Affordable Housing

Hawaii’s housing crisis has reached a state of emergency.

It’s an issue that impacts us all in some way, touching almost every other major challenge we face as a state.

It affects our ability to deal with urgent issues like homelessness, the cost of living, education, access to healthcare, workforce shortages, Native Hawaiian concerns, economic inequality, and more.

Young people in Hawaii can’t afford to live on their own, with thousands choosing to move to the mainland for good.

Essential workers either give up their struggle to find affordable housing and leave our state, or turn down opportunities to work here in the first place.

Hawaii suffers a chronic shortage of 1,200 teachers each year as we struggle to retain qualified and experienced educators, mainly due to our high cost of living and unaffordable housing.

In 1920, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands was created to deliver land to Native Hawaiians for homesteading. More than a century later, DHHL has more than 28,000 Native Hawaiians on its rolls while holding over 200,000 acres of unused land.

Today, Native Hawaiians are twice as likely to become homeless in Hawaii, a disparity that is both unjust and cruelly ironic.

Tens of thousands of illegal vacation rentals and empty investor units flood our state, reducing the supply of affordable housing and inflating prices. Luxury developments consume land and infrastructure resources, and military housing allowances further impact supply.

We must take action now, and commit to a new era of building affordable homes for Hawaii’s working families.

After consulting with experts and stakeholders from across the state, I have put together a 10-point emergency plan to address our housing crisis which, if I am elected governor, will start on day one of my administration:

Emergency Housing Plan for Hawaii

1. Immediately issue an executive order to all state and county housing agencies to speed up construction of affordable housing by eliminating red tape, streamlining processes and approvals, and coordinating efforts to address the crisis.
2. Make housing for Hawaii residents our top priority by aggressively enforcing existing laws to shut down the 25,000 illegal vacation rentals across the state, taxing the 35,000 vacant investor units, and limiting permits and increasing taxes on new luxury developments by out of state investors.
3. Create a “Path to Home Ownership” for first-time home buyers and essential workers with a new state-subsidized loan program, including financial education and assistance to help navigate the home buying process.
4. Create an Office of Emergency Housing to serve as a “one stop shop” to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and provide faster services and approvals.
5. Use vacant state lands to build affordable homes and rentals with federal, state, and private partnerships.
6. Continue to increase the rental housing revolving fund, increase the low income housing tax credit, and create new deductions and incentives for long term rentals to low and middle income families.
7. Direct the Department of Hawaiian Homelands to deliver land immediately to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries for homesteading, and to work with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to build housing for Native Hawaiians.
8. Reduce homelessness by building kauhale housing villages and funding new programs, services, and incentives such as vouchers to house the homeless.
9. Work with the counties to lower the costs of building affordable housing by addressing water, sewer, park, and other fees as well as zoning and exaction requirements, all while maintaining environmental protections.
10. Work with Hawaii’s Congressional delegation to increase federal housing voucher funding, homeless funding, infrastructure funding, and a bond cap increase to build housing.

We must also reach out to our construction industry, labor unions, the U.S. military, and every other major employer and stakeholder in Hawaii to bring to bear their expertise, manpower, and capital to aid in this effort.

We will partner with developers across the state to build tens of thousands of new units of affordable housing, which will in turn create new jobs, build our communities, and grow our economy.

Our housing crisis will likely continue to be the most challenging issue we face in the coming years.

It will be crucially important that our next governor comes into office with the trust, credibility, and the strongest possible plan to take on this challenge.

Over the last ten years in Hawaii, we have not done enough to keep the cost of housing affordable by meeting the demand for low-cost units designed for working families.

That’s why we will partner with builders and developers across the state to build thousands of new units of affordable housing, which will in turn create new jobs, build our communities, and grow our economy.

Cost of Living

Costs are too high in Hawaii for many working families to afford, and young people should not be forced to leave our islands because they can’t find housing or economic opportunity here.

Working people should earn a living wage, and no one in our state who works full time should live in poverty.

No parent should have to choose between earning a living and caring for a sick child, or between buying food or affording medicine.

