Hawaii's Housing Boom Takes a Toll on the Homeless

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

January 11, 2007

Hawaii's Housing Boom Takes a Toll on the Homeless
In a Prospering State, High Rents Are Hurdle; Beaches as Shantytowns
By RAFAEL GERENA-MORALES
January 11, 2007; Page A1

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Roughly 6,000 people in the state are without permanent shelter, according to Hawaii's Homeless Programs Division. That's nearly double the number without homes in 1999. Increasingly, this population consists of working families with children. Some, like the Wongs, live in city-run shelters. Others have taken up residence on the beach, turning Hawaii's picturesque shores into homeless encampments where hundreds of people live in tents pitched on the sand.

One big factor behind Hawaii's homelessness is the housing boom that swept across the U.S. Run-ups in home prices displaced families nationwide, but the problem in Hawaii -- where land costs are more than five times the national average -- is particularly acute. In recent years, investors and second-home buyers swooped in to buy up properties. Developers targeted aging apartment complexes to convert into swank condos and luxury rentals. As home values shot up, many of the state's low-paid service workers watched from the sidelines. Affordable housing dwindled, while waiting lists for federally funded public units ballooned. Rental rates for available units surged.

Median rents in Hawaii are currently the highest in the nation. The going monthly rate for a typical two-bedroom apartment is about $1,901, up $792, or 71%, from 2001, according to Ricky Cassiday, a housing analyst in Honolulu. Average wages for Hawaiian workers, meanwhile, were $36,355 in 2005, the last year for which figures are available. That compares with a national average of $40,675 in the same year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.


(snip)

But the homelessness problem looms as an economic threat. Hawaii, whose current population is about 1.3 million, needs affordable housing to attract and retain service workers amid a tight labor market. The beach encampments also hurt Hawaii's postcard image as a top vacation destination. Hawaii's Tourism Authority says it has received some comments from visitors who said they felt uncomfortable seeing homeless people in parks or at the beaches. Last summer Gov. Linda Lingle declared an emergency situation on the west coast of Oahu, citing the public-health threat of human waste on the beaches.



Mismanagement of the state's limited public-housing stock has aggravated the situation. Hawaii has about 6,230 government-subsidized units. The state has complained that it lacks the resources to keep existing structures in good repair. In Honolulu, wood planks cover the windows of some vacant apartments. In all, roughly 700, or 11%, of the units are vacant, with almost half of those waiting to be renovated or demolished, according to the governor's office.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116845808553872913.html (subscription)

[silverojo]

1. K&R

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[ChicagoRonin]

2. Too bad this doesn't get more attention

I realized that it must be small potatoes against issues like Iraq, Afghanistan, Buscho and the lingering mess in New Orleans, but it's very much reality for me at the moment. I'm spending a week on Kauai helping my Dad handle stuff related to my Grandmother's recent passing (I live in Chicago). The disparity hurts the heart and the head - luxury homes in one area with (invariably white) affluent mainlanders coming in consuming land and resources - poor native Hawaiians and descendents of the former labor classes on the other end.

My great-grandparents and grandparents were part of the labor pool that built these islands, but most of the children of those people can ill-afford to live here. Not to mention near-ghost town communities, piles of garbage, growing juvenile delinquency, etc.

If anyone here on DU notices this article, and if any of you ever end up on vacation in Hawaii, do me a favor: Try to go outside the tourist bubble. Seek out those areas the tour guides don't want you to see and visit the real Hawaii, the people who live on the side you don't see on postcards. And when you're at the beach, give something back to the island in any way you can - clear some debris, pick up garbage even if it wasn't yours.

It may not sound like much, but trust me, if everyone treated the islands and their people with a bit more simple care and dignity, that would be a good start.

[question everything]

3. Seems that all municipalities and other government agencies

were glad to see apartment buildings converted into posh condominiums. And after the Kelo Supreme Court decision, that private property can be taken and given to another private entity, they saw dollars signs dancing in their dreams.

Ideally, especially in places like Hawaii with limited land, whenever such a conversion occurs, a certain percentage has to be set aside for affordable housings, or another property, in different part of town being set aside.