Advancing Affordable Housing: Tackling Hawai‘i’s Housing Crisis

To address the severe shortage of affordable housing, the Green Administration has developed a three-point plan of action, which is starting to make a visible dent on the housing crisis. These bold strategies include:

•      Building more housing units on state
        and county-owned lands;

•      Eliminating red tape and costly impact
         fees that cause long delays and increases
        the cost of construction; and

•      Investing in infrastructure to boost
        housing capacity.

Many of these steps are already paying dividends. Governor Green’s housing team has identified more than 46,000 affordable housing units in various states of the development pipeline that are expected to be completed in the next decade. That includes more than 10,000 units that will be completed by next year.

Over the past 18 months, nearly 5,000 affordable housing units have benefited from exemptions under the Emergency Proclamation (EP) Relating to Affordable Housing. The EP saved projects $10 million in school impact fees amid rising construction costs and higher interest rates.

Governor Green’s housing team recently created an Affordable Housing Pipeline Dashboard to track more than 62,000 units that are in the pipeline over the next 10 years – including more than 46,000 affordable units – across 257 projects. It is expected that 10,000 of these affordable units will come online by 2026.

Additionally, the administration is also proposing $56 million for the redevelopment of Mayor Wright Homes, which will expand the low-income project from 364 units to 2,814 units. Nearly $300 million will also be allocated to the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation to fund the development of additional affordable housing projects.