We all know that Kaua‘i has a severe affordable-housing shortage.
The coronavirus is making it worse. People with means are fleeing the cities to come to a rural place like Kaua‘i with low infection rates. Off-island demand is keeping housing prices and rents beyond the means of most local families.
The current General Plan says that “a fair and effective housing ordinance” is key to providing affordable housing.
Ordinance 860, the county housing law, was passed in 2007. It codified a government practice long used on Kaua‘i called “inclusionary zoning.” Through the zoning process, inclusionary zoning seeks to ensure that affordable housing is included (possibly located elsewhere) in every residential and resort development built on Kaua‘i.
The idea behind inclusionary zoning is that development rights are a privilege granted by government to a developer when the proposed development can be shown to benefit the community. Because the affordable-housing problem is caused in part by land development and tourism, government has the power to require a developer to provide a certain number of affordable units as a condition of zoning in exchange for the privilege of developing the property.
Prior to Ordinance 860, the mayor and the council required the building of affordable housing through zoning conditions on a case-by-case basis. Of the eight developments mentioned in Curtis Bedwell’s recent column (The Garden Island Forum, Aug. 11), five were inclusionary-zoning projects. While they were required prior to Ordinance 860, they were REQUIRED just the same, and provided affordable housing at a time when nothing else was being built.
Bill 2774 exempts all landowner/developers in the town cores of Lihu‘e, Koloa, Kalaheo, as well as multifamily developments with R-10 or greater densities, eliminating the affordable-housing requirement for those developments. If these areas of Kaua‘i where we want growth are exempted, there is no assurance there will be affordable housing in such areas, and the effort to provide affordable homes will be set back.
Of all the affordable housing built on Kaua‘i between 1975 and 2019 (not including state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands housing), 43%, or 1,142 units, were produced by inclusionary zoning. This includes units in Kawaihau Estates in Kapa‘a; Pu‘u Nani, Kilauea Self Help Housing and Kilauea Estates in Kilauea; Komohana Subdivision, Hokulei Estates and Halelani Village in Puhi; Hanapepe Self-Help Housing and ‘Ele‘ele Nani I and II in ‘Ele‘ele; Courtyards at Waipouli; Komamalu in Lihu‘e; Pa‘anau Village and Koa‘e Makana in Koloa; and Kolopua in Princeville.
Imagine if these developments had been exempted from inclusionary zoning. Where would the 1,142 families be today —and what kind of housing problem would we have?
Supporters of Bill 2774 say that the exempted units will be smaller and denser and, therefore, cheaper, but they give no evidence that the units will be affordable. We are not just talking about families at 120% area median income (AMI). We must include families with incomes ranging from less than 50% to 100% AMI, the majority of Kaua‘i’s families.
The exempt units will not be covered by the proposed 50-year affordability requirement either. If the past is any indication, market prices will soon put these houses out of reach of the families who need them.
The proposed exemptions effectively “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” They are based on a flawed analysis that blames the shortage of affordable housing on Ordinance 860 without considering factors such as the crash of 2008 and the history of affordable housing on Kaua‘i that shows how critical inclusionary zoning has been in providing affordable housing for today.
A fairer solution to spur development is to lower the affordable-housing percentage from 30% to 20% and require the developer’s contribution to be in the form of land and offsite infrastructure to support the number of units owed.
This approach is a “win-win.” The county takes on the responsibility (and cost) of building the vertical structures, reducing the developer’s obligation. Because the developer has to secure land and infrastructure for the market units anyway, this approach makes it easier for the developer to contribute affordable housing (assuming the affordable housing is in the same area). A real-life example of this win-win approach is the 133 affordable-housing units of Koa‘e Makana in Po‘ipu.
Best of all, the housing will be permanently affordable. Even when the buildings must be replaced, the land will be owned by the county and can be used again for affordable housing, whether for rentals or for ownership through 99-year leaseholds.
Finding a way to make housing affordable for the long term is critical to solving the affordable-housing problem on Kaua‘i. If the affordability requirement is for 10, 20 or 50 years, decision-makers are simply kicking the housing problem down the road. They are saying that future generations will not need affordable housing.
A fair and effective housing law will ensure that developers, in exchange for the privilege of developing land, will contribute a share of permanently-affordable housing. The requirement can be made fair and reasonable by reducing the percentage requirement and requiring the default contribution to be in the form of land and offsite infrastructure. Developer zoning conditions have provided a significant amount of affordable housing on Kaua‘i over the last 40 years. Exempting development from the housing law, especially where growth is desired, would severely limit affordable housing on Kaua‘i.
(My previous commentary on long-term affordability can be found at thegardenisland.com/2018/11/11/opinion/housing-long-term-affordability-needed/)
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JoAnn A. Yukimura is the former mayor of Kaua‘i and served as a member of the Housing and Transportation Committee on the County Council for many years. She has supported, negotiated or helped to develop over 1,500 affordable-housing units on Kaua‘i over the last 40 years.
