Letter: Family might be forced to sell North Shore home

My family has owned a house on the North Shore since the 1960s. Due to a number of circumstances, we are unable to live in the house full-time.

We attempted to rent out the house long-term to a local family, but quickly discovered that a long-term rental is cost-prohibitive as the house is beachfront and fair market value would place monthly rent at more than $5,000.

In order to stay in Hawaii as a retiree and supplement her income, my mother decided to rent out our beloved house as a vacation rental, in a neighborhood that’s already at least 80% vacation-rental occupied.

Now that the City Council has banned vacation rentals, we will be forced to sell our house to the highest bidder, which likely will be someone foreign and will eliminate one more local owner from the neighborhood.

Hoku Johnson

Hawaii Kai

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