• Affordable housing and Kaua‘i Affordable housing and Kaua‘i A social problem behind many of the island’s community ills is being addressed by our county administration. The lack of affordable housing is changing the face of our community. The roots
• Affordable housing and Kaua‘i
Affordable housing and Kaua‘i
A social problem behind many of the island’s community ills is being addressed by our county administration.
The lack of affordable housing is changing the face of our community. The roots of the problem include not enough affordable rentals in part due to the proliferation of vacation rentals sucking up the long-term stock of rentals, and in part due to the skyrocketing value of homes, with the median price of a home now up to over $400,000 through an influx of affluent buyers from the West Coast and other areas.
What this is doing to the working class, and middle class, of our island society is creating crowding in homes, with two, sometimes three, generations of a families living together, which works in some situations, in others it generates abuse and drug use. There is a lack of vision for a positive future on Kaua‘i for our youth, and the many are leaving the island. Those who can rely on family ties for housing are in generally good shape, while some are feeling even working two or three jobs will never allow them to have their own home.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste has formed a committee to address the problem of affordable housing. Plans are in the works, both within the county and through larger land developers, to create hundreds of units of both rental and for sale affordable housing.
While these are positive signs, there remains a gap of hundreds of units of new housing being needed each year to house workers in our growing economy and to take the pressure off our local families who are doubling up.
We need to live with the fact that Kaua‘i is one of the most desirable places to live in the United States, and within the Pacific Basin. Our luxury homes, especially on the North Shore and South Shore will likely continue to rise in value.
At the same time a balance is needed in providing ways for our working and middle class to live here. Reforming the permitting process and other areas that boost the cost of housing development are good steps to take.
There is a price to pay for living in paradise, including what’s being cited in discussions by the mayor as a 25 percent premium over Honolulu costs for building homes on Kaua‘i. Creative thinking, positive and consistent action and not letting this problem become yet another one that’s chewed over by committees forever with no major corrections being made.
If this problem fails to be resolved at its roots and soon, the social ills we are now seeing in drug use and a migration of our youth in even larger numbers will seem like the good old days in years to come.
What we need is for the county and state governments to bring down building costs where possible, and to use creative thinking in spending federal funds that can be feasibly matched. Working closely with private developers to build homes in areas that won’t ruin our rural beauty, and where infrastructure like roads and sewage can be built at a reasonable cost is another step that’s needed.
This situation needs to be looked at as seriously as the island’s recovery from Hurricane ‘Iniki was.
Our society is being tossed and turned by an invisible storm.
We can live with the wreckage to our society brought about by this storm, or we can work together to clean it up.
