Wayne's Sierra Club World: Housing Red Herrings and What We Should Talk About When We Talk About Housing

by Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 4.5 minutes

Photo: Civil Beat

Good news: the Governor's emergency proclamation on housing has been amended, to no longer suspend bedrock protections for our ʻāīna, people, and future generations in exchange for fast-tracked development of unaffordable housing.

This was a welcome development, as the short-sighted and undemocratic proposal would have threatened our food security, environmental and cultural integrity, and social fabric for generations to come.

Meanwhile, by locking up our inherently limited land, water, and infrastructure in fast-tracked market rate housing, the proclamation would have only exacerbated the very housing crisis faced by our most vulnerable and housing insecure residents (and through sewer and school impact fee exemptions, placed the burden of increased infrastructure costs on everyday taxpayers).

Nonetheless, in a recent KĀKOU Town Hall on PBS, developer representatives continued point to environmental and other “regulations” as a housing bogeyman, while turning a blind eye to the harsh realities of the unaffordable, for-profit housing industry they helped to build.

Exorbitant interest rates mean that any new units by necessity will be marketed and sold to those with high six-figure incomes or cash in hand - in other words, largely non-Hawaiʻi residents - and low property taxes will only continue to drive the global real estate speculation that is keeping housing prices out of reach for so many Hawaiʻi people. This would be true no matter how many legal shortcuts we give to developers.

Other factors highlight the multifaceted problems that are truly driving the housing crisis experienced by so many current residents, such as the 30,000-plus residential housing units rented to tourists instead of people in need of housing; the refusal of developers to follow through on building the tens of thousands of units already approved by the Land Use Commission; bare-minimum affordability periods that are eroding away reserved “affordable” housing; basic housing allowances of $3,000 - $4,000 a month that allow military service members to outcompete longtime residents; the ever-increasing costs of labor and construction materials; and systemic failings such as the lack of basic reentry support for rehabilitated paʻahao, lack of protection against discriminatory landlord practices, insufficient mental health safety nets, and a healthcare system that can bankrupt families who experience a medical emergency; among many others.

Yet these actual causes of our housing woes confound the purported magic bullet of stripping away vitally important laws disliked by developers, and these laws' public input opportunities UHERO spokesperson Colin Moore calls development “veto points” (an Orwellian spin on civic engagement and democratic processes). Conveniently, these problems have not been given much more than passing lip service, if that, by those arguing that we can exempt our century-old housing problems away.

So what can we do? The aforementioned challenges point to many strategies that could, potentially, provide residents with housing relief - without dismantling the foundations of our environment, culture, economy, and democracy: phase out transient vacation rentals as an acceptable use of our housing supply; provide the Land Use Commission with more enforcement tools, to hold developers accountable to their affordable housing construction promises; couple any affordability incentives with deed restrictions, to ensure that units remain affordable in perpetuity; demand that the Department of Defense assess and rein in the impacts of military housing allowances on the civilian population (and clean up their own housing units, whose contaminated water systems are still making residents sick); prohibit section 8 discrimination and invest in social services and initiatives to bring people together rather than drive them apart.

Innovative efforts can also address the impact of ever-growing labor, supply, and infrastructure costs, such as the incentivized conversion of commercial spaces into residential units; county leasehold projects such as those that have helped make Kauaʻi County's Housing Agency the most prolific affordable housing developer on the island; and incentives for the redevelopment of multi-family spaces, such as under Honolulu's Bill 7 (recently given additional life by Bill 1). Under the latter bill, small developers are now increasing Oʻahu's housing inventory by thousands of new units priced at much more affordable rates than the new “affordable” projects envisioned under even the most recent emergency proclamation.

Actually upholding Hawaiʻi's legal obligation to implement the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, particularly through adequate funding and in-kind support, will also directly help to meet local housing demand, or provide the native Hawaiian diaspora with opportunities to return to Hawaiʻi.

In the bigger picture, watershed protection, the implementation of the state water code and public trust doctrine, and investments in sewer capacity and wastewater reuse would also tackle the biggest impediments to expanding our housing inventory.

Of course, these are not the only possible solutions and their success in providing needed housing relief will depend, as always, on the details of their equitable implementation. However, they do illustrate the kinds of strategies that can and should be part of any housing discussion, rather than the red herrings and obstinate developer demands that we must constantly contend with.

For more ideas on what we should be talking about when we talk about housing:

Former Senator Gary Hooserʻs recent blog post, “Affordable Housing: Yes, in my backyard!” (no, this is not about YIMBYism), takes a look at the untapped potential of accessory dwelling units to meet local housing needs).

Dr. Jonathan Scheuer and Deja Ostrowski's Civil Beat editorial, “5 Tools to Disarm the Weaponization of Affordable Housing,” distinguishes true housing solutions from policies simply exploiting the suffering of those facing housing insecurity.

Dr. Scheuer's earlier and highly-read Civil Beat editorial, “How to Redefine the Housing Crisis in Hawaiʻi,” also dismantles the myths used to define our housing crisis, and puts forward possible strategies for true housing relief for Hawaiʻi's people.

Finally, Maui Tomorrow has long examined possible housing solutions for our islands, which can be reviewed at their website here.