Lanai Draws Tenants In Lottery For First Affordable Housing Project In 30 Years 0 The housing development funded by tech magnate Larry Ellison will almost double the number of affordable housing units on the island.
On Saturday, Makana Nuesca’s 5-year-old daughter crossed her middle and pointer fingers and flapped her arms like wings in a plea for luck.
“I told her we have to hope,” said Nuesca, 24, as she waited with jittery anticipation outside the Pulama Lanai leasing office where an affordable housing lottery was about to start.
It’s been nearly 30 years since an affordable housing project has been built on Lanai, where workforce housing is in short supply and families sometimes bunk together to keep a roof over their heads.
Workforce housing was inadequate on Lanai long before tech billionaire Larry Ellison bought 98% of the tiny island, including a third of its housing, for $300 million in 2012. But the problem has been intensified by an influx of hotel and construction workers employed by Pulama Lanai, the management company that oversees Ellison’s monopoly stake in the island.
