FACE Summit Addresses Maui’s Affordable Housing Challenges

Cornelia Soberano attends Good Shepard Church in Wailuku, and is a founding member of the Maui Filipino Working Group that advocates for social justice. Like many of the more than 150 people attending the Faith Action for Community Equity Maui (FACE) of Maui Affordable Housing Summit, she hoped to leave better informed and able to share information with members of her community.

“I’m concerned, as are the people at Good Shepard, about people drowning in consumer debt. People do not have anywhere to go, and I’m hoping that as an offshoot of this summit, something can happen,” she said.

FACE President Stan Franco said the summit at Maui Community College on Saturday, March 7, was held “to try and make sense of some of the housing challenges that we the people of Maui are facing right now.”

Franco said this summit had four purposes:

“First, to educate ourselves about the housing crisis; second, to come up with a definition of affordability that is specific to Maui; third, to try and isolate a few areas where we could suggest practical, positive changes to the County Council and the mayor; and fourth, to offer our hopes for things to be included in a master plan for a 40-acre site adjacent to Maui Lani which was donated to the county for affordable housing by Alexander & Baldwin [A&B].”

 At the meeting, Maui County Housing and Human Concerns Director Laurie Tsuhako and Mayor Charmaine Tavares both spoke of their hopes to work with FACE to help address Maui’s need for affordable housing. According to Franco, Tsuhako planned the summit with FACE, and he thanked her for her patience throughout the process.

Following an opening general session, the summit quickly focused on business, breaking up into four workshops: Homeownership, Affordable Rentals, Foreclosure Prevention, and Land Development and Urban Sprawl.

The goal of each two-hour workshop was to create two affordable housing policy recommendations each for state and county government, and two specific recommendations for A&B’s 40-acre donated parcel.

The closing session began at 1 p.m. when each group shared its recommendations.

The Land Development and Urban Sprawl group recommended the implementation of a “Smart Code” that fostered smart growth and mixed-use zoning. It also called for greater transparency in individual development planning and more accountability of elected officials.

The group wanted to see the A&B property include multi-family and mixed-income neighborhoods with greenbelts and pocket parks, bus stops with benches and covers, biking and walking trails, and its own water treatment plant.

The Affordable Rental group proposed that there be equality between the tax credits for high tech and tax credits for affordable housing at the state level. Currently, high tech credits under Act 221 have a return period of five years. The affordable housing tax credit accrual period under Act 118 is 10 years for the same benefits. The group thought this was a disparity that created a disincentive for potential investors.

At the county level, the group recommended that affordable housing should receive water priority and incentives for developers who provide additional affordable rental housing. They wanted the 40-acre A&B development to be affordable to households earning 100 percent of Maui’s median income or lower, with a preference for 60 percent or below. They also advocated for larger three- and four-bedroom units.

The Foreclosure Prevention workshop called for foreclosure outreach, education and prevention efforts, and state, county and federal funding for nonprofits to meet these needs.

In addition, they called for a 90-day foreclosure moratorium, legal assistance for families facing foreclosure, lease-to-own home programs and a change in the federal bankruptcy law to allow mortgage payments to be reset when a bankruptcy is filed.

The Affordable Housing members were in favor of county fast-tracking of affordable housing and financial literacy education. They agreed that affordable development should not encourage sprawl and should work with Na Hale O Maui, the affordable land trust, to ensure affordability in perpetuity and with self-help housing to help limit housing costs.

FACE organizers are calling for a “Rally in the Valley,” on Saturday, April 18, from 9:30–10:30 a.m. next to Pomaika‘i Elementary School in Maui Lani, near the location of A&B’s proposed 40-acre affordable housing site.

March 19, 2009

Tom Blackburn-Rodriguez

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