LIHUE — Two residents addressed the Kauai County Council during a public hearing on Wednesday, and dozens sent emails in support of a bill aimed at reforming Kauai’s affordable housing policies.
Joyce Miranda, of Poipu, said she doesn’t usually attend the council meetings but felt compelled to come out for this one.
“Please, for all the people on Kauai, let’s address this housing,” she told the council. “It’s very important.”
Anne Walton spoke next, reading from a letter she had prepared.
“There isn’t a moment to spare,” she said. “And as your 2016-2018 term comes to an end, now is the time for you to act on this most pressing issue of your time on the council.”
Bill 2725, introduced by Council Chair Mel Rapozo and Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, proposes an amendment to a county zoning ordinance that allows homes designated for low-income families to be sold at regular market prices after a certain number of years.
The bill’s opponents are concerned that stricter regulations will deter investors, ultimately stifling real estate development. But advocates say that legislative action is necessary to prevent the supply of affordable housing units on the island from dwindling, a result they fear will hurt economically disadvantaged families.
“Whenever any affordable unit is re-sold into the market, our efforts to achieve an expanding inventory of affordable housing units are set back because a qualified family is no longer able to afford that home,” Yukimura wrote in a guest opinion article published in the Sunday issue of The Garden Island.
According to Yukimura, the county will have to produce about 7,200 additional affordable homes over the next 20 years in order to effectively fulfill its housing needs, a task Yukimura described as “herculean,” given the fact that only 2,700 have been developed over the last four decades.
“I think the problem would be, would the developer still develop it if it was required to be permanent,” Councilman Arryl Kaneshiro asked during discussion of the bill at a council meeting last month.
“I think right now looking at our housing situation, we have inclusionary zoning and we have no one building housing. So, to make the affordable housing now permanently affordable is not going to get us anymore housing units than we have now because no one is building,” he said.
Councilman and Mayor-elect Derek Kawakami also expressed concerns that the bill might have have counterintuitive effects.
“When you require someone to build below market value instead of granting them incentives such as density bonuses, we are not getting the affordable housing that we need, and stringent laws are causing developers to walk away,” he said at the last council meeting.
Public support for the bill has been overwhelmingly positive, Yukimura said Wednesday after the council adjourned. Even though only two members of the community were able to make it to the hearing, 40 people submitted written testimony to the council, unanimously in favor of the bill.
“Basic quality of life comes at a higher price here, even if these children and their generations of family have lived here all their lives,” an elementary schoolteacher said in an email to the council. “The children on this island suffer most from the residential families that are struggling to make enough money afford to live.”
An email from a high school seniors said, “I am writing in favor Bill 2725 which would establish of policy of long term affordability for affordable housing that is built with taxpayer monies or required as a condition of zoning. I will graduate this year 2018-2019 from high school. I want to afford to live on my OWN homeland.”
“The homeless situation has become shameful, yet I find myself sliding closer to being homeless myself,” another resident wrote. “We are counting on you to do the right thing for Kauai.”
•••
Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
We need this bill to ensure our local families are not put out on the street….please do the right thing..
MAHALO
Wow, Caleb! I don’t know where to begin? You want Government to get into the home building business to a greater extent? Here’s a novel idea? Why don’t we let the free market build the houses because government allows them to lower their development costs? The “Government” has thousands of acres on Kauai. Why not designate the acreage that does not conflict with the beauty of our Island be given to developers FOR FREE! The developer would agree to build the house and sell it at a price minus land cost and carrying costs for that land. That way, the house could be sold for $200,000 (value of the land) less to those who qualify as low income families. A $500,000 home would then sell for $300,000. Let the free market developers do it! Government has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it couldn’t run a Lemonade Stand successfully!! Let alone micromanaging our housing market!!
Aloha Kakou,
What happened to ADU’s and extending existing homes into multiple family units.
Didn’t Derek bring up the need for 3 and 4 story homes, allowing more families to live together without taking away from ground space where fruit trees or food gardens could provide food on the table?
These approaches do not require DEVELOPERS, just families pooling their incomes in time of need and and when in need.
Mahalo,
Charles
We need to help develope Hawaiian Homes. The land is there but the resources are not. Possibly a contract that allows the county to fund low income and affordable rentals to those with Hawaiian ancestry. The fact is this is their ancestral homelands! Shameful to see so many homeless Hawaiians.
Non-native Hawaiian residents should not be entitled to these same benefits. The County could assist low income residents (with a minimum 10 year residency) leave the island for area with more affordable housing. Las Vegas would be great. Plenty residents can’t afford to stay or leave.
If the council wants to foster permanently affordable housing, it needs to develop low income rental housing, so families can have a place to live while they save up, and hopefully move up on the income scale, for purchasing a property for sale. Realistically, not everyone anywhere can afford to purchase a home in their hometown. If you have a low level job and will stay in that low wage job forever, then you can’t expect to afford to buy a home….especially not here. Stay in school kids, learn useful skills, and work to improve your economic situation so you can prosper.
All those years on the council and now, when they are about to be removed, they are trying to rush this bill through? I say put it on the side until the new council takes over and address it at that time.
Can I get in on this taxpayer scam?? I too want a taxpayer subsidized home that I can sell down the line and make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What a complete “Pandering” job by these elected officials.
Good God, who would not be in favor of this boondoggle??? It’s like winning the lottery. “I got my taxpayer funded house and I’m going to dump it years from now and make a killing”!!!
Never do the hard thing, let’s do the easy thing and sponsor a Bill to squander taxpayer money on people that have not business owning a home. If you cannot own, then you rent. Save your money, then buy the house. Stop the madness!