Two bills intended to help retain Hawaii teachers by providing assistance to reduce their housing costs continue to advance through the Legislature.

Faced with an overall shortage of 50,000 affordable homes statewide, the latest version of House Bill 1631 would require the state Schools Facilities Authority to collaborate with the state Department of Education to work on housing teachers and other DOE staff.

And the latest version of HB 2514 would provide housing vouchers to eligible teachers to reduce their housing costs.

According to HB 1631, Hawaii “continues to suffer from a shortage of licensed teachers, with over one thousand vacancies each year.”

Housing costs, according to the bill, eat up a significant portion of teachers’ paychecks. Giving teachers more affordable housing options would help recruit new ones and keep teachers already here, according to the bill.

Danny Lopez, 30, works full time as a seventh grade science teacher at Maui Waena Intermediate School and pays around $1,200 a month for rent and utilities at Paradise Gardens in Kihei.

Lopez has lived at Paradise Gardens for two years with a roommate — another educator who pays the same amount — after moving out of Kamalani Condominiums.

At Kamalani Condominiums, Lopez roomed with two other DOE teachers. He said that he can’t afford rent on his own now, so he had to find a roommate with whom to share a unit.

“We’re very lucky to have found it,” Lopez said. “Had to camp out at like 4:30 in the morning to get the application.”

Besides teaching, Lopez also works as a surfing coach and at a pub on three or four nights out of the week as a DJ and trivia host.

Taking shifts at the pub requires Lopez to work two to six hours a night, and he could end his shift at 1 a.m.

He teaches at school from 7 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

“I am pretty exhausted after working all the time,” Lopez said. “I spent 2-1/2 years working on a master’s, and it seems like all the extra money I finally got from that is just now going to the increased prices of rent.

“I have no idea how people with kids can survive here or how recent graduates are supposed to return from school and be part of the community that they want to be part of.”

Lopez said that during his first years as a DOE teacher, he was taking home $1,200 a paycheck.

“I would have garbanzo beans out of a can for a meal sometimes,” he said. “It was gnarly.”

Sarah Milianta-Laffin, an Ilima Intermediate School computer science teacher, also recalled eating ramen and saimin noodles when she started out her teaching career as a fresh graduate.

Milianta-Laffin, 39, empathizes with younger educators because even she feels that she sometimes struggles with affordable housing.

“Younger teachers cannot find housing at all,” she said. “We have teachers on the Leeward coast who are living four to five teachers in a two-bedroom.”

Milianta-Laffin is the president of Hawaii State Teachers Association’s largest chapter — Leeward chapter — and has been a public education teacher for 18 years.

She said that during every HSTA meeting the housing issue comes up — it’s the main concern for teachers.

“Unfortunately, without policy support, teachers ourselves had to become our own community care network,” she said.

She currently lives with her husband and baby in a townhouse that is rented by a colleague who went on sabbatical in 2021.

Before moving to this townhouse, Milianta-Laffin rented a unit at Kapolei Lofts for $3,500 a month.

Milianta-Laffin’s colleague rented out his Kapolei townhouse to her for a significantly lower price.

“It’s like a guardian angel came down and helped us,” she said. “It was an incredible offer, and we’ve been very, very lucky to live where we live right now.”

She said her current living situation is temporary since the owners could come back anytime, which sometimes puts her on the edge of finding another affordable place to live.

She said that with her 5-month-old daughter, housing becomes an ever bigger challenge because DOE doesn’t support paid family leave and child care.

““I just had no idea that child care would be one of two months of my paycheck,” Milianta-Laffin said. “Child care is like a mortgage payment in Hawaii.”

Milianta-Laffin said that with the high costs of living in Hawaii, she has considered switching professions and moving out of Hawaii, especially after having her baby in October.

However, she never left the industry because she said that “public schools are the bedrock of our democracy.”

“If we believe in the promise of a better world, then we have to help build it,” Milianta-Laffin said. “Education, at its core to me, is justice work.”

Both Lopez and Milianta- Laffin said they are excited to see legislators put in the effort to help out teachers like them.

“It’s hard to see these wonderful teachers who know what they’re doing, love being around kids and want to be great but just can’t afford to live here,” Lopez said.

