Shacks are the solution
I read with interest the regular Tribune-Herald articles on the relentless building codes fiasco in Hawaii.
Today, billions of people around the world live in unpermitted structures (also known as “shacks”) in sprawling urban slums. The reason governments tolerate this is because the alternative is billions of homeless people creating social chaos.
These so-called slums are in fact a solution to a housing problem. There is a growing consensus that construction of unpermitted, owner-built structures is a viable solution to the housing crisis. So-called slums are places where countless people live meaningful lives in reasonable comfort and security, where the alternative is to live on the street with nothing.
In Hawaii, we witness “let-them-eat-cake” regulatory cluelessness, where bureaucrats argue over the finer details of building codes for structures that no one but the top 1% can afford to build or occupy.
Why anyone in Hawaii living below 3,000 feet of elevation would need double-wall construction as a home for vermin is a complete mystery. Or insulated windows. Or plywood sheathing beneath a metal roof. Or a massive concrete foundation consuming tons of concrete and steel. Or … the list of nonsensical building requirements is endless. If you can afford it, fine. But most cannot afford it.
To Hawaii’s credit, owner-built shacks on catchment water with solar panels are springing up unmolested by the sides of Puna and Ka‘u roads where poor people can afford to live. This is not a problem. It is a solution to a problem. Hawaii’s hands-off approach to date is one of the few things the state government is doing right.
Let the bureaucrats argue over things they are handsomely paid to argue over, but let the people get on with the serious business of survival without the state becoming the problem.
One man’s “shack” is another man’s castle and dream come true, and it is one less homeless family on the street. If rich people do not want to look at owner-built structures, the alternative is to look at tents on sidewalks and homeless encampments everywhere.
All over the world, population growth has outstripped economic growth. Like it or not, owner-built structures are a serious component of the future of housing everywhere.
People with nothing have nothing to lose. The state ignores this fact at its peril.
John Powers
Pahoa