Kaua’i County Council Chair Ron Kouchi is in a quandary. He says he understands the housing shortage and the need for the county to at least help expedite the construction of new units, but also finds substantial public and private
Kaua’i County Council Chair Ron Kouchi is in a quandary.
He says he understands the housing shortage and the need for the county to at least help expedite the construction of new units, but also finds substantial public and private opposition to county involvement in that field.
“We are very interested in locating housing on the north shore,” Kouchi said. “There just seems to be the lack of consensus about where that housing should be placed.
Everywhere that has been suggested has been met with rejection in that area.
“It’s all about where,” he said.
From the private sector, the county hears that it has no business competing with citizens in the housing-development business. Further complicating things is a distaste among many Kauaians with townhouse living.
Kouchi said there are still some Puhi townhouse units for sale, exemplifying that disdain of apartment living.
Apartments – because more units can be built on smaller acres of land – are generally more affordable types of rental housing projects than single-family homes.
There will be no county dwelling units, either for-sale or for-rent, constructed in 2001, declared Kouchi, adding that the best bet for the next affordable rentals to be built will come at Kalepa Village, where the county owns land.
“We don’t even have plans. You’d have to have engineering, you gotta go through the whole procurement process,” and that’s why Kouchi prefers using citizen loan funds which are getting paid back to the county “to help in assisting somebody bringing it on line, as opposed to doing it ourselves.
“We can help make it happen, I believe,” Kouchi said.
“The key would be affordable land,” said Ken Rainforth, executive on housing in the County Housing Agency of the Offices of Community Assistance.
“I can’t find any, and neither can anyone else that I know of,” said Rainforth, adding that a project including housing at the controversial Kilauea North parcel may be the best bet for meeting north shore rental housing needs.
The county response is disheartening not only for those on a futile search for suitable rental housing, but because at least one county official saw the shortage coming no less than a year ago.
“We’ve been watching the long-term rental market tightening up for about a year,” Rainforth said.
Which begs the question, why, especially if the county knew of a tightening rental housing market, did it not act, or react?
According to Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, not everyone in the county knows there is a chronic rental housing shortage.
“We have just filled Pa’anau and Kalepa Village for the first time this year,” Kusaka said.
“When our Housing Agency surveys indicate a severe need, we will raise the funding required to continue our project at Kalepa. We will also await the results of a planned study of north shore housing needs.” Rainforth said absentee owners know they can get much better money in the vacation-rental market as opposed to the long-term, residential market.
The Garden Island classified ads don’t lie: vacation rentals are averaging between $40 and $225 a night, which equates to $1,200 to $6,750 a month, while the few long-term rentals range from $585 to $1,800 a month, which equates to $20 to $60 a night.
So, as owners of vacation rentals are known to testify before the County Council, even if the units are empty more often than they’re occupied, if the owner is getting market value in the per-night vacation rental game, they make as much, if not more, than they would if they rented the units long-term to residents (who obviously are in the units the entire month).
Most of the single-family units that used to be rented long-term to residents have been converted into vacation rentals, Rainforth said.
Rainforth noted that the Internet has opened up the vacation rental market. Indeed, a search for Kaua’i vacation rentals online yields pages of temporary lodging opportunities – vacancies that in some cases have meant displacement of a local family.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at [pcurtis@pulitzer.net]or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