Lopez hopes to see more efforts such as programs that could help educators who are interested in staying in Hawaii with homeownership to improve retention rates.

“I know legislators are looking at every possible solution to make it work,” Milianta-Laffin said. “But sometimes I feel like teachers are asked to do a lot more with less.

“I don’t know any other college-educated professionals who are asked to do as much and as little as we are given,” Milianta-Laffin said.

The University of Hawaii already offers housing support to new full-time employees, which has shown to be effective in attracting employees and keeping them within the UH system, according to HB 1631.

The Schools Facilities Authority submitted written testimony in support of HB 1631 and said identifying and prioritizing workforce housing remains critical.

“Spearheading educator workforce housing solutions is one of three areas of focus for the SFA,” wrote Riki Fujitani, the association’s interim executive director.

However, Osa Tui Jr., president of HSTA, said in written testimony that “progress from the School Facilities Authority has been agonizingly slow.”

Tui said he supports HB 1631 because legislation would require the authority to document its plans, which will help monitor it and hold it accountable.

“Ensuring that they have documented short and longer term plans will help with accountability and progress monitoring, especially with the expectation that larger projects are on the horizon for our schools,” Tui wrote.

Financial incentives and affordable options for teacher housing, according to Tui, are essential to recruit and retain teachers, which allows Hawaii students to be able to depend on stable educators.

“We have very limited teacher housing across the state, and some of the teacher housing that exist are empty and vacant because of its dilapidated state,” Tui told the House Finance Committee, which heard the latest version of HB 1631 Monday.

He said HSTA also would support renovating and upgrading existing teacher housing to make it more livable.

HB 2514 would establish a Teacher Home Assistance Program to provide housing vouchers — a form of financial assistance to help teachers afford housing in the private rental market.

A teacher would be eligible for a housing voucher as a Hawaii resident who is employed full time by the DOE, earns less than the area median income, does not manage any home beyond a primary residence, has taught at a state school for at least a year and agrees to teach at a hard-to-fill or public charter school for at least five years.

However, in written testimony in support of HB 2514, the DOE said it would be “beneficial to provide teachers, regardless of their work location, with a voucher to offset their housing expenses.”

The bill states that Hawaii’s high cost of living contributes to 10% of state teachers relocating or leaving the profession each year. At the same time, only 50% to 60% of teachers remain at a school for at least five years.

DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi submitted written testimony that housing affordability remains the biggest detriment to recruiting and retaining Hawaii teachers.

Limiting vouchers to teachers in hard-to-staff areas also overlooks the reality that some of the highest housing costs are in areas not considered hard to staff, Hayashi wrote.

“This results in long commutes for teachers who are unable to afford to live in the communities they serve,” Hayashi said. “The Department already provides between $3,000-$8,000 in annual pay differentials to licensed teachers in hard- to-staff areas as an incentive and retention tool.”

Tui also provided written testimony in support of HB 2514 on behalf of HSTA, saying the bill would help to “address the critical housing need for our teachers that has to be addressed sooner rather than later.”

He wrote that the housing situation in Hawaii “continues to hurt our keiki and hurt our schools.”

Tui testified in person Monday that the bill also would help local people who need somewhere to live, rather than just those who come to Hawaii.

“A lot of folks can’t make it, and if they’re on that precipice, they’re like, ‘Well, I guess I’m gonna have to move to the mainland to teach,’” Tui said. “And that’s really a travesty for our kids.”

The Democratic Party of Hawaii’s Education Caucus submitted written testimony in support of both HB 1631 and HB 2514 and emphasized that Hawaii’s average teacher salaries are the lowest in the nation when adjusted for cost of living.

Kris Coffield, chair of the Education Caucus, wrote that increasing the supply of affordable housing for teachers and other members of the education workforce would help offset the low wages experienced by the state’s education professionals.

“To deliver the schools our keiki deserve, we must recruit and retain qualified educators,” Coffield said. “Our children’s future depends on our ability to meet that challenge.”

Milianta-Laffin also said Hawaii students deserve teachers who can focus on teaching.

“To have so much economic insecurities, we can’t give the best to our students,” she said. “We should be able to come to the classrooms with our full selves every day.”