Hawaii
Hawaii Mayors Discuss Housing Crisis At Native Hawaiian Convention
All four island mayors shared a stage Thursday at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement’s annual convention for a panel discussion about what it would take to develop enough housing to keep local families in Hawaii — a goal often discussed in a state beleaguered by an longstanding affordable living crisis.
Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami talked about how he has had to make peace with losing friends who disagreed with an affordable housing development he championed in their neighborhood. And he underscored the paradigm shift that occurs when communities are empowered to shape the agenda of the county planning department, not the other way around.
Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth also emphasized the importance of embracing change to move beyond the status quo. If the county permitting system is slow and inefficient, he said, then change the laws that are dragging the process out.
“There’s so many times we get stuck on what we don’t want,” Roth said. “Oftentimes on Hawaii island, we don’t want any development, we don’t want TMT, we don’t want this. We focus on things we don’t want instead of what we do want.”
The convention had originally planned for Oahu, but organizers decided to move it to Maui in a show of support for the Valley Isle.
One of the things Roth said his administration has focused on is trying to make sure residents have the ability to raise their children in Hawaii. This perspective shift has led the county to increase the number of planned affordable housing units in its pipeline from roughly 1,200 to 6,600, Roth said.
Most of the hourlong conversation, moderated by Hawaii Community Foundation CEO Micah Kane, zeroed in on the specific challenges of rebuilding Lahaina in a way so that local families can remain in the town that was almost completely devoured by wildfire on Aug. 8. The sewer, electric and water utilities were mostly destroyed by the fire and could take years to rebuild.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen announced that the county is exploring options to convert short-term vacation rentals for tourists into long-term housing options for displaced locals.
Last week he said county officials met with visitor industry leaders to discuss how to compel the owners of second homes and short-term rentals to donate their units for the purpose of housing Lahaina families who lost their homes in the disaster.
“What the county is seeking is voluntary compliance,” Bissen said.
A lingering barrier, however, is that the value of many rental properties is higher than what many people uprooted from Lahaina can afford, even with federal and state assistance.
“We want everybody from Lahaina to remain in Lahaina,” Bissen said. “We want everybody from Kula to remain in Kula. We want people to be where they are from. We don’t want people selling their land, we don’t want people selling their homes, we don’t want people giving in to opportunists who will try to capitalize on what’s happening to our community.”
Bissen said he supports the idea of a community land trust to help keep Lahaina properties in local hands.
At one point in the panel discussion, Bissen jumped to his feet to publicly thank the mayors of Honolulu, Hawaii and Kauai counties.
His counterparts, who were seated on stage in the Castle Theater at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, were some of the first people to call Bissen on the phone to offer help when Maui broke out in multiple fires on Aug. 8. Bissen said he never had to ask his counterparts to send back-up police, fire and emergency management personnel to Maui because they did so immediately.
But Bissen, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion, sat back down and asked the audience to give the mayors of Honolulu, the Big Island and Kauai counties a roaring applause in lieu of his remarks, which he was now too emotional to make.
Kawakami was first to jump up and embrace Bissen. Blangiardi and Roth quickly followed suit.
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii nonprofits that provide critical social safety nets are facing economic hardship of their own.
President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is expected to slash federal appropriations, government contracts and grant awards, and heavily impact social services across the state.
Melissa Pavlicek, Hawaii True Cost Coalition, explained, “The community-based organizations that are providing key government services are already struggling to provide those services. Some of their contract prices have not increased in over 10 years. The cost to provide those services is significantly greater. The transportation costs, rent, employees, food, everything has gone up. And to serve the community costs more. So we’re looking to our state policy leaders to help ensure those services are continued.”
To mitigate the potential fallout or disruption of services, nonprofit leaders are working to fill the gaps with the help of lawmakers, private donors, philanthropy, corporate foundations and residents themselves.
Suzanne Skjold, Aloha United Way COO, said, “Whether that’s helping your neighbor, maybe donating to a charity that is losing a program, even getting involved politically, locally, you know, voting matters. Being involved in our legislature matters.”
“The slack really has to be picked up by the state and county governments as well as the private sector,” warned U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, “and so these are gonna be tough times and I’m telling everybody, hey, let’s, not sugarcoat this. We have to be prepared for the unexpected.”
Another concern is legislation that some believe if passed could be used to target progressive nonprofits opposed by the Trump administration.
For now, community advocates are urged to keep calm.
Case said, “The first thing I would advise everybody is not to freak out. That we have been through changes in administration before. That these are core federal programs that within Congress, even a divided and polarized Congress, many, many people from both parties support these programs.”
“We want to make sure Hawaii doesn’t become the kind of place where we lead in a way that’s hateful to others,” Skjold said.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
The National Park Service is warning parents to keep their children close after a toddler ran toward the edge of a 400-foot-tall cliff at Hawaii National Park on Christmas.
The young boy was at the park with his family to view the eruption of the Kilauea volcano. They were in a closed area at Kilauea Overlook when he wandered away from his family before the “near miss.” His mother, screaming, managed to grab him just about a foot away from a fatal fall.
“Park rangers remind visitors to stay on trail, stay out of closed areas and to keep their children close, especially when watching Kīlauea from viewpoints along Crater Rim Trail. Those who ignore the warnings, walk past closure signs, lose track of loved ones, and sneak into closed areas to get a closer look do so at great risk,” the agency warned.
Rangers noted that dangers escalate during volcanic eruptions, as people flock to view the spectacle of lava flowing out of the Earth’s crust. The Park Service urged drivers to slow, and watch out for pedestrians, Hawaiian geese, and switch to low beams when other cars and pedestrians are present.
The eruption, which started on December 23, is now in its second pause, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. But, it could still restart at any time.
Furthermore, emissions of toxic gas remain high, including particulate matter called tephra. Billions of minuscule pieces of tephra, which include all fragments of rock ejected into the air by an erupting volcano, can be carried on winds for thousands of miles and can cause respiratory issues. Volcanoes also produce dangerous gases, like carbon dioxide and hydrogen chloride.
Tephra has blanketed the closed portion of Crater Rim Drive downwind of the lava.
“The hazards that coincide with an eruption are dangerous, and we have safety measures in place including closed areas, barriers, closure signs, and traffic management,” Park Superintendent Rhonda Loh said in a statement.
“Your safety is our utmost concern, but we rely on everyone to recreate responsibility. National parks showcase nature’s splendor but they are not playgrounds,” she said.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit by Maui County Council candidate Kelly King to overturn the general election results.
King lost her race last month to incumbent Tom Cook by 97 votes.
She argued the county rejected too many ballots because of missing or invalid signatures, and that voters weren’t offered enough help to fix the problems.
In Maui County, there were nearly 1,100 deficient ballots compared to the national average. King says Maui County’s rejection rate was nearly double the state average in 2022.
But the high court ruled Tuesday that the County Clerk’s Office followed state law and all administrative rules to cure the deficient ballots.
View the full decision here.
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Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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