Letter: Vacation rentals help locals survive in Hawaii

Lee Cataluna painted a picture of a nostalgic time, when friendly neighbors would close your side gate and there was parking for all on every street (“Lawmakers missing the point about illegal rentals,” Star-Advertiser, May 3).

I would like to paint a different picture. Our family has owned a beach house for more than 35 years and, for the last 10 years, we have rented it out to single-family tourists in order to pay the property tax and high cost of repairs.

Over the years we have been broken into numerous times, and I can assure you it was not by tourists. We cannot count on our neighbors closing our gate, as they’re too busy locking their own.

We not only pay the general excise tax, but have been forced to pay the hotel tax at the urging of the hotel lobby.

The cost of housing has forced multigenerational houses throughout the island, yet bed-and-breakfast owners are made out to be the bad guys. Tourists with families need multiroom accommodations, and our residents need additional income to survive in high-cost Hawaii.

What’s the little guy supposed to do?

Richard Bennet

Aina Haina

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