Affordable Housing + Homelessness + Land Use

Housing continues to be one of the most critical issues for families on Oahu. A common refrain at almost every talk story is the fear that our children will have to choose between living their life in Hawaii, or owning a home elsewhere. Many people felt that families losing their homes through the foreclosure crisis is making this problem worse. On Oahu, we are keenly aware that decent affordable rentals are increasingly scarce. FACE leaders fear a Hawaii that is increasingly a playground only for the wealthy. We feel that affordable housing is key as an issue in wrestling that fear down. It has became more apparent that unrestrained development damages quality of life, especially through the work on the Windward and North Shore sides of the island. Leaders were clear that they want to pursue affordable housing without adding to suburban sprawl.

FACE sees Hawaii’s housing crisis as requiring a response from people of faith.  The crisis has been driven by an increasing population, skyrocketing land values, and a dramatic decrease in the number of rental properties.  All of these factors combine to force people out of the housing market and into overcrowded living situations and homelessness.

FACE has been working to alleviate Hawaii’s affordable housing crisis by increasing the State’s Rental Housing Trust Fund, supporting property tax breaks for fixed income homeowners, and fighting to save threatened rental housing like the Chinatown Gateway and Kukui Gardens.  Continue reading below to see our overview of this crisis facing our community and our proposed solutions. 

Four Elements of the Housing Crisis: We identify four distinct concerns about the crisis, each hurting our people in different ways.

A. Homelessness: There are two kinds of homeless.

1. Working Poor: Homeless who have been forced into the situation through economics, and who are working, and otherwise stable – these people just need rental housing targeted to lower income levels such as the $ represented by the charter amendment.

2. Chronic homeless: People who are homeless off and on through mental illness, drug addiction etc.  These people will only ever be housed by building supportive service housing, which is effective.

B. Rental Housing: This is the biggest gap in policy, and must be targeted to the lower income people.  In addition we should avoid the mistakes of the past, and make sure that we build mixed income housing, since putting a lot of low-income people in one place is building a ghetto.

1. Preservation: We need to keep what we have, not just the city owned buildings but also the other subsidized properties.  Preservation is cheaper than new construction, and easier to do.

2. Build more: We should create and uphold policies which actively encourage new construction of affordable properties.

a) Cost policies: There are programs like the new charter money, the underutilized city bond $, tax increment financing in special districts, and the federal section 108 loans (currently underutilized), as well as the old standards of CDBG, and HOME.

b) Non-cost policies: There are zoning reforms – like enforcement of the unilateral agreements, or even more strict exclusionary zoning, there are specifically designated areas like Kakaako.

c) Redevelop public housing: The city can support the development of new affordable properties on existing sites.

C. Property Taxes: Hawaii is like many resort areas and faces runaway land value, and this gets worse when the housing market is up.  Yet many local homeowners are on fixed incomes, and bought their homes for far less than they are now assessed for.  Other cities have created property tax breaks for residents at certain income levels.  Others have frozen property taxes for certain incomes, and/or age groups.  We need to do this better.  Honolulu should establish a ceiling for property taxes at the current level for lower income families and then capture the real value if the property sells.  A measure like this would also relieve the burden on families struggling to stay out of foreclosure.

D. Anti-sprawl: Use the rail to concentrate development and investment in the urban core.  We are increasingly victims of sprawl, and the biggest thing we can do to combat it is to build the rail, and then ensure that transit oriented development accompanies it.

Please click on the following link for the Housing Documents:
Housing Documents