The Debrief: People are leaving Hawaii in droves. Can these solutions help more stay?

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii has now entered seven straight years of population decline, and as housing and other living expenses continue to rise, more people may have to make the tough decision to leave.

But, the state is working on solutions, which was especially seen with Gov. Josh Green issuing an emergency proclamation on housing Monday aimed at streamlining regulatory processes for the development of 50,000 housing units.

To discuss more on this issue, state Sen. Stanley Chang and state Rep. Troy Hashimoto sat down with HNN on “The Debrief” for the second part of their conversation on Hawaii’s housing crisis.

WATCH PART 2 OF THE FULL SEGMENT HERE:

Aside from just housing our current population, Chang said an even bigger problem is not being able to house the next-generation of Hawaii residents.

“The fundamental problem here in Hawaii is that every year we have about 13,000 high school seniors graduating. They’re adults, they’re ready to start their new lives. Unfortunately, every year we build about 2,000 units of housing,” Chang said.

“So, what we’re saying to our graduating seniors is, ‘It’s great that you may have been born and raised and educated here, but now that you’re an adult, you have to leave and you can never come back because this is not your home and we’ll never be your home again,’” he said.

Chang explained that according to Hawaii’s current rate of building homes and units, “we don’t even build enough for even 20%” of the state’s graduating seniors.

“We are not even coming close to housing the natural rate of population increase, which is why, even if we were to build Trump’s wall around Hawaii and kick out every single wealthy overseas investor, every single Airbnb, every single, you know, homeless person on a one-way ticket, and all of these boogeymen that we have in Hawaii, we would not be building nearly enough housing just to house local people and local generations,” he said.

Hashimoto added that while legislators can be a voice for Hawaii residents, they also need the backing from community members.

“All of us are going to have to step up and say we can’t allow that to continue to happen,” Hashimoto said.

“When we have developments happening, I know people in the community will say, ‘No, we don’t want that in our community.’ But I think the next generation needs to say, ‘Hey, what about us?’ Because I think there has to be some type of. ‘Yes, in my backyard.’”

“We need to change that thinking because if we don’t change that thinking, the best and brightest are going to leave. So, I think the next generation is going to have to make their voice heard,” Hashimoto explained.

LISTEN HERE:

To further hammer in the need for more housing, Chang said aside from Native Hawaiians leaving the islands, over half of all Hawaii-born bachelor’s degree holders now live outside of state.

“So, that’s why I’ve been so focused on increasing housing supply, even though I know there’s a lot of questions out there about how we can restrict demand,” Chang said.

“It will take time. None of this will happen overnight. But, I do hope that in 5, 10 years — at some point, some number of years in the future, that we will have a pipeline of 10,000 or more units a year so that we’ll never be forcing people to make that horrible decision ever again.”

Chang said one of the measures he hopes will kickstart an increase in affordable housing is a 99-year leasehold program to develop low-cost homes on state- and county-owned land.

“The reason why 99 years is significant is because a lot of the existing state leasehold terms are only 65 years. And, it’s easy to see how a young person, maybe straight out of college, maybe in their early 20s, would be able to out live the 65-year lease,” Chang explained.

“A 99-year lease however, will take everyone to the end of their natural lives, so they would have the security of knowing they would never have to move before they die. On the other hand, they would be free to sell, be free to move if they wanted to, but they wouldn’t have to, and I think that’s the security that homeownership brings as opposed to renting.”

Hashimoto said a House measure was also signed into law that creates a pilot program for residents to get a low-interest loan to bring down the cost of buying home.

“We focused specifically on those who are in high need areas, so teachers, farm workers, nurses, because we wanted to make sure we keep those essential to our community here in Hawaii,” Hashimoto explained.

WATCH PART 1 OF THE FULL SEGMENT HERE:

Furthermore, with investing more in public housing, both Hashimoto and Chang said that the state must reform agencies in order to get these projects off the ground.

“We need to have people within those state agencies that are able to do it in a timely manner,” Hashimoto said.

“Timing matters. We want to see somebody live in a unit, and so it’s making sure that we can reform some of these agencies to make sure that they move faster, more efficiently in making sure that they get these projects done. I think a lot of it will also be focused in on the nuts and bolts of why things are taking a long time.”

Hashimoto said with the governor’s emergency proclamation, Green is “going to suspend a lot of laws. He’s going to do things outside the normal course of government.”

“But, I think if we want to see long term success, we have to do it permanently and the legislature will have to enact that. So, that’s going to be a very big project for us, this coming legislative session… I think we as a community need to decide where developments are going to happen, and we actually have to develop in those areas because our future depends on it.”

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