ALOHA Homes
Affordable Locally-Owned Homes for All
As Chair of the Senate Committee on Housing since 2018, I have made it my top priority to end the housing crisis in Hawaii. I have worked hand in hand with community leaders, state agencies, and legislators nationwide to tackle the housing shortage head-on.
Who: ALOHA Homes are for all Hawaii residents who are owner-occupants and own no other real property. Like public schools, public parks, and public highways, I believe housing should be for all.
What: ALOHA Homes is short for Affordable Locally Owned Homes for All. Modeled on Singapore’s housing system, this program would have the State of Hawaii construct dense, leasehold housing and sell the units to Hawaii residents on an income blind and revenue neutral basis.
When: We need housing now! Learn more about the steps that have been taken below.
Where: ALOHA Homes will be accessible for all. These developments will be transit-oriented, meaning you can walk from your home to the rail or bus station that brings you directly to where you need to be.
Why: Hawaii’s severe housing shortage is our most urgent public policy priority. Because the market has been undersupplied for decades, housing prices are out of reach for all but the very wealthy. As a result, we have now experienced seven straight years of population decline. There are more Hawaii-born college graduates residing outside Hawaii than in Hawaii, and more Native Hawaiians living outside Hawaii than in Hawaii.
Inspiration
The housing model in this bill is based on Singapore’s successful housing system and is often referred to as social housing. Two features of this model are revolutionary for government-built housing in this country: income blindness and revenue neutrality. Income blindness means people across the socioeconomic spectrum will live side by side, instead of in concentrated poverty. With revenue neutrality, the program need not be heavily subsidized by taxpayers, ensuring that it is scalable regardless of the state’s ability or willingness to pay for more. This is housing for all, like public school for housing: a low cost, mass option that will enable most people to achieve home ownership, the American dream. It’s essentially the method that Singapore and Vienna use to house 82 and 60 percent of their populations, respectively, in attractive, desirable, well maintained public housing.
SUCCESS STORIES
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State-owned non-ceded lands near public transit stations within a one-mile radius of a public transit station in a county having a population greater than 500,000
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Compact, high-density, residential mixed-use
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Up to 140% AMI for 50% of the units and no more than 33% income blind
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Revenue-neutral
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Owner-occupancy requirement
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Mix of units between 2-4 bedrooms and 2-3 bathrooms
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At least 10% of the units should be 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom units
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UH West Oahu
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292 leasehold units at <140% AMI near UHWO campus
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Complementary development of commercial uses for residents, students, faculty, and staff
Status
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Memorandum of Agreement among HHFDC, HCDA, and UH proposed in December 2023
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HCDA will issue an RFP for the infrastructure development of 20 acres
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HHFDC will issue an RFP for the leasehold development of the project
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Approximately 10% of the units will be for sale (leasehold) at affordable prices determined by the HPHA.
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Out of the remaining 9,000 rental units, approximately 25-30% will be targeted to 80-120% AMI and 70-75% will be targeted to 0-80% AMI.
I am truly grateful for the many people who have contributed to this bill’s passage. In particular, I want to thank my counterpart in the House, the House Housing Chair, for his hard work in shepherding this measure through his chamber, the Ways and Means Chair for delivering the funding in this bill, and you, Mr. President, for reviving this measure from the dead on no less than three separate occasions this session alone.
- Senator Stanley Chang