Needed housing funds fall short

Lawmakers lagged on advancing several state priorities for 2017, as observed in various less-than-glowing critiques of the session. But few of those areas took as tough a beating as affordable housing, which emerged in the end with about half the funds the governor had wanted.

This is certainly taking the state in the wrong direction, and the failure of leadership to implement solutions equal to the challenge is disheartening. Hope for progress is scant, until elected state leaders give the affordable-housing initiative the attention, and resources, it deserves.

Success may take better outreach to elected leaders by the nonprofit agencies and private developers who put together the financing packages for lower-income housing. Lawmakers still fail to recognize the need to set aside large appropriations, but that’s what’s required.

Gov. David Ige had sought a total approaching $200 million in affordable housing infusions, and by the end of the session, that figure had been cut nearly in half. Housing prospects from transit-oriented development are completely in doubt, with Honolulu’s rail financing shortfall still unresolved.

And the latest homelessness data, while showing improvement on the neighbor islands, underscore how persistent that problem is on Oahu. The Point in Time homeless count released this week calculates a 9 percent decrease overall, but the census on the state’s most populous island ticked up slightly, by just under a half-percentage point.

Homelessness is a complex issue, but a low rental inventory does play a part: The shortage in units drives up monthly rates — and pushes more families over the edge and onto the streets.

In contrast with such a starkly visible social problem, the legislative allotment of resources seems a very pallid response.

Bob Nakata, a former legislator himself, works with Housing Now Hawaii Action, a project of the nonprofit advocacy group Faith Action for Community Equity. He followed affordable housing through the session, especially the fate of three funding targets for which the governor had requested $50 million each:

>> The Rental Housing Trust Fund emerged from conference committee with $25 million.

>> The Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund, a key source for infrastructure costs, also ended up cut to $25 million.

>> The Hawaii Public Housing Authority fared even worse: down to $20 million.

“There was no other area of the budget that suffered that kind of cut,” Nakata said.

Two individual projects he hated to see zeroed out in the budget were a $35 million senior housing complex adjacent to HPHA headquarters and $15 million for a redevelopment of the Family Court Detention Facility on Alder Street. Under the latter project’s plans, the Alder rehab would yield some 200 affordable units, Nakata said.

These are the kind of inter- agency, cooperative efforts that really should be pursued, because they leverage public land and facilities and can be converted into significant additions to the housing inventory, relatively quickly.

Assembling the menu of government subsidies needed for the projects is a complex process: Different sources are made available from local, state and federal governments according to varying budget-making cycles, and one parcel of funding may have to idle for a while until the others come through.

Lawmakers are undoubtedly frustrated by the long delays inherent in affordable housing development, and by the fact that appropriated funds tend to sit unspent for several years.

Still, the fact remains that building for lower-income groups — the greatest deficit is for those earning well below median income — takes a lot of subsidy. It’s long past time for leaders to grasp this fact.

Until they do, Hawaii will continue to fall very short of the mark in fulfilling the islands’ most critical need.