Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday signed six bills into law intended to address the state’s lack of affordable housing for Hawaii’s working-class families.
The centerpiece legislation, Senate Bill 3202, requires Hawaii’s four counties to adopt or amend ordinances by Dec. 31, 2026, to allow for at least two accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, on all urban residential-zoned lots. The measure — introduced by Senate Housing Chairman Stanley Chang, a Honolulu Democrat — also prohibits private land-sale covenants from including certain restrictions.
“Our local families are leaving in large numbers in the last few years, and that is because housing is too expensive. They can’t get it,” said Green. “So, they’re going to Las Vegas … which is not really where people should live if they’re local people. They should stay in Hawaii. Only one in five of our households here in Hawaii can afford a median single-family home. And that was made more difficult by the fact that interest rates are very high right now.
“… What this bill does, is it allows urban homeowners with utility capacity to build up to two accessory dwelling units on residential lots. Right now, people can build an ‘ohana