New report brings focus to Hawaii housing debate

The in-depth analysis exonerates a common scapegoat while directing attention back to the real culprit — excess regulations

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii made heavy inroads into Hawaii’s housing policy debate this week with the release of its new report, “The ‘outsider’ theory of Hawaii’s housing crisis,” by research associate Jensen Ahokovi.

On Monday, the state’s largest daily newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, featured the report in the lead article of its local news section. Later that same day, the story was covered by KITV4.

Star-Advertiser reporter Allison Schaefers wrote that the new policy brief showed that “out-of-state buyers have had little meaningful effect, if any, on the large increase in Hawaii housing prices over the past 14 years.”

She quoted Institute President Keli‘i Akina to the effect that if Hawaii policymakers really want to solve Hawaii’s housing crisis, they should focus on reducing the state’s many housing-related regulations, which, as the report noted, are significantly correlated with high median home prices.

The report also generated multiple interview requests. Among those is Peter Kay‘s online program “Living In Hawaii,” on which Akina is scheduled to appear today at 9 a.m. The topic will be “Are outsiders responsible for Hawaii’s high real estate prices?” Viewers are invited to submit questions.

On Sunday, Aug. 28, starting at 9 a.m., Akina will talk about the report with host Johnny Miro on the H. Hawaii Media network of Oahu radio stations, including 101.1 FM, and online at Hawaiistream.fm.

And on Thursday, Sept. 8, starting at 10 a.m., Ahokovi will appear on the ThinkTech Hawaii network’s “Talking Tax” program, co-hosted by Tom Yamachika, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, and ThinkTech Hawaii president Jay Fidell.

One reason the study is being taken so seriously is that it is the first to look at home-buying data from not only Hawaii but all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as more than 2,300 counties nationwide. In addition, it includes insights from many prominent economists and real estate experts, both locally and nationally.

If you haven’t read the report yet, you can find a copy of it here. You also can buy a copy from Amazon.com, where four other Institute research papers also are available for purchase, at prices ranging from $3.71 to $7.

To see the Institute’s Wednesday news release about the report, go here.

Hawaii County planning director upbeat about future of housing

Zendo Kern says county officials recognize the problems caused by permit delays and NIMBYs, and are seeking greater certainty

“From a Hawaii County perspective, we’re solving [the problems] as fast as we can,” said Zendo Kern, who was appointed to the planning director job nearly two years ago. “When we first came in for affordable housing, we had around 400 units or so in the pipeline. Now, we have closer to 5,000 units in the pipeline. … Granted, … they’re not all built yet, but what we’re seeing is a push towards that.”

Kern was the guest on the Aug. 16 episode of “Hawaii Together,” hosted by Joe Kent, executive vice president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. Kent said that initially he had hoped to talk with Kern about Hawaii’s permitting problems, but realized later that unlike Honolulu County, planning and permitting on Hawaii island are each handled by separate departments.

But Kent and Kern did touch briefly on the county’s building permit backlog, as well as the recently created Electronic Processing and Information Center, which was established to quickly resolve the problem but so far has failed to do so.

Kern outlined several reasons for its inability to quickly resolve the situation — including a new building code and the “great resignation” — but in general, he said, progress is being made.

“What I’m seeing over there,” he said, “is this diligent effort that, ‘Hey, we know that it isn’t the way that we want it to be right now. We got it. Here’s what we’re going to do to continue to move forward.’ And so I’m seeing that happen.”

On the housing issue, Kern noted that public hearings for new housing projects tend to be dominated by “Not In My Backyard” folks. Worse, the “backyard” in question is “turning into the entire island. So, ‘Not on our island, period,’” he said.

He said too often the folks who need the housing cannot afford to be at the hearings: “These are folks working as hard as they can to put food on the table … trying to get their kids to school … trying to provide for their family, and oftentimes, they don’t have time to show up to a public hearing at 10 o’clock in the morning or 11 o’clock.”

He said if these people, such as millennials and Generation Zs, do not show up to support more housing, “it’s really tricky because the folks that sit there as a volunteer commissioner, as a [County] Council member, you hear what’s in front of you [the NIMBYs], and it sounds like, “No. No. No. We don’t want it.”

Kern said adding certainty to the permitting process is critical.

“Like when you see a 201H, an affordable housing project, and they ask for all these variances — why do they have to go through that process to get the variances? If it’s an affordable project, shouldn’t that just be baked into our code? Shouldn’t you just select from the menu and say, ‘That’s what I’m doing’? … Certainty is the big deal,” he said. “You gotta have a level of certainty if we want housing.”

Ultimately, he said, “My side just wants to make sure that our children have the opportunity to stay here and come back home if they want to.” And housing, Kern said, “is one of the essential elements” to that happening.

To see the entire interview, go here. A complete transcript is provided.