On August 5th, I had the opportunity to attend the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset, West Maui candidates forum at the Royal Lahaina Resort. The questions posed to us, were well thought out and addressed several of the current issues facing Maui County. ________________________________________________________ Platform re: Affordable Housing: -Several development projects have already been approved (for quite some time) in Maui County. The majority of them include an affordable housing component, but they have never come to fruition. -I would like to work with the unions to hold these developers continuous promises of 1) jobs and 2) affordable housing -to their word. It is long over-due. If we work together we can make it happen. -In the meantime, my fellow Council members and I have been changing the way that development projects are approved from here on out, by placing a clock- condition on them to trigger commencement of building - (the clock begins upon project approval.) -This is meant to discontinue the common practice of developers stock-piling entitlements, but never following through. -Affordable in perpetuity- means affordable forever. We will never outgrow this affordable housing crisis if we continue to build affordable housing that turns into market price housing after the first owners move on. -I would like to see a cap placed on all affordable housing resale prices. I believe that affordable housing should be utilized as a leg-up for first- time homebuyers that qualify; then passed onto the next qualifying family waiting in line. -Everyone deserves the same chance at home-ownership. That is why, especially living on an island where land is finite, we should keep affordable housing, affordable in perpetuity. -Finally, I would like to work at the Federal level to address a realistic view of what is being considered affordable housing these days. We follow HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development) pricing guidelines, and it begs the question: Is affordable housing, truly affordable, or can we do better for the people of Hawaii nei? Our cost of living is much higher than most of the continental United States, perhaps our housing price guidelines should be adjusted.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 07:31:42 +0000
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