Democrats in the Legislature are going seriously astray on their promise to help working families stay in Hawaii by stimulating construction of more affordable housing.

The main vehicle is Senate Bill 3104, which would invest $275 million in infrastructure on state lands near the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus and on the neighbor islands that would be made available for developers to build housing on 99-year leases.

The problem is the Senate draft passed last week and sent to the House wouldn’t guarantee the homes are priced for those who can’t afford market prices; it only expresses a “preference for projects that deliver the greatest amount of lower-priced units.”

Look how that “preference” worked out in Kakaako, where the dream of workforce housing turned into mostly luxury condos owned by outside speculators with only a smattering of “affordable” units, some of which are embroiled in legal disputes.

The final Senate bill engineered by Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz deleted a provision from an earlier draft passed by the Housing and Water and Land committees that would have required all units to be affordable to those making 80% of the area median income, meaning prices of about $347,400 to $495,900 for those making $67,520 and up.

This was a steep cut from the original bill backed by Senate leadership that would have allowed half the units to be priced at a rate affordable for those making 140% of the AMI, which translates to an $867,900 price for incomes of $168,700 or more. Developers could sell the other half at market prices.

Sen. Stanley Chang, the Housing Committee chairman who pushed for the lower prices, said that with the state assuming land and infrastructure costs, developers should be able to build housing that is 100% affordable.

The final Senate bill averted the pricing issue by inserting the vague “preference” language and leaving specific pricing criteria to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., which would be free to follow the half 140% AMI and half market-price formula favored by Senate leaders and developers.

This would be a waste of precious state land and infrastructure resources that wouldn’t likely stem the exodus of Hawaii residents to the mainland, where they can buy nice homes for $200,000 to $300,000 and find better job opportunities to pay for them.

Those who can afford $867,900 homes can find them on the existing Hawaii market fee simple. Who in their right mind is going to pay this much for a home that’s leasehold and has limited resale rights? State-subsidized housing at this price or higher meets no need.

If legislators can’t nail down truly affordable prices in the House and conference committee, this bill should be shelved as a false promise and misuse of public land.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.