Governor’s housing proclamation update: Build Beyond Barriers Working Group meeting sows confusion, reaps distrust
by Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 4 minutes
Despite the governor previously reassuring the survivors of the Lāhainā wildfire that no long-term rebuilding plans would take place without their close involvement, no less than five permanent housing- and housing-related projects were on the latest Build Beyond Barriers Working Group’s meeting agenda, proposed “in response to an increased need for housing on Maui due to the wildfires,” and to “accommodate very low-income tenants displaced by fires caused by Hurricane Dora’s high winds.”
The Lāhainā-centric agenda was released a sunshiny six days prior to the August 29 meeting; however, details regarding the agenda items – what the projects would actually entail, what kind of legal exemptions they would be seeking, and why such exemptions were necessary or helpful (the latter still remaining largely unclear) – would not be provided to the Working Group until Friday afternoon, and not posted for public review until later that evening.
When the meeting packet was finally released, links to online documents containing project details were also broken, and a packet with corrected links was not distributed or posted for public review until Saturday afternoon – just a little over 36 hours before public testimony was due.
Remarkably, despite the incredibly limited time frame, hundreds of testimonies were still submitted by the Monday deadline. The vast majority concerned four Department of Hawaiian Homelands (“DHHL”) projects seeking Lead Housing Officer Nani Medeiros’s approval for exemptions from environmental review and iwi kupuna protections, among others.
Many testifiers pointed out the contradiction between the Governor’s promises of community involvement in rebuilding plans, and the fact that the public had less than two days to review and comment on the details of these ostensibly wildfire-related development projects.
Wildfire survivors in particular had little opportunity to weigh in, as many were still trying to process indescribable trauma, did not have reliable access to internet service, and many were still sifting through rubble, looking for family members and any remnants of their recent former lives.
Prominent Lāhainā community leaders also outright objected to proposals that would ignore major water supply concerns, and eliminate any protections for iwi kūpuna and historical cultural sites. They noted that the DHHL projects had actually been in the works for quite some time, and were already very far along in permitting and approval processes – raising the question of why they were even being proposed for consideration under the emergency proclamation.
As Lāhainā lineal descendant and Archie Kalepa noted, “it is vital that we move through these projects in a pono way . . . we have to work through issues, such as iwi kūpuna and water, as a community, even if it takes longer and is complicated.”
A vast number of testimonies also questioned whether the projects were actually even for wildfire relief, as had been presented in the agenda. Many, many individuals asked whether and how wildfire survivors would be given priority in obtaining housing, whether housing units would be actually affordable, whether the Governor would reinstate water management protections that could rein in waste and inappropriate uses of water needed for housing and food production, and whether he would reinstate the Sunshine Law or otherwise ensure transparency in all decisionmaking under his emergency proclamation. At least one testifier questioned whether the DHHL projects were simply being used as a “brown shield” for the proclamation.
These questions would go unanswered.
Because of the tremendous concerns raised by these written testimonies – or, because of the critical questions they were asking – the DHHL projects were withdrawn from the agenda, leaving no opportunity for discussion at the meeting.
Governor Green and Lead Housing Officer Medeiros would eventually begin the meeting by speaking at length to their commitment to let the Lāhainā community lead in any long-term rebuilding efforts, and that there would be no long-term planning without the Lāhainā community. In doing so, they offered no explanation as to why the agenda specifically described long-term development projects as part of the state’s wildfire response.
You can read more about the latest Working Group meeting here.
In other Housing Emergency Proclamation news, on August 31, a broad coalition of community advocates for affordable housing, iwi kupuna, environmental justice, and good governance, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit challenging Governor Josh Green’s Emergency Proclamation on Housing. The legal intervention calls out the proclamation as an abuse of emergency powers that benefits real estate developers at the expense of the public interest. The plaintiffs include Nā ‘Ohana o Lele Housing Committee, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, E Ola Kākou Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Advocates for Truly Affordable Housing, Sierra Club, and Land Use Commission member Kū‘ikeokalani Kamakea-‘Ōhelo.
The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi remains committed to defending our home from an unaffordable-housing proclamation that violates our constitution, eschews public transparency, dismisses the legal rights and interests of Native Hawaiians and the public, and pursues a housing-for-all policy that stands to only widen our existing wealth gap, and exacerbate our housing crisis.
Please stand with us, by taking this pledge if you have not yet, and reaching out if you have an organization or group of friends who would like to learn more about the dangers facing our islands, our communities, and our democracy.