Housing and crime dominate Honolulu City Council District 6 election

Crime and housing are top issues for candidates in the crowded field for Honolulu City Council District 6.

District 6 covers Downtown through Nuuanu and Kalihi Valley, and the seat is currently held by Council member Carol Fukunaga, who has reached her term limit and is running for a state Senate seat in District 11.

The candidates are Traci Toguchi, Ikaika Hussey, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Nalani Jenkins, Dennis Nakasato, Chad Wolke and Chance Naauao-Ota.

Four of the nine Honolulu City Council seats — Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 — are up for election this year, with 19 candidates vying in the nonpartisan races.

Candidates who get more than 50% of the votes during the Aug. 13 primary will win the race outright. Otherwise, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the Nov. 8 general election. Since there are only two candidates in the District 4 race, both will be on the general election ballot.

Since District 6 is a mix of both dense urban development and residential areas, figuring out how to increase housing inventory while ensuring the neighborhoods’ integrity is a key topic for many candidates.

Using city property and partnering with developers to create more housing units are ways to address the issues for candidates Hussey, Toguchi and Dos Santos-Tam.

Hussey was a labor organizer for Unite Here Local 5, the union representing hospitality workers and nurses, and is CEO and founder of Hawaii Federated Industries, an organization focused on workforce development and fighting climate change. He ran for the District 6 seat in 2018 but was defeated by Fukunaga. He said he wants to see the city acquire more land beyond its current portfolio and then partner with developers to create more affordable housing.

Toguchi currently works as a legislative analyst in the District 6 Council office and is a former Miss Hawaii. She wants to leverage the city’s current portfolio but also focus on affordable “workforce housing” for those in the 60%-to-120% annual median income range, especially in the urban area where people can be closer to their jobs.

Dos Santos-Tam is former chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaii and former director of the Hawaii Construction Alliance, which lobbies on behalf of builders and several labor unions. He also ran for the District 6 seat in 2018. Similarly, he wants to see the city utilize its properties for affordable housing, but he also wants to implement policies to increase the housing density allowance on apartment 1-zoned properties, which actually have a lower density than residential lots, he said.

“You can build 30% more in a single-family home district than in apartments. And that’s a direct consequence of our land use ordinance not being updated,” he said. “Without increasing the height, we’re going to work to increase the allowable density because we are hamstringing our own ability to create apartments.”

Cutting bureaucracy

Jenkins and Wolke are most focused on fixing permitting issues at the Department of Planning and Permitting as a way to increase the city’s affordable housing portfolio.

Jenkins sees the problem as “the bureaucracy with permitting and red tape and the delays that it takes. Nobody who’s a builder or developer likes the unknown,” she said. The city should look at its overall strategy because the current climate of challenges to build deters affordable housing, she said.

Jenkins is best known as one of the founding members of Na Leo Pilimehana but also is president of 721, a communications and marketing firm.

Wolke wants to see housing development deregulated for “responsible developers,” also citing red tape in the building process as a roadblock to creating more affordable housing. He said the city should consider utilizing agricultural land that has been left unused for long periods of time to expand affordable housing. Wolke is an aide to U.S. Rep. Ed Case and former member of the Liliha/Puunui/Alewa Heights Neighborhood Board.

Hussey and Dos Santos-­Tam say they are also concerned about issues at DPP, with Dos Santos-Tam particularly focused on how reforms at DPP could curb the development of “monster” homes in residential neighborhoods.

Homelessness

Homelessness is tied to housing for many of the District 6 candidates.

Dos Santos-Tam wants to see expansion of Housing First, which prioritizes permanent housing for the homeless. He also thinks that the city can do more to engage landlords to get them to accept more low-­income residents.

Hussey wants to make better use of social service agencies as resources for on-the-ground work with homeless people.

But Toguchi wants better engagement with stakeholders such as the American Civil Liberties Union Hawaii, which she said often opposes city policies. “If we can bring them to the table before the city passes ordinances, we can help to resolve and prevent legislation going to court and being challenged,” she said. “That way, those who are homeless won’t be stuck in the middle.”

Dos Santos-Tam and Wolke both applaud and would seek expansion of the city’s new Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement program, which uses a separate team of first responders to address nonviolent homeless emergency calls.

Crime

For Wolke and Jenkins, crime and homelessness are related topics.

They want to see the criminal justice system leveraged to get people into treatment programs for drug, alcohol and mental health issues.

Jenkins is concerned about the business owners who need to clean up after homeless individuals who may be sleeping outside of their storefronts. “So while we’re supporting the treatment for drug addiction and the treatment for mental illness, are we doing enough to enforce the laws that are on the books?” she said.

“It is not OK for anyone to be sleeping on the sidewalks in front of someone’s home. … I think there’s been a practical drift … where we have been so concerned about how do we help the homeless that we’ve neglected to help the residents as well.”

Jenkins, Wolke and Toguchi want to see more foot patrols in the area to combat crime. Both are concerned about the staffing issues at the Police Department and want to see what can be done to address the number of vacancies.

Naauao-Ota agrees, while Jenkins received the endorsement of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union. Naauao-Ota is secretary of the Liliha/ Puunui/Alewa/Kam Heights Neighborhood Board and works at the YMCA of Honolulu as a child care direct site director.

Dos Santos-Tam added that there needs to be a holistic approach to crime, especially for those who are homeless who frequently have their items and personal documents stolen. He said it would be beneficial to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to continue to pay for police overtime in areas such as Chinatown.

Hussey wants to see how HPD’s limited resources can be better used, instead of increasing the number of officers.

Financial disclosures

Candidates recently turned in their campaign finance reports for Jan. 1 through June 30.

>> Dos-Santos Tam led the pack with the top number of contributions at $143,179.29. The biggest contributors to his campaign during the most recently reported period were related to, or executives of, the Kobayashi Group Real Estate Firm and BlackSand Capital real estate private equity firm. These donations accounted for at least $25,500. Other top contributors were the longshoreman labor union ILWU 142 and the Plasters and Cement Masons Local 630 union, which each donated $4,000.

>> Jenkins had the second-­highest campaign haul at $51,388. Her biggest contributors were from executives at several contracting companies such as RM Towill, Royal Contracting and Pacific Power Electrical Contracting. Those accounted for about $16,000 in contributions

in that period. In the last reporting period which was July 1 to Dec. 31, 2021, she gave her campaign a loan of $45,000.

>> Hussey’s contributions came in at $19,761.22, raising $9,612 from small contributions under $1,000, except for two $1,000 donations from a public school teacher and Cathy Halstead, a philanthropist. He also loaned his campaign $4,179.

>> Wolke raised $15,602 — $8,000 of which came from immediate family. He also loaned his campaign $4,179.

>> Toguchi raised $10,300 in total contributions. Her top donors were $4,000 from Black Sand Capital and $2,000 from Donald Horner, former CEO of First Hawaiian Bank.

>> Naauao-Ota raised $3,398.47 total.

>> Nakasato did not file a disclosure report for the most recent period.