measure has only tepid support from the House and Gov. David Ige, whose proposed budget would fund barely 400 of the 24,500 housing units Hawaii needs in the next five years — 80 percent of them affordable — according to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.
Ige has promised to build 10,000 affordable units by 2020 and Tokuda advocates for 22,000 affordable homes in 10 years, but there’s little funding behind either.
Senate Bill 591 needs fine-tuning, but it starts an important discussion about thinking big instead of continuing the plodding game of small ball that Ige and the Legislature have played with housing Hawaii’s people.
It’s inhumane and uncivilized to have thousands of people living on our streets; it’s disgraceful to drive away so many of our young people who get tired of living with their parents into their 20s and 30s.
The current strategy of carrot-and-stick incentives for private developers and using the city rail line as a magnet for affordable housing has failed.
Developers can too easily buy their way out of affordable-housing requirements to pursue far more profitable high-end housing that attracts outside investors and does little for struggling locals seeking homes.
Funding for housing takes a back seat to endless scheming on how to pay nearly $5 billion in cost overruns for the Oahu rail disaster.
The private sector will never solve Hawaii’s crushing affordable-housing crisis; it just isn’t as lucrative as luxury development.
It necessarily becomes a function of the state, which can bring forth considerable resources such as available land, bond financing and the ability to encourage builders with favorable regulations.
The city, with its limited resources, has been more aggressive than the state on affordable housing, but there’s only so much that can be done on the municipal level.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s new plan to keep Oahu from becoming a gated community for the rich by using city land and bond financing for affordable housing is welcome, but even if he sells it to skeptical developers and the City Council, it will add only 3,600 affordable units over four years.
It’s time for Ige and the Legislature to muster urgency for this running crisis that stains our state’s moral character.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
