No one plans on being homeless. But with rent and home prices rising far faster than wages, finding a place to live feels out of reach for many. Families are increasingly forced to rely on friends and relatives to keep a roof over their heads.
The destruction of Lahaina has only worsened the crisis, doubling our state’s homeless population, leaving even more parents and children without stable homes, and pushing many more to leave Hawaii altogether.
When hard-working locals — from teachers and nurses to waitresses — are struggling to stay housed, it means we have a serious problem. We need to build more housing in Hawaii, and specifically more affordable rental housing. The question is how.
The answer, in part, entails harnessing some of the tools we already have at our disposal. Legislators are considering House Bill 1410, which would fund new supportive and affordable housing by increasing the tax on sales of high-value homes to help address the state’s housing crisis. The bill improves our existing conveyance tax by lowering the tax for less expensive homes and increasing the rate for higher-value properties that sell for $1.3 million or more.
The rate increase would fall primarily on investors and wealthy out-of-towners who are buying second homes and can afford to pay the tax. Research shows that the bulk of properties sold across the state are in the $1 million to $2 million range, and the share of owner-occupied sales decreases dramatically above $1.5 million.
The state has already invested in thousands of affordable rental units through the Rental Housing Revolving Fund, which is supported by revenue from the conveyance tax. Restructuring the tax would increase revenue to put toward the future construction of thousands more affordable units. That could help make a real dent in our housing crisis, especially since data shows we are lagging behind in making a real impact for extremely-low income rentals.
We can’t afford to wait to take action any longer. We need to build an estimated 5,000 new units per year at minimum. We need to invest in construction of housing now to keep our economy running, or we run the risk that it will stall out. Raising revenue to invest in more housing is a commonsense way to make our economy more resilient.
Next time you’re stuck waiting in line at a grocery store or a coffee shop, ask yourself how much it might cost to buy a house or rent an apartment close to where you work. People need to be able to live within reasonable proximity to their job. Local businesses can’t fill open positions because there’s nowhere for families to call home.
Thirty-two other states have “real estate transfer taxes” like Hawaii’s conveyance tax. If legislators passed HB 1410, it would put our state at the forefront of efforts in six other states to leverage these taxes to make upside-down state and local tax systems — through which the wealthy end up paying less than the poor as a share of their income — more fair. And it won’t change the fact that wealthy people will still want to buy a house steps away from some of the best beaches in the world.
Hawaii is our home. Our home should be a place where we can all enjoy a good life — not an easy investment for the wealthy. By building more housing of all kinds, but especially for low-income residents, we can make sure everyone who is part of our community has a safe place to lay their heads at night and can thrive.
Arjuna Heim is Hawaiʻi Appleseed’s director of housing policy.
