Posted on: Friday, September 10, 2004
3,576 sign up for 214 homes
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAIKAPU, Maui — Question: How much is affordable housing needed on Maui?
Answer: 3,576 people signed up for a lottery for 214 new homes to be offered at below-market prices, and yesterday about 200 people showed up to the drawing they didn't even have to attend.
Fred and Maryann Valois, renters from nearby Wailuku, said they wouldn't have missed it. Parents of four, they said they've been on a two-year search for a home, but they've had trouble qualifying for market-priced homes.
The median price of a single-family home on Maui is more than $500,000.
"It's so frustrating. It's crazy out there," Maryann Valois said.
Spencer Homes Inc. held its drawing yesterday at the Maui Tropical Plantation in Waikapu, near the site of its proposed 410-home subdivision.
"As you can see, there's a tremendous need for housing," said Spencer Homes head Jesse Spencer, pointing to the throng. "If this doesn't represent a crisis, I don't know what does."
The first 50-plus names were drawn by hand and the remaining names were ranked randomly using a computer program.
Tony Lopez said he was ecstatic for his mother, Patricia LeGary, who was the 11th homebuyer selected from a raffle drum.
Lopez said LeGary couldn't come to the drawing because she was at work. "She's 60 and she's never owned a home on Maui. She's going to be very happy," he said.
Affordable housing is a statewide problem fueled by low interest rates and a dwindling supply of homes for sale. The state estimates that only 2,000 affordable housing units have been built in Hawai'i since 1992, and there's a demand for 30,000 more.
It's been almost two years since Spencer Homes announced plans to build 410 one- and two-story homes on a 94 acres below Honoapi'ilani Highway between Waikapu and Wailuku.
The 214 affordable units represent 51 percent of the development's homes. They will be priced between $225,000 and $275,000, with the remaining homes also below market prices.
The developer has called the Waikapu project his gift to Maui. Spencer said all of the houses will be priced $200,000 below their appraised value, an $80 million bonus for residents.
In a show of support, the Maui County Council voted last month to exempt the project from zoning and community plan requirements and to waive a variety of permitting fees.
The development is being reviewed by the state Land Use Commission, and the land is being purchased from Wailuku Agribusiness.
Spencer said he hopes to break ground by October and to ready the first homes by February.
