‘ELE‘ELE— U.S. Sen Brian Schatz on Friday stopped by the Lima Ola Housing Development on Kauai’s westside, where he was updated on the decades-long project to build affordable housing on the island.
“We wanted to take a look at Lima Ola, the biggest affordable housing project that Kaua‘i has ever done,” said Schatz in an interview with The Garden Island.
The housing development aims to eventually create 550 new, affordable single- and multi-family housing units, to be completed in four phases.
Schatz, a Democrat, helped secure more than $16.2 million in funding for the development in 2022. His team announced in December 2022 that $7.7 million in earmark funding, or congressionally-directed spending, would go toward the development, as well as another $8.5 million secured by Schatz in March 2022.
“It’s been a long-time partnership between the state, the county, and the federal government. But we’re gonna have workforce housing. We’re gonna have permanent supportive housing. We’re gonna have housing for the elderly,” said Schatz, who has served in the U.S. Senate since December 2012.
The construction of the first 155 units, known as Phase 1, began in late 2019 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, according to county spokesperson Kim Tamaoka.
In an email on Friday, she stated that 32 units would be ready in January 2024, an additional 85 rental units would be completed in mid-2024, and the remaining 38 units would be finished in late 2024. According to Tamaoka, the total cost of Phase 1 is $93 million.
The completion of roughly one-quarter of the development project next year is expected to come about 14 years after the county first acquired the 75 acres of land for the project in February 2010.
Planning for the development began in 2011, and a master plan for the project was first completed in 2012, according to a “master plan update” document from April 2017, available publicly on the state’s website.
Schatz and other county officials did not say when the entire project would be fully finished.
“I will say that the folks with Shioi Construction have been able to finish projects within a year once the infrastructure is in and they have their permission. So they’re extraordinarily fast and I’m enthusiastic about seeing what else they can do,” Schatz said.
Developers of the project are expected to begin working on the infrastructure for Phase 2, which would create another 172 homes, within the next couple of months. The county received $12.72 million in federal funds for infrastructure for Phase 2 earlier this year.
“Phase 2 infrastructure will start soon with federal support, with future phases dependent on future state, county and federal funding,” said Michael Dahilig, Senior Policy Counsel for Schatz, in a message response to The Garden Island.
Aside from creating affordable housing, Schatz was glad to see the development creating union jobs for residents.
“(There were) a lot of union workers in the hot sun putting these things together,” said Schatz of what he saw during his tour of the site.
Schatz also referred to a “statewide housing shortage,” noting projects like Lima Ola aim to prevent future generations from having to leave the Hawaiian Islands for the mainland.
He referred to a separate county plan to build a housing development in Waimea, adjacent to the Waimea Canyon Middle School, in another effort to help with shortages.
“We’ve got to develop more enthusiasm and more focus for building housing,” he said.
Schatz attributed the cause of high housing costs to government rules and zoning laws making it difficult to build.
“I think the reason that housing costs so much is that the government makes it really hard to build housing,” said Schatz, adding state regulations make it “almost impossible” to build new housing.
“We have to realize that we have, the government itself, has created this crisis. And the government can alleviate at least a portion of it by making it easier to build things.”
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Emma Grunwald, reporter, can be reached 808-652-0638 or egrunwald@thegardenisland.com.
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this story, Michael Dahilig’s position was misstated. He is Senior Policy Counsel for Sen. Brian Schatz.
