Posted on: Monday, June 21, 2004
Projects may ease Kaua'i housing shortage
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — County housing officials on Kaua'i hope that a series of public and private projects will help ease a severe shortage of affordable housing for island residents.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste said the meteoric rise in real estate prices has pushed housing out of reach for many island residents.
The Hawai'i Information Service reported last month that the price of single-family homes and condos on Kaua'i in April was $100,000 more than a year earlier, with a median price of $477,500.
"We've had property values going up in the past, but not at this rate," he said during a briefing Friday.
Baptiste said a modest home next to his own recently sold for more than $500,000, far more than could be afforded by an average Kaua'i family.
The huge price increase has largely been driven by Mainland buyers and low interest rates.
County Executive on Housing Ken Rainforth said the median income for a family of four on Kaua'i is $56,100.
Besides the increase in prices, the supply of housing has fallen far behind the demand, Baptiste said.
Kaua'i's population is about 58,500. The U.S. Census tally showed the number of households on the island grew by nearly 4,000 from 1990 to 2000, but the amount of available housing has gone up more slowly.
"We have a 200-unit-per-year demand for affordable housing. Our total housing demand is about 500 units per year," Rainforth said. "I think the high end of the market can pretty much take care of itself, but we haven't been meeting the affordable housing demand."
One of the frustrating things for county officials is that the demand varies dramatically and is difficult to anticipate, limiting the county's ability to respond.
"The market didn't start to get tight in terms of being able to find houses to purchase until about nine months ago. And there was still a healthy housing environment a year ago," Rainforth said. That's about when families taking the county housing agency's classes for new homeowners began reporting they couldn't find anything they could afford, he said.
A number of affordable housing projects are on the books and could ease the shortage if they get developed quickly. The head of the Office of Community Assistance, Bernard Carvalho, listed some of them:
Carvalho said the Hawaiian Home Lands property is for Native Hawaiians, but eases the general housing shortage as those folks move out of homes to occupy the new housing.
Baptiste said partnerships between the county and other agencies are key to responding to the shortage of homes.
"The county, I believe, will never have enough money to develop all the housing that's needed, but the more we can leverage whatever dollars we have toward partnering, the more housing units we can create," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808)245-3074.
