In my opinion, Gov. Josh Green’s Housing Emergency Proclamation (EP) includes nothing to keep new homes — whether for rent or sale — permanently affordable for local residents only.
So I told the governor’s chief housing officer, Nani Medeiros, at the Downtown Honolulu Neighborhood Board meeting this month that the EP sounds as if it was written by real estate and construction industry lobbyists to serve their own self-interests, rather than the public good.
Further, local affordable housing expert Kenna StormoGipson says we need to allocate at least $600 million annually — not just once, and not only for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) — to even have a chance to permanently reduce the gap between supply and demand for permanent affordable housing for local residents only.
And note $600 million per year is currently only about 1% of the state government’s annual budget.
StormoGipson also believes at least half of all new housing needs to be built NOT for-profit, and must be on free or cheap government-owned land — such as proposed for state Sen. Stanley Chang’s proposed 99-year leasehold pilot project.
Local housing experts also say we can legally restrict new housing to local residents only — without violating the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution — if we use state and/or county tax money (or discretionary federal money controlled by state and/or county governments) to actually build new housing, instead of our traditional practice of using local taxpayer money to build infrastructure for housing. That’s a de facto taxpayer-funded handout to private for-profit housing developers, which subsidizes private profits at public expense.
There’s also concern that Chang’s 99-year leasehold housing proposal would not remain permanently affordable for future local buyers or renters because it currently lacks any price or residency controls.
For example, if a specified amount of new housing is built for local buyers or renters at or below 60% of area median income (AMI), those units should be permanently restricted to future purchase or rent only by future local residents whose incomes also are at or below 60% of AMI, adjusted for inflation.
Without permanent price and residency controls, the 99-year leasehold proposal — and, by extension, the governor’s EP proposal — will not permanently keep local affordable housing truly local and truly affordable in perpetuity.
Also missing from the governor’s EP are other worthy ideas, including:
>> Limited equity cooperative housing, which allows residents to purchase a share of ownership in a development (rather than an individual unit) if they commit to resell their share at a price determined by formula — which maintains affordability at purchase and long term.
>> 3D-printed housing construction, which is faster, cheaper and more sustainable than traditional construction techniques. In less than 24 hours, 3D printers can build the foundation and walls for a small home at a fraction of the cost of typical construction. 3D-printed homes could rapidly reduce homelessness and make home ownership accessible to all.
On a more positive note, Medeiros did say she plans to meet with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to discuss what is necessary to permanently restrict new affordable housing to local residents only, and how to keep it permanently affordable, in ways similar — but obviously not identical — to DHHL homestead lots.
So I hope, for the public good, that Green can explain how he proposes to address the deficiencies described above in his housing emergency proclamation, and before the EP is extended beyond its first 60 days.
Thomas Brandt is a foresight and policy analyst, and planning and economic development specialist.
