Housing Hawaii Past Events

Solving Hawaii's Affordable and Workforce Housing Crisis: Putting Practical Solutions, Political will and Public-Private Partnerships to Work.

Held February 21, 2007
This was a joint event with the Urban Land Institute and the Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corp.
Mahalo to our event sponsors:
Charles & Devra Wathen
Actus Lendlease
Fannie Mae
Avalon Development & Consulting
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
EAH Housing
Rural Community Assistance Corp
Mark Development
Pacific Housing Advisors

Thank you to our speakers and organizers for a great job on this event.

Urban Land Institute of Hawaii

Conference Highlights Affordable Housing Crisis in Hawaii
  Hundreds of enthusiastic planners, affordable housing advocates, developers and other interested parties recently participated in Housing Hawaii’s first conference addressing affordable housing issues in Hawaii held February 21 in Honolulu.

The event was covered by local media and featured several prominent speakers including Pamela Patenaude, assistant secretary for community planning for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

During her keynote remarks, Patenaude expressed “shock” at the legal hoops through which affordable housing developers are required to jump to build in Hawaii. The problem is old news to both for-profit and nonprofit affordable housing advocates who for years have fought to deconstruct the regulatory maze that slows and blocks many affordable developments in the state.

Now faced with a devastating homelessness crisis directly linked to the lack of affordable housing in Hawaii (the median price of a single family home on Oahu, for example, rose from $299,900 in 2001 to $630,000 in 2006), legislators and others seem ready to take definitive action to address affordable housing issues in general and the paralyzing development regulations specifically. Housing Hawaii, a coalition of affordable housing advocates, is facilitated by Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), with program guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Community Planning and Development in Honolulu.

Kevin Carney, Housing Hawaii president, stressed the need for action and not for further talk or studies. Such action now seems more likely, with many attending the conference noting the presence of state legislators and their willingness to engage in frank, productive conversation. Other speakers featured during the conference included, Micah Kane, chairman of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Paul Brewbaker, senior vice president and chief economist for the By Kristin Middaugh, Rural Community Assistance Corporation public affairs specialistBank of Hawaii and Jeff Loustau, executive director of the California Housing Consortium on Proposition 1C (Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006).

According to Denise Boswell, executive director of Housing Hawaii, “The conference was a great success. Real dialogue has begun and we are hopeful regulatory reform and cooperative action will follow.” Boswell also expressed Housing Hawaii’s great thanks to the partners who jointly sponsor the event. Those sponsors include ULI Hawaii and Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. Co-sponsors of the conference included, Charles and Devra Wathen, FannieMae, RCAC, Actus Lendlease, Avalon Development and Consulting, EAH Housing, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mark Development and Pacific Housing Advisors.

Housing Hawaii’s first conference on affordable housing in the state included high profile guest speakers including Pamela H. Patenaude, assistant secretary, HUD (center) seen here with Chuck Wathen, board member, Housing Hawaii (left), and Kevin Carney, president Housing Hawaii.