A pair of bills moving through the County Council will carve out 1% of property tax revenues each year and dedicate the money to an expanded range of programs to increase affordable housing.
Bill 153, proposing a charter amendment to be placed on the November ballot providing the 1% earmark, faces three readings by the council and must receive at least six yes votes to proceed. If approved by voters, it would go into effect in the next budget year, depositing the tax proceeds into the county housing program revolving fund.
“This is something the Office of Housing and Community Development will be able to count on to advance their initiatives for affordable housing across our county,” said North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba, who sponsored the measures along with Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball.
“This allocation puts the county’s money where our mouth is, and that’s to support these initiatives that we are genuinely in support of,” Inaba said.
The charter amendment, if passed, would raise about $4 million annually under current property tax estimates.
Charter amendments have already claimed 3.25% of property tax revenues for special purposes: 2% to purchase open space land, .25% to hire nonprofits to maintain them and 1% for a disaster and emergency fund.
Finance Director Deanna Sako said the administration prefers more flexibility in budgeting funds.
“There are a lot of fixed costs in the budget,” she said.
Bill 152 would expand programs using money from the revolving fund from two to nine. Currently, the money can be used for planning design and development of affordable housing units by the county or nonprofit development partners and to exercise any buyback options in conveyance documents.
The measure would add to that the acquisition of land or existing structures for use as affordable housing, rehabilitation of existing structure currently being used for affordable housing, infrastructure for development of affordable housing, subsidies, grants and loans to support very low and low income households with upfront costs for rental units or mortgage financing and rental or mortgage assistance to prevent homelessness or foreclosure and purchasing deed restrictions on private properties limiting resales to qualified low income and moderate income households.
“We’re seeing this divide grow between the have-a-lots and the have-nothing-at-all and we need to foster that middle,” Kimball said. “Those are the folks that keep the fabric of our society together.”
Housing Administrator Susan Kunz said she supports the intent of the measure, but she’s uncertain Bill 152 has passed legal scrutiny.
“This community needs housing, we need affordable housing and although the administration has done quite a bit this first year to pack the pipeline with viable projects, it’s not enough,” Kunz said. “This particular bill would add another tool to the toolbox.”
Most council members gave the measures a thumbs up, although some said some tweaking may be necessary.
“We’re all putting a lot of effort … in trying to address homelessness, low income housing. You know what, we should really, really not lose sight of the middle-income people,” Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung said. “They’re getting priced out of the market especially with this influx of new moneys coming in and if we’re only going to concentrate on the lower end, we risk losing all of our young people who are having to go away to find affordable housing.”
Kuntz estimated those at the top of the affordable housing scale make about $80,000 per person annually and could qualify for a $500,000 home. But some of the projects outlined in Bill 152 are targeted to very low or low-income households making less.
The council Finance Committee last week voted 7-2 to forward the measures to the May 4 council meeting with positive recommendations.
Kohala Councilman Tim Richards, who, along with Ashley Kierkiewicz voted no on both measures, worried there weren’t enough protections for the middle class.
“The middle class is the one that is the largest and thereby actually pays most of the taxes and is the big demographic that we really need to worry about
if we want this society to be successful going forward,” Richards said.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
