LIHUE — Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. announced a crisis in the availability of workforce housing on the island Thursday morning. Carvalho issued a proclamation that provides the County of Kauai authority to administer “Fast Track Permitting for Workforce Housing Projects”
LIHUE — Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. announced a crisis in the availability of workforce housing on the island Thursday morning.
Carvalho issued a proclamation that provides the County of Kauai authority to administer “Fast Track Permitting for Workforce Housing Projects” for five years starting Thursday.
The median cost of a home in Hawaii has escalated more than two and a half times faster than Hawaii’s median income, the proclamation states. This makes Hawaii the highest median housing cost among all other states in the nation.
Many of Kauai’s residents continue to struggle to afford basic housing needs, or to find suitable housing because of the large gap between household incomes and housing cost affordability.
A 2011 Hawaii Housing Planning Study stated about 1,300 new housing units are needed on the island by 2016. Of these, 925 units, or 70 percent of the projected housing inventory, are needed to supply low and very-low income families.
The proclamation makes qualified workforce housing projects a priority in the county permitting process.
The policy states the Kauai County Council adopt a resolution acknowledging the necessity to expedite permit processing for workforce administration to institute a priority permitting policy for housing developments where 51 percent of the total housing units are for workforce housing.
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
