The cost of housing and the crisis of homelessness remain two of our biggest challenges in Hawaii, but over the past 15 months we have taken action and implemented new solutions — producing measurable results and making real progress on these issues.
In January, state Chief Economist Eugene Tian reported to the state Senate that Hawaii had lost a net total of 18,000 residents from 2019 to 2022 — an average of 20 people daily.
In 2023, we lost another 4,000 residents, bringing the net loss to 22,000 residents since 2019.
Those numbers represent thousands of our ohana, our children and grandchildren, who have left Hawaii because the cost of housing has spiraled out of reach.
According to a report released this month, regulatory costs here increase the price of a new two-bedroom condo by $387,000 — to $670,000 or double the price in an average state.
Building regulations in Hawaii — with their unnecessary bureaucracy, impossible permitting processes and prohibitive zoning rules — drive the cost of condominium development up by 58%, the highest in the country.
During my first year in office, I signed two Emergency Proclamations Relating to Housing — empowering Hawaii’s leading housing experts to cut through red tape and approve new housing projects more quickly and easily.
We immediately approved 10,800 new low-income units for struggling families, and took action to reform the housing bureaucracy.
Since then we have approved or accelerated multiple new projects to bring thousands of homes to nurses, teachers, firefighters and working families across our state.
But a challenge of this magnitude requires multiple solutions.
Building alone won’t solve our housing crisis — we must return thousands of short-term rentals to the local housing market to increase supply and bring down prices.
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Short-term rentals (STRs) make on average four times what they would if the property were rented long-term to a local family — and 52% of all STRs in Hawaii are owned by non-state residents, with 27% owning 20 units or more.
In addition, 75,000 of the 89,000 units in our STR market are “not legal,” according to existing laws. That represents more than 80% of the STRs here — and more than our entire statewide housing deficit of 50,000 units.
By working with the counties to fully enforce existing laws and returning only half of these illegal short-term rentals to the long-term local housing market, we could solve most of our housing problem immediately.
Earlier this year, I called on the Legislature to address this issue by sending me legislation that will help return existing housing units to the long-term rental market.
But we don’t need new legislation to take initial action on this problem; we can start by encouraging and supporting the counties to enforce the laws and regulations they already have on the books — and I have instructed the state attorney general to help the counties start cracking down on the illegal units now.
This will increase supply and bring down prices in a local market artificially and unfairly inflated by the global demand from visitors to our state.
We’re also making progress toward our goal of reducing homelessness by 50% over the next two years.
Just over a year ago, we faced the second-highest per capita homeless rate in the country. Hawaii’s homelessness rate of 43 per 10,000 people is more than double the national rate of 18 per 10,000 — with a total of 6,223 people unhoused.
Soon after taking office, I signed an Emergency Proclamation on Homelessness to cut through red tape — allowing us to begin construction of 12 kauhale villages statewide in 2024 and 20 by the end of 2025.
Kauhale are communal villages with modest housing units for homeless individuals or small households — with shared space for cooking, eating, recreation, growing food and community activities.
Studies show that providing housing for chronically homeless individuals not only improves health outcomes but also saves taxpayers millions in health care costs.
A recent report by the University of Hawaii Center on the Family found that the average health care costs for a homeless person treated in the ER, in substance abuse programs and in other health care settings were about $8,162 per month.
But six months after these individuals were placed into permanent housing, their health care costs dropped by 76% to an average $1,965 per month.
By implementing new solutions like these — driven by data and rooted in our values — and by fully enforcing our existing laws, we will continue to make real progress on housing and homelessness in the coming years.
Josh Green is governor of the state of Hawaii.
