It's time to connect the dots.

Reporter Rod Ohira had a gripping story in yesterday's paper on the plight of O'ahu's homeless, as they shift from place to place in an effort to stay hidden from authorities.

A day earlier, Andrew Gomes reported on the growing gulf between what a typical working O'ahu family can afford for housing and the median price of a single-family home.

Both stories painfully illustrate our deepening housing crunch. And the problem hits hard at all points of the socio-economic spectrum: from the homeless, to hopeful first-time buyers, to the struggle of working families to get into the market who see an increasing share of their income swallowed by massive mortgages.

Some efforts have been made, including recent gestures by private faith-based groups. But what is needed is an all-out assault on our housing shortage involving state and county governments, the private sector and the non-profits.

In truth, homelessness and the inability to buy a single-family home on a working-class income are two sides of the same coin. The pathetic lack of decent rental units for local residents is also part of the mix.

EVEN MORE STUDIES

So far, lawmakers have come up with tentative solutions in the form of the omnibus housing bill, which offered some sound ideas but essentially called for more studies. And it made a mockery of using the conveyance tax for affordable housing by keeping a full one-third for the general fund.

Enough studies. How about some action?

We can start by fully allocating the conveyance tax to affordable housing and land preservation. Funneling more than 30 percent of the tax into the general fund is excessive, considering only a very small amount is needed for administrative costs.

As for the homeless, it's obvious that we can't solve the problem by driving these people out of parks and other encampments. They'll simply move elsewhere.

It's time to drastically expand and improve the stock of transitional housing, which starts with moving people off the streets and into shelters, after which they can access job training, help for substance abuse and other forms of support.

Next, we need to address the acute need for affordable rental housing. Here's where the state can step in and make more of its land available to developers willing to build affordable rentals if they could conquer the chronic problem of high land costs.

And when state land is made available, it must come with iron-clad conditions that keep the housing in the "affordable" category in perpetuity — conditions that are sometimes honored only in the breach.

Another piece of the puzzle is reasonably priced housing for first-time or less-affluent home-buyers. Here, the key is working with the permitting and land-use system to get developers going in reasonable time and at reasonable costs.

MAKE IT WORK

Too often, developers say the only way to make a profit in Hawai'i's deeply regulated market is to price at the very high end. And today, the market sustains this approach.

That doesn't mean throwing out the regulatory system that has protected Hawai'i's green and open spaces. Nor would we want to see wall-to-wall development that sacrifices quality of life.

But when a quality development is planned, authorities should do whatever they can to get that project moving, saving the developer dollars and holding down prices at the far end.

It is clear that housing — from the needs of the homeless and the struggling working class through those who want to buy their own "piece of the rock" — deserves first-class, top-priority attention.

Anyone in search of housing should demand that lawmakers make this a priority in the upcoming legislative session. Those who are lucky enough to own already should join the chorus, or face the prospect of living in a society of haves and have-nots, with all the social ills that come with that condition.