Green relaxes regulations to ease Hawaii’s housing shortage

(The Center Square) – Hawaii Gov. Josh Green created a new working group to help ease the housing crisis in Hawaii by removing regulations and expediting construction on new units.

The Build Beyond Barriers Working Group will oversee the efforts to increase housing. The newly-created state lead housing officer will helm the working group.

A 25-page emergency proclamation temporarily suspends some procurement and historic preservation regulations until the emergency declaration ends on Sept. 15.

Green cited several statistics in his emergency proclamation illustrating the housing situation. Housing prices in the Aloha State increased by 1,200% over the past 45 years, but income increased by 600%. A 2019 study said the state would need 10,000 housing units a year to address the shortfall, but only 4,000 are constructed annually on average.

“We have suffered the effects of the critical ̶ and growing ̶ housing crisis for far too long,” Green said. “We have a teacher shortage because of it. We have a shortage of healthcare workers because of it – and because of it, more native Hawaiians now live on the continent, than in our islands.”

The housing crisis contributes to the exodus of 20 people a day from the state, according to Green.

Chief Housing Officer Nani Medeiros worked with 200 stakeholders in developing the plan.

“We know that a plan of this statewide scope requires conversations with various sectors of the community,” Medeiros said. “We had maybe over 400 meetings with grassroots groups, housing builders, industry partners, and government process owners to be part of the discussion from the beginning, to create processes that prioritize housing for generations of our keiki and their keiki.”

The mayors of Hawaii’s cities and counties praised the plan.

“The housing crisis has caused our people a degree of hardship unseen in our contemporary history,” said Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen. “When we make more homes available for our kamaʻāina, we’re offering a sense of belonging, security, and dignity our people rightfully deserve. We’re building more than homes – we’re building communities.”

Housing was a top priority for lawmakers in the 2023 session. Green signed a series of bills last month that invests millions in housing programs.

“This emergency proclamation is one of the largest state-level housing actions anywhere in the country in years, if not decades,” said Sen. Stanley Chang, chair of the Senate Committee on Housing. “It will remove many significant barriers private developers face in building the housing Hawaiʻi’s people so desperately need.”