Hawai'i's housing most 'crowded' in nation

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i leads the country in apartment living and in "crowded households," according to a 2000 Census report released yesterday.

Nearly a third of Hawai'i's housing that existed in the census year was made up of apartments, the highest proportion in the country. Hawai'i even edged New York in the proportion of housing in buildings with five or more apartments — 32.5 percent vs. 32.4 percent.

The report also indicated that households in Hawai'i were more likely to be "crowded" — defined as more than one person in a room — than any other state in the nation.

In 2000, Hawai'i's percentage of crowded households was 15.4 percent, followed by California at 15.2 percent. The two states were the only ones in the country to exceed 10 percent.

Half of Hawai'i's crowded households were termed "severely crowded" (more than 1.5 people per room), a proportion that was second only to California.

Luciano Minerbi, a University of Hawai'i professor of urban and regional planning, said the census figures are not surprising considering Hawai'i's cost of living and the tradition of 'ohana, or extended family.

He said the tradition remains strong in the state, where the percentage of grandparents, parents and children living under the same roof is more than twice the national average. Asians and Pacific Islanders have a cultural tradition of extended family, and they make up a majority of the population here.

High housing costs also tend to press families into pooling resources, Minerbi said.

"Housing has been a problem for more than half the population for a long time," he said. "Land is expensive, and affordable housing is hard to find."

Many Native Hawaiians and other ethnic groups are forced into mismatched structures and buildings that don't fit their cultural needs, he said.

Minerbi said O'ahu has too many high-density high-rise buildings that "are not livable places." On the other side, he said, there are too many single-family subdivisions that create urban sprawl.

Minerbi advocated high density low-rise structures between two and six stories.

"You've got to build structures for people on a human scale that are feasible for public transportation," he said. "There has been a lot of very bad planning in Hawai'i."

Gary Fuller, director of the UH Population Studies Program, said the cost of housing is so great in Hawai'i that many people, especially immigrants, are forced into cheaper apartments.

The census report also said only 4.7 percent of Hawai'i's housing was built before 1940. Only four other states had a lower percentage of units built before 1940.

At the same time, homes built between 1995 and 2000 comprised only 7.7 percent of Hawai'i's housing. New homes made up a higher percentage of the housing in 36 other states.

The mobile home is America's fastest-growing type of housing, but not in Hawai'i. The state leads the country with the smallest proportion of mobile homes at 0.2 percent.

Contact Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.