Posted on: Wednesday, April 7, 2004

EDITORIAL
Affordable rental units are becoming extinct

We don't fault the administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris for wanting to get out of the affordable rental housing business. This is probably a function better suited to nonprofit developers, or even the state, which has a department assigned to this purpose.

However, the city's plan to sell off its below-market properties is not a simple answer to O'ahu's affordable housing shortage.

Under the plan, occupants who want to purchase their units would have to qualify for a zero-interest federal loan as well as a conventional loan. And that's not quite as easy as it sounds.

Nor does it always make financial sense for, say, elderly folks on a fixed income to buy their rental unit. And there's no guarantee that once they die or go into a nursing home, the unit will remain affordable.

Granted, the city is offering an attractive deal if you're in the market for homeownership and earn less than 80 percent of the median household income. For some current renters, this is a thrilling opportunity. Under the plan, the city says, those who qualify will pay not a penny more than their current rent, at least in the first year. And renters who choose not to buy have five years to move.

But where will they go? Affordable housing is scarce on O'ahu. The selling of these apartments will take more than 400 affordable rental units off the market.

Again, the city has every right to get out of the housing business. It costs money to run these facilities.

But rather than removing hundreds of affordable rental units from the market, why not sell at least some of them to nonprofit affordable-housing development and management firms, such as EAH Inc., of California, which can secure federal funding to purchase and operate these properties?