Addressing the high cost of living in Hawaii means not only raising wages, but making improvements in affordable housing, education, healthcare, energy, job creation, and overall economic growth.

We will make quality healthcare accessible to everyone, provide community college and job training so people can develop valuable skills, and create new jobs in healthcare, IT, green energy, and sustainable tourism which will continue to increase demand for high-wage skilled workers.

Homelessness

In Hawaii we should never turn our backs on anyone or leave anyone behind.

That means those struggling with addiction or mental illness should have access to treatment and recovery.

It also means that when people are in real need, whether from unemployment, eviction, or homelessness, they should have access to support to help get them back on their feet.

No one should go chronically hungry or homeless in our islands.

Building more kauhale communities for the homeless like those we have built over the last two years will continue to reduce harm, lower the burden on our healthcare system, and save taxpayer money.

Creating more facilities and programs like the H4 will expand access to care for trauma, addiction, and mental illness for the homeless.

We will also work to implement clear and effective protocols that police, social workers, and healthcare professionals can follow every time someone lands on the street, allowing us to intervene more quickly with help and solutions when someone becomes homeless.

Climate Change and Environment

With the right leadership, Hawaii has an opportunity to lead the world with our response to climate change in the coming years.

Our transition to a clean energy future is already well underway.

Hawaii has the highest proportion of rooftop solar panels in the entire country, and we are the only state in the nation whose legislature has declared a climate emergency and the only state with a statutory commitment to be carbon negative by 2045.

Fourteen states including California and Massachusetts have modeled their energy goals and policies on ours.

The Public Utilities Commission has already approved a plan by HECO to decarbonize the grid, and we are now building the solar farms that will replace our last coal-fired power plant, creating well-paying green jobs at the same time.

With federal assistance, Hawaii has a plan in place to build a statewide electric vehicle charging network which will create even more green jobs.

More people today work in the rooftop solar industry than work for HECO, and a high school graduate can get an entry-level job in the rooftop PV industry at $25 an hour or more.

But we need to do even more in the coming years to accelerate our progress, cut our dependence on fossil fuels, and invest in renewable and sustainable energy in our state.

Hawaii currently spends more than $3 billion a year on oil, while we have vast untapped renewable energy resources including solar, wind, geothermal, wave energy, ocean thermal, and biofuels.

Imagine what we could do with those $3 billion if we were producing our own renewable energy instead of spending it to import oil.

Building affordable, solar-powered housing for working families, ending chronic homelessness, investing in early childhood education and free community college, and creating a sustainable visitor industry with less social and environmental impact and more benefit to the people of Hawaii are just a few of the priorities that spring to mind.

As a State Senator, I sponsored Hawaii’s first renewable portfolio standards that mandated a substantial portion of Hawaii’s future energy production come from renewable energy sources.

I fought to make renewable energy more accessible to Hawaii’s residents and supported expansion of EV charging infrastructure and tax credits to encourage EV adoption, PV tax credits, tax credits for renewable fuels production.

As governor, I will implement the most ambitious plan in the nation to take on climate change and transition to clean energy.

My plan will:

1. Lead the nation with the highest efficiency and emissions standards to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission vehicles statewide;
2. Restore residential PV tax credits to kick start a new solar energy revolution so every roof in Hawaii can produce its own clean solar energy;
3. Set a state facility efficiency goal of cutting energy use by at least 30% before 2030 and increasing the renewable energy generation of all state facilities;
4. Implement a statewide climate change and resiliency plan to mitigate damage caused by rising sea levels;
5. Invest new state and federal resources in a multi-billion dollar green economy and create thousands of new green jobs;
6. Create new incentives for the development and manufacture of next-generation technologies to address the climate crisis right here in Hawaii;
7. Complete the plan to build a statewide electric vehicle charging network which will create even more green jobs;
8. Explore an impact fee to be collected from every visitor and re-invested in solar-powered affordable housing for working families and maintaining Hawaii’s parks and beaches;
9. Upgrade and improve our energy, water, wastewater, and transportation infrastructure;
10. Advance smart growth initiatives and multimodal transportation systems.

