“We’re going to close up our hotel and take our business somewhere else where the taxes are lower!” said no hotel on Kaua‘i ever.
Ditto for luxury vacation rentals, and so many other property owners who don’t live here, don’t rent to local residents, and can afford to pay more.
So why is our government operating from a mindset of scarcity?
According to a recent TGI story, the County Housing Agency is asking the council for budget support for more staff to help manage the complaints and inquiries, and to prepare a comprehensive plan. Council Chair Mel Rapozo and council Member Bill De Costa, meanwhile, are pushing back against that request, and instead promoting the notion of “safe zones,” or homeless encampments run and regulated by the county.
Instead of arguing over whose idea is better, why not do both?
And then do more.
The lack of basic shelter for our residents, friends and neighbors should be declared the disaster it is, and we must use every tool available, and then go out and get more, and use them, too.
Hundreds of people are living on the streets, in the bushes, on the beach and, yes, under bridges. We have hundreds more sleeping on couches, in carports and in cars.
Yes, we need more staffing for our housing agency. And, yes, we need to support safe and sanitary temporary encampments in suitable locations because there’s literally nowhere else for people to go.
I have a friend who works full time, but because of the extreme shortage of rentals, lives in his van. Routinely, he’s awakened in the night by landowners or police and told to move along. He drives to the next side of the road sleeping spot, only to be told again a few hours later to move along. He’s not doing drugs, playing loud music or partying with friends. He’s just looking for a place to sleep.
We need to do it all, folks. We need to develop permanently affordable housing for local residents. We need to support more temporary shelters. We need a place for those sleeping in cars to park for the night. We need mental health services, addiction treatment, basic health and dental care. And our housing agency needs more staff to help manage and make all this happen.
Don’t tell me we can’t. Don’t whine about how it’s the state or federal government’s job, or the problem is too big, there’s not enough money, yada, yada, yada.
And please don’t be that ignorant fool at the table bragging about how he worked three jobs, and how he sacrificed, how he never took handouts, and how he pulled himself up by the bootstraps. If you don’t believe we have a basic human duty to help those less fortunate, just shut the front door and take the drivel to your beer buddies outside.
Eugene Tian, chief economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, reported over 40 percent of homes sold on Kaua‘i are purchased by buyers from outside the state.
We have a severe shortage of affordable housing caused by off-island investors buying up the inventory. This is the problem. The solution is building more permanently affordable housing for local residents and taxing off-island investors to pay for it. Yes, other factors must also be addressed, but the complete absence of affordable basic shelter is the fundamental problem.
The time for looking away is over. We need to own our responsibility, increase taxes on those who can afford it and don’t live here, then leverage those funds to support the shelters, build the homes and provide the services.
Trust me. Those hotels will not pack up their bags and move because taxes are too high.
•••
Gary Hooser is the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council, and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action and is executive director of the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative.
Agreed! As someone who looked for an apt for 2 years!
So how many of these houseless people are you putting up at your home, Gary? Oh ya, that’s for others to do while all you do is to preach endlessly.
“We have a severe shortage of affordable housing caused by off-island investors buying up the inventory. This is the problem.”
More nonsense from Hooser. The real problem is the government-state & local. They have created a plethora of land-use rules, regulations, restrictive zoning, permitting hurdles and just plain old obstructionist attitudes. It’s so much easier for them and UIs like Hooser to blame anyone but themselves.
Economists who have studied Hawaii’s affordable housing problem have clearly identified the reason, which are identified above. They have concluded that Hawaii is one of, if not the, worst states when it comes to government obstacles to building more housing.
As has been said before, until the political hacks will dare to admit that they have been the problem we will hear the whining of the likes of Hooser for decades to come. In the meantime, it is the working people who desperately need affordable housing that are punished by the this stubborn resistance to admitting to policy mistakes.
RSW
Gary has endless solutions to everyone’s problems on Kauai and possibly the entire planet it seems. Gary served for a long time in Government, where may I add Democrats have had complete control of Hawaii since its Statehood in 1959. 60 plus years later the results are clear, nothing they talk about actually happens. Gary speaks as if he has never met a income/expense worksheet and has no basis in reality in actually coming up with tangible plans to accomplish the visions he speaks of. You see the Democratic party lives in the “hopes and dreams” camp where all solutions always mean taking money from someone else. What we need now for our futures is a movement of ways and means, grounded in reality that be solved without some elite select group of bureaucrats deciding who should pick up the tab by saddling them with excessive taxes or regulation. So Gary your title of this article is spot on if you look in a mirror. It seems you are now the one espousing hopeless drivel meant to give you attention and now you can take that drivel and talk with your beer buddies; assuming you even have any.
“Ditto for luxury vacation rental” ???
About half of TVRs have been shut down by regulations, taxes and fees.
Who is fact-checking this nonsense?
Hooser himself didn’t pay his taxes for years, yet now he wants tax hikes.
‘Progressivism’ is about what other people do, not about what the ‘Progressives’ do.
Mahalo once again, Gary, for your clear headed and sensible comments and ideas. I too have several friends who basically have their acts together and are working full time, yet they are unable to find ANY place to live, much less one that is remotely affordable. The greed and selfishness of some folks on this island stands in such stark contrast to the friendly and generous natures of the vast majority of those who live here.
It’s always funny to see a liberal whining about the problems their policies created. But the bad part is that they always want YOU to PAY $$$$$$$$ for their bad policies. Just say NO!
Progressive taxation is a benchmark for a functioning economy based on capitalistic principles. Adam Smith, very much the philosophical originator of Capitalism, was all-in for it. That seems to have been lost on post-modern capitalists and many politicians, too.
It won’t alone solve the problems of housing and mental health care for the most vulnerable among us, but will certainly provide some help.
If this guy is Gary’s friend why doesn’t he let him park in his driveway? Why is Gary so callous.
Wrong…Smith was an advocate of PROPORTIONAL taxation not progressive. Proportional tax is in essence a flat tax based on revenue. Moreover, progressive taxation is the opposite…it is a disproportionate tax scheme.
RSW