LIHUE — Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. has announced a crisis in the availability of workforce housing on the island. Carvalho issued a proclamation that provides the County of Kauai authority to administer “Fast Track Permitting for Workforce Housing Projects” for
LIHUE — Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. has announced a crisis in the availability of workforce housing on the island.
Carvalho issued a proclamation that provides the County of Kauai authority to administer “Fast Track Permitting for Workforce Housing Projects” for five years.
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.
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.
