LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i County could build affordable housing units on its own, but the county can’t do it as well anymore due in part to an inability to match federal dollars for such projects. The best way to build affordable
LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i County could build affordable housing units on its own, but the county can’t do it as well anymore due in part to an inability to match federal dollars for such projects.
The best way to build affordable housing now is through the forging of partnerships among government, developers and housing groups, said Mayor Bryan Baptiste .
Without such business relationships, fewer affordable housing are likely to be built, exacerbating a situation where more low-to-moderate income folks could be forced to leave Kaua‘i, he said.
Baptiste made those points during a meeting on Friday with reporters at his office on the second floor of the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
Ken Rainforth, a housing expert with the Kaua‘i County Housing Agency, said there exists a need for 200 affordable housing units a year out of a total of about 500 units built each year.
The numbers are based on a “Housing Needs Model” from the 2003 Hawaii Housing Policy Study, said Rainforth, who attended the meeting.
Also in attendance was Bernard Carvalho, who heads the Offices of Community Assistance, which oversees the housing agency.
Baptiste said if Kaua‘i County were to be left on its own to build affordable housing, only 30 units could be built every two to three years.
“The county will never have enough money themselves to build (enough) affordable housing,” Baptiste said.
Government and developers and housing development organizations, including self-help housing groups, have to work together today to find the solutions, Baptiste said.
As the mayor sees it, offering developers or housing groups low-cost land or tax credits could encourage the construction of more affordably-priced homes.
The affordable housing crisis had its genesis about four years ago, Baptiste told reporters, adding “This thing caught us by surprise guys.”
Property sales in recent years have almost been uncontrollable, and property values have climbed steeply, Baptiste said.
He said the popularity of home purchases by affluent Mainland buyers on Kaua‘i and the Big Island have driven up prices in recent years, a phenomena he said he had no explanation for.
Single-family home median prices have reached $472,500 on Kaua‘i, nearly a 28 percent increase compared to last May. The condominium-median resale price on Kaua‘i was recently reported at $381,000, although the number of condominium resales has dropped in recent months.
The high housing prices has made it nearly impossible for middle-income and low-to-moderate income folks to find housing they can afford, Baptiste said.
While recognizing the problem is severe, Baptiste said his administration, including the Offices of Community Assistance, has moved forward with programs and strategies to address the problem.
Carvalho noted a Kaua‘i housing plan calls for the development of the island’s first emergency and transitional housing project and additional phases for the four-phase Kalepa Village in Hanama‘ulu and Pa‘anau Village in Koloa.
The plan also will address development requirements and look at expediting county permits, Carvalho said. The housing plan also will “examine state initiatives and create long-term strategies,” Baptiste said in a news release.
Community input has been and will continue to be sought to find solutions, Baptiste said.
Affordable housing committee formed
A recently-formed Housing Advisory Committee includes Joanna Carolan; Dee Crowell, a former director of the Kaua‘i County Planning Department; Carole Hazen; La France Kapaka-Arboleda; Peter Kea, an attorney, Roland Sagum, a planning consultant; and Mattie Yoshioka.
The group will advocate for residential housing, help increase public awareness about the services of the county housing agency and look for “new and better ways to serve the public,” Baptiste said in a news release.
Between 1975 and 2004, 1,694
affordable housing units were built on Kaua‘i, by the county or with developers and housing groups, the mayor said.
The first two phases of the county-owned Kalepa Village in Hanama‘ulu consists of 100 units, with the second phase to be completed by July. Eighty other units are planned in two forth-coming phases of the project, Carvalho said.
The second phase of Kalepa Village was undertaken by the Kauai Housing Development Corp., which figures to be involved with the construction of the 60 additional rental units at the county-owned Pa‘anau Village in Koloa.
A Habitat for Humanity project in ‘Ele‘ele is anticipated to yield another 125 additional units, while another 42 “self-help” housing units are planned to go up in Puhi, Carvalho said.
Lihue Land Company plans to develop 400 affordable housing units in an area known as the Hanama‘ulu Triangle, Baptiste said.
Lihue Land Company acquired the land from Amfac and took on the affordable housing requirement that went with the land. The requirement was tied to land uses identified in a master plan Amfac had proposed for the land when the company owned the property, Baptiste said. Related to the proposed Lihue Land Company project in Hanama‘ulu, the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has presented two proposals to Baptiste’s administration, Rainforth said.
One proposal is let DHHL buy 50 of the affordable homes that Grove Farm/Lihue Land Company may build at the Hanama‘ulu Triangle, and have the units subsidized so they can be made available to qualifying DHHL beneficiaries, Rainforth said.
The other proposal would involve Grove Farm/Lihue Land Company paying the cash equivalent of 50 affordable units and using the money to build 180 units in Anahola on DHHL land.
The Kaua‘i County Attorney’s Office is reviewing both proposals, which must have support of the Kaua‘i County Council before either proposal can get off the ground.
Baptiste also said Princeville Corp. may be building employee housing on the North Shore one day.
As a condition for the construction of a new phase of the Princeville Shopping Center on the North Shore, Princeville Corp. is being held to a requirement to build 100 units for employees, Baptiste said.
Building all of them may not be easy though, he said. While 45 units are planned to be constructed on one lot, building the remaining units on an adjacent lot may be difficult because they would be built in a gully, an expensive proposition, Baptiste said.
Baptiste said the challenge of building affordable rental units or affordably-priced homes is immense, but he said his administration is committed to “addressing our housing shortage and finding a balance between development and housing need.”
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