My administration will take the threat of climate change seriously.

We will take immediate action to protect Hawaii from the local effects of rising sea levels and destructive storms, and the long term global impacts of rising temperatures.

We don’t have to choose between growing our economy and addressing climate change; we can and must do both at the same time.

As we rebuild Hawaii’s economy in a post-COVID world, we will make historic, transformative public and private investments to launch a clean energy revolution that will lead the nation and the world in addressing the climate crisis.

Education

Every child in Hawaii deserves a quality education, because few things are more important to creating opportunity in a young person’s life.

My wife Jaime and I care about all of Hawaii’s children, and we believe that in order to thrive and succeed, all of our keiki need consistent educational enrichment, healthcare, nutrition, and safety throughout childhood.

I know firsthand the transformative effects a quality public education can have on a student’s life, opening doors for growth, development, and productive work.

I attended public schools from grades K-12, and both of my young children have attended Hawaii public schools.

I am committed to investing in the education of our keiki to increase their chance for success, and their potential and productivity throughout their lives.

The pandemic showed us how important Hawaii’s schools are to our students, families, and communities, and reminded us that there is no substitute for quality, in-classroom learning.

Our schools help form the foundation of our communities, but right now we face challenges to our common goal of providing students with the best possible education we can give them.

Too often we don’t pay our teachers enough to live in Hawaii, our class sizes are too large for educators to give personal attention to students who need extra help, and many of our school facilities need repairs and upgrades.

Our state suffers a chronic shortage of 1,200 teachers each year as we struggle to retain qualified and experienced educators, mainly due to our high cost of living and lack of affordable housing.

We must do more to retain quality, experienced teachers in Hawaii, and that means offering competitive pay, benefits, and affordable housing so they can afford to live here.

We also need to invest in programs that help provide our keiki with a better chance at success.

Research shows that investment in early childhood education improves outcomes for children throughout their lives, but we still lack a fully funded, universal Pre-K program in Hawaii.

Too many students with families of their own lack access to affordable child care, making it harder for parents to pursue education beyond high school.

We must invest new resources in services like child care on our community college and university campuses, so more students are able to balance the demands of school and family and graduate with degrees.

We also need to address food insecurity, so no student in Hawaii goes hungry and they can focus on what matters most: learning.

In 2016, I proposed a measure to make community college free for any student in Hawaii, and in 2018, I supported a constitutional amendment to reform our tax system so our state can invest more in public education and retain experienced teachers.

I stand by those positions today and I will continue to support them.

If elected governor, I will implement a plan to strengthen and support education in Hawaii, which will:

1. Develop and fund a universal public Pre-K program to prepare our keiki for success;
2. Expand literacy programs for students who need extra help reading;
3. Hire and retain quality, experienced teachers by offering competitive pay, benefits, and affordable housing so they can afford to live in Hawaii;
4. Conduct a comprehensive review of Department of Education spending to identify and direct more resources into our classrooms;
5. Offer every high school graduate in Hawaii a free community college education;
6. Nominate quality candidates to the Board of Education who reflect Hawaii’s diversity, including experienced educators;
7. Seek more federal funding to invest in our students, teachers, and schools;
8. Provide basic nutrition for students at school so they can focus on learning;
9. Make childcare accessible and affordable for community college and university students with families;
10. Address disparities and expand access to information technologies essential to 21st century education like broadband internet and connected devices.

As parents of two children growing up in Hawaii, my wife Jaime and I will do everything we can to help build the future we want them to live in.

A quality education for every child in our state is essential to that future — a future where every person has the opportunity to pursue their goals and dreams.

A future where we can all rise together.

Nurturing Children

Nurturing Hawaii’s keiki is so important that it deserves its own special focus.

We care about every child in our islands, and we believe that in order to thrive and succeed, our keiki need consistent educational enrichment, healthcare, nutrition, and safety.

From Pre-K through community college and beyond, we are committed to investing in the education of every child in Hawaii to increase every child’s chance for success, their lifetime potential and productivity.^[15]

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