HONOLULU — Candidates for Hawaii’s top elected office are focusing on a persistent problem that has only gotten worse: the high cost of housing on the islands.
Andria Tupola, the Republican candidate for governor, said her party’s internal polling shows cost of living is the greatest concern for 55 to 60 percent of voters. She said she’s spoken to people who are leaving because they can’t afford to stay in the state.
She recalled one small-business owner in the Honolulu suburb of Hawaii Kai saying he supported her but this would be his last election in Hawaii.
“He said, ‘I’m just tired. We’re tired of the struggle. Every day we work super hard and we’re barely making it,’” she said.
A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition said a full-time worker in Hawaii must earn $36.13 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent of $1,879.
That hourly wage amounts to $75,158 a year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average annual wages in Hawaii totaled $48,178 in 2016, 10.2 percent less than the U.S. average.
A worker earning Hawaii’s minimum wage of $10.10 per hour would need to work 3.6 full-time jobs to afford the same apartment.
The median price of a single-family home on Oahu, the state’s most populous island, hit $812,000 in September. That’s more than double the national median.
Gov. David Ige, who is running for re-election, said he hears similar concerns about housing and homelessness. Hawaii has the nation’s highest homeless population per capita.
The two candidates face off in today’s midterm election.
Tupola, 37, said she would like Hawaii residents to have priority in buying land, so they aren’t priced out. She wants to decrease the length of time needed for builders to get permits. She wants the state to partner with more local developers.
“There’s two ways to attack the shortage. One, you can build more. Two, you can patch up the holes where our local inventory is going to foreign investors,” she said.
Ige touted his administration’s support of the construction of 5,300 homes during his first term and its goal to help build 10,000 units by 2020. He said Hawaii has allowed state money to cover a portion of infrastructure costs, clearing the way for more affordable rentals to be built.
“I think it’s about accelerating and continuing the momentum that we’ve created,” Ige said.
Ige, 61, said the state is pursuing the development of state land along a rail line the city of Honolulu is building. The state wants partnerships with private companies to redevelop several Honolulu public housing projects as a way to both boost public housing units and bring market priced rentals into the properties.
Ige has an advantage because more voters tend to vote Democrat than Republican in Hawaii. Linda Lingle, who served from 2002 to 2010, was the state’s last Republican governor.
The Republican Party is vastly outnumbered in legislative races this year, contesting only five of the 13 state Senate seats and 17 of 51 House seats.
In congressional races, Democratic U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono is seeking re-election against Republican Ron Curtis, a retired engineer.
Former U.S. Rep. Ed Case came out of retirement to run for House. The Democrat is running against Cam Cavasso, a Republican former state legislator. The seat is being vacated by Democratic U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who unsuccessfully challenged Ige for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is seeking a fourth term in Congress representing rural Oahu and the neighbor islands. She’s being challenged by Republican Brian Evans, a singer and songwriter.
That picture of Mazie in this article says it all….she was on the WRONG side of the Supreme Court hearing…she is intellectually bankrupt and on;y interested in party over Country. Looking for “her turn” up the Hawaiian Liberal cabal hierarchy.
And what exactly would you do about the cost of living here and the low wages of the slaves?
Tax everyone more naturally!
Raise the minimum wage to $100/hr !!
I might start by inviting any of the many developers who have successfully built large numbers of pleasant affordable homes in quick time frames in other markets, and asking them what they’d need to do the same here. And if they said for example they’d need a predictable, consistent, timely result from governmental planning agencies; one that does not require soft or hard bribes; land available to develop without endless red-tape excuses; standardized building codes allowing use of easily available mass produced parts; no requirements for expensive features unwanted by homeowners but required to please special interests; fixes to a Jones Act crippled shipping system allowing materials to arrive here without extra charges; a sales tax that doesn’t apply to housing costs like almost every place else; or any of the dozens of other details they’d know but I wouldn’t I would at least take them seriously and try to fix all those root causes.
Of course I’m a problem solver not a professional politician. If I was the latter I’d probably talk nice to the camera, wring my hands at how difficult it is, try to blame “outsiders” as much as I could, and then in private back rooms keep perpetuating all the same systems that got us here in the first place so I could keep benefiting from the political machine that put me in office.
Briala, you raise some really good points about the dysfunctional nature of our system, both how politicians and how the respective departments think and operate. We citizens ought to organize ourselves to tackle some of these problems. Get in touch if you want.
Senate Judiciary released a 414 page report on Brett Kavanaugh over the weekend and confirmed that there is no credible evidence to support the sexual assault allegations.
OR do FACTS not matter to you and Mazie?
And due to the “The Republican Party is vastly outnumbered in legislative races this year” the spending, budget and housing problems will persist! Da Train Da Train Boss a prime example of Democratic stupidity!
The headline: “Crushing housing costs hit Hawaii’s race for governor”
The story: “A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition said a full-time worker in Hawaii must earn $36.13 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent of $1,879.”
The conclusion: “Ige has an advantage because more voters tend to vote Democrat than Republican in Hawaii.”
Sorry folks but that is the way it is..
Vote for the con-con this year, just maybe we the tax paying worker can do something about it. This is the last shot at it for 10 years.
Ige? Oh yeah, the same dude that banned new cesspools all over the Big Island. I heard the County isn’t even enforcing it yet because the County has no way to handle any more sewage from pumping septic tanks.
The head of the DOH says there is zero difference between effluent from a septic leach field or a cesspool. But Ige added $15,000 to every “affordable” home to be built on this island…because…why?
Governors in Hawaii are following the same path as Presidents ….when voters hold their collective noses and vote for the ‘lesser of two evils’, eventually you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel….pure evil.