Gov. Josh Green signed a suite of bills Wednesday approved by the state Legislature aimed at creating more affordable housing, returning homeless people to the mainland and reducing housing rents.

Green has repeatedly said that Hawaii needs 50,000 new affordable housing units to help give workers a more affordable reason to stay home, along with financially struggling kupuna.

After Green signed 11 bills into law Wednesday, the state’s chief housing officer, Nani Medeiros, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that an earlier emergency proclamation issued by Green in the opening days of the past legislative session to reduce bureaucracy and eliminate redundant red tape between the counties and state is projected to result in 44,000 more housing units.

They’re currently in “various stages” of approval, Medeiros said.

When presented with the intention of Green’s emergency proclamation, Medeiros said that developers and others in Hawaii’s construction industry said it also could expedite 12,000 additional affordable housing units.

Another bill Green signed Wednesday creates a 99-year leasehold program for the Hawaii Community Development Authority to develop low-cost homes on state- and county-owned land in urban areas to be sold to qualified buyers, which Medeiros said could result in an additional 10,000 units.

The 66,000 new units would be separate from the unknown number of new state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands units after the Legislature approved a historic $600 million to help clear the backlog of Hawaiian beneficiaries on DHHL’s housing waitlist.

Medeiros hopes the first of the 66,000 units will “realistically” become reality in the next two years.

“We’ll do our best,” she told the Star-Advertiser.

Green thanked the Legislature for partnering on his pledge to create more affordable housing, reduce homelessness and make housing costs easier for working and financially struggling individuals and families of all ages.

He particularly praised the efforts of state Sen. Stanley Chang (D, Hawaii Kai-Kahala-Diamond Head), who chairs the Senate Housing Committee and is a fierce and longtime advocate for reducing housing costs and creating more affordable housing.

In a statement, Green said, “Unless we address the lack of affordable housing in our state head-on, the housing crisis will continue to affect the quality of life for all our communities.”

Among the bills Green signed into law Wednesday are:

>> Act 94, which creates a three-year “return-to-home” pilot program to expand on current efforts to fly homeless people back to the mainland and reunite with family or friends committed to help them get housed and back on their feet.

>> Act 96, which increases investment limits of affordable, residential housing that qualify for low-income housing tax credits.

>> Act 97, which establishes the HCDA’s 99-year leasehold program.

“With Act 97 (SB 865), the state for the first time will take direct responsibility for reversing the housing shortage by providing income-blind, revenue-­neutral, 99-year leasehold homes for all of Hawaii’s people,” Chang, who was traveling Wednesday, said in a statement following Green’s signing of the bills. “It’s a proven model that has worked in Singapore and will finally enable every generation of local people to have a good life here in Hawaii. Thank you to Governor Green for signing this bill, to Senate President Kouchi and my colleagues in the Senate and House, and all the many supporters who have fought for this concept since 2018.”

>> Act 98, which expands the state Rent Supplement Program for qualified renters 62 years or older to subsidize their rental costs and help prevent them from becoming homeless or forcing them to relocate to more affordable communities on the mainland.

>> Act 99, which repeals the percentage requirements for applicants to Hawaii Public Housing Authority housing and is intended to give greater preference for those who are the most in need, including homeless families and individuals and victims of domestic violence.

“Each of these bills will get us one step closer to providing long-term housing solutions and easing our housing crisis, but it’s just the beginning,” Green said in his statement.