Having passed first reading, Honolulu Council Bill 41 (2021), and maybe the administration-proposed CD1, will be heard at the Jan. 13 Zoning Committee hearing. It provides for enhanced enforcement against illegal vacation rentals, land use changes, hotel and time share rules, and more. It is too broad and brings too many disparate groups into conflict for easy passage. It should be rewritten into three separate bills each dealing with its own specific area of interest.

The interest of our group, Save O‘ahu’s Neighborhoods (SONHawai‘i), is returning 10,000-plus houses and apartments from illegal vacation rentals back to homes. The enforcement provisions of Bill 41 will help. Honolulu is about 25,000 homes short of need.

Oahu is a fixed housing market surrounded by ocean with limited land for housing. Every higher-end unit misused as a vacation rental has displaced someone at the other end of the housing scale. There’s no other way for it to work.

The Council recently passed Resolution 21-192, which proposes a City Charter amendment that doubles the dedicated fund for affordable housing from 0.5% to 1% of the $1.5 billion property tax collected, about a $7.5 million/year increase. At the Nov. 16 Housing Committee hearing, city Budget Director Andrew Kawano said in effect that the additional $7.5 million per year is not needed right now, that the affordable housing reserves approach $40 million and the capital improvement reserves approach $170 million. If the proposed charter amendment is passed, this $7.5 million per year decrease to the general fund will cause another shortfall for other understaffed and underfunded city agencies — unless taxes are raised.

If that $7.5 million is dedicated to building mid-rise apartments or townhouses, it could build about 40 housing units at rock-bottom price that would take years to build. This does not scratch the surface of Oahu’s housing problem.

Compare that scenario to simply spending about $1.5 million per year in the city Department of Planning and Permitting for effective enforcement to convert existing residential homes and apartments currently used as vacation rentals back into homes for local people, for whom they were zoned and built in the first place.

Based on enforcement experience, it’s reasonable to assume that $1.5 million/year enforcement could move more than half of the 10,000 plus illegal vacation rentals back into residential homes in, say, two years. That’s 5,000-plus existing houses and apartment units for $3 million spent on enforcement.

So why raise taxes, or starve other necessary city agencies, to cover the $7.5 million/year when we can spend $1.5 million/year in enforcement and recover $5 billion in existing housing for much quicker relief?

We need the Bill 41 enforcement provisions passed quickly and the $1.5 million/year for effective enforcement, regardless of where the funding comes from.

This isn’t low-hanging fruit. It’s fruit on the table ready to be eaten.

It’s just in the wrong bowl.

Larry Bartley is executive director of Save Oʻahu’s Neighborhoods (SONHawai‘i).