Lawmakers approve $570 million for affordable housing
HONOLULU — State lawmakers have approved a bill that would allocate $570 million to create affordable housing units in Hawaii.
The bill — approved on Tuesday — now goes in front of Gov. David Ige for final consideration. If signed, the funds are projected to add more than 20,000 new homes across the state by 2030.
The bill is designed to incentivize private developers to build affordable housing.
It would give $200 million in cash to the Hawaii Housing Finance Development Corporation to start building immediately. It also allocates $360 million for tax credits to reimburse developers whose projects meet certain criteria. That credit runs through the year 2030 when lawmakers expect Hawaii to have at least 22,000 more homes.
State Rep. Tom Brower said the allocation would be the largest appropriation made by the Legislature. He said the bill demonstrates a “relentless commitment to providing innovative solutions to meet the state’s long-term housing demands.”
The bill itself was originally supposed to give $50,000 to a wait list study. The original bill has been “gutted” and “replaced” with hundreds of millions of dollars to stimulate affordable housing development.
Improvements to sidewalks in Waikiki slotted to start in May
HONOLULU — A portion of the sidewalks along Kalakaua Avenue will soon get an overhaul.
The overhaul is the first major Waikiki sidewalk project since the city readied the tourism district to host the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering.
The city said the project will begin May 1 and continue until January. The project includes repairing existing Kalakaua Avenue sidewalks with quartzite rock pavers, modifying or adding landscape strips, drainage improvements, irrigation systems and more.
In addition to sprucing up the sidewalks, city and private interests are increasingly looking for ways to implement landscaping and sidewalk designs that are designed to make loitering and sleeping on the sidewalk more difficult.
“We are definitely trying to remove attractive nuisances,” said Rick Egged, Waikiki Improvement Association president. “We are trying to clean up the urban landscape.”
Waikiki resident Dave Moskowitz said this week’s removal of a bench in front of the Coco Cove convenience store is an example of how public and private interests can work together to address long-standing neighborhood concerns.
“That was getting to be a very seedy area,” Moskowitz said. “People were hanging out there sleeping, loitering and selling drugs. There were fights and other problems with crime. I’d like to see more of these areas addressed to create more open, safe space.”
Robert Finley, Waikiki Neighborhood Board chairman, said the work will be welcome in Waikiki despite the disruptions.
“There will be a good deal of construction, which will disrupt things a little, but this is needed for safety reasons,” Finley said. “It’s the omelet-and-the-egg thing. You have to break the egg to make the omelet. In the end it will be beautiful.”