For many of us who were born and raised in Hawaii, we can certainly empathize with the prospect of homeownership feeling overwhelming and, at times, unattainable. We see friends and family experience the struggles of finding suitable, affordable homes to purchase in our competitive housing market.

However, it’s almost laughable that someone with the resources to buy a $1.6 million Portlock home — then cough up an additional $200,000 for renovations — is claiming that homeownership wouldn’t be possible without illegally using the home as a vacation rental (“Host uses short-term rental as path to homeownership,” Star-Advertiser, May 9).

The money for the renovations alone could have been the down payment on a million-dollar home. Yet she maintains that homeownership would have been impossible without hosting vacation rentals? Doesn’t quite add up to me.

While insisting that her multimillion-dollar home “needs” to be subsidized by illegal vacation rentals, Brynn Rovito will have a pretty difficult time garnering much sympathy.

Sarah Turgeon

Kaimuki

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