Gov. Josh Green today signed an emergency proclamation with the ambitious goals of building more affordable homes across the islands — and faster — reducing housing prices by hundreds of thousands of dollars by reducing bureaucracy and keeping Hawaii residents from leaving the most expensive state in the country while bringing ex-pats home.
The emergency proclamation will be in effect for a year while a new working group — that begins meeting next month — will be empowered to approve and streamline housing construction projects that have been stalled.
The goal is to get 12,000 stalled projects online as soon as possible and a total of 50,000 homes — most of them considered “affordable” — within five years.
Green insisted that the proclamation is not intended to circumvent Hawaii laws and rules that protect the environment, historic preservation, Hawaiian iwi, wetlands or other reviews that can delay construction for years while adding $233,000 to $325,000 to the cost of a Hawaii home.
“You’ll see housing prices drop,” Green.
The Sierra Club will be represented in the new working group.
“Our record is environmental protection,” Green said. “That is what we are.”
In crafting the emergency proclamation, Nani Medeiros, the state’s chief housing officer, consulted with over 200 developers, environmentalists, Native Hawaiians and other interests, often multiple times.
Hawaii needs 50,000 homes over the next five years across the islands, where housing represents 38% of household spending; housing prices have shot up 1,200% in the last 45 years while income has only increased 600%.
Last year, 20% of residents left Hawaii every day last year and more Native Hawaiians now live on the continent for the first time in state history.
“As we lose our Hawaiian kids, we lose our culture,” Green said at a sometimes emotional ceremony today at the state Capitol after signing the emergency proclamation.
His 16-year-old daughter will be going off to college soon and “I know her mother wants her back here,” Green said.
Asked about concerns from environmental groups about the new approach to approving new homes, Green said, “we can’t find housing for our children that is alarming.”
