In all of the debate about how best to fund the Honolulu rail project, it’s important that we don’t lose sight of why a majority of Oahu voters have twice voted to support it. They said “yes” to transportation equity for our brothers and sisters in West Oahu, the need to concentrate future development along the rail route and not in rural areas, and the importance of incentivizing developers to build residences by the 21 planned stations that people can afford to buy or rent.

That’s what is at stake when state lawmakers gather on Aug. 28 for a special session. There will be only one item on their agenda: how best to fund the rail project to complete the entire route — all 20 miles from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center. Because the Oahu General Plan calls for West Oahu to be the “Second City,” Campbell Industrial Park, University of Hawaii-West Oahu, the Honouliuli Sewage Treatment Plant, the deep draft harbor and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation were planned for that region. That plan is now coming into reality.

I’m encouraged that we’re having a special session. And as a former member of the Legislature and my service on its Finance and Ways and Means committees, I want to especially commend Senate President Ron Kouchi and House Speaker Scott Saiki.

We all know that during the recent regular session legislators were badly divided over how best to provide funding for the rail project. I believe that the extension of the 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge is the cleanest and best way to fund the rail. One reason is that most Oahu taxpayers have been paying it for 10 years with no major complaints, and the recently passed Earned Income Tax Credit reduces its regressive nature.

Kouchi and Saiki know that the political compromise they fashion to fund the rail project will be one of the Legislature’s most important economic stimulus and quality of life decisions in many generations.

Our group, Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), is particularly concerned about Oahu’s critical lack of affordable housing. It is not surprising Hawaii has the nation’s highest per capita rate of homelessness. So many of our residents, many of them families with working parents, simply can’t afford to rent, let alone buy decent housing.

That’s why FACE supports the Honolulu rail project. It is the first public project since statehood that holds the promise of private developers building affordable for-purchase residences and rentals. That can happen by the city using transit-oriented development (TOD) incentives to turn areas around rail stations into thriving residential and economic hubs, not centers for luxury condominiums and hotels.

We understand that TOD alone won’t solve Oahu’s seemingly chronic housing crisis, just as the rail project alone won’t solve Honolulu’s awful traffic congestion. But TOD has the potential to help us make significant progress by giving private developers the incentives to build affordable housing. It’s worked in other municipalities and we believe it will work here, too.

Our housing crisis isn’t just about a quarterly report on fast-rising rents and home sale prices. It’s about many of our families and friends, hardworking members of the community who struggle to keep a roof over their heads. It’s about many of our most promising young people who leave the islands because they can’t afford to live here.

That’s why it’s so important that our lawmakers find common ground and approve a funding means that will allow the Honolulu rail project to be completed.

The Rev. Bob Nakata is a leader of Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) Hawaii; he is a former member of the state Senate and House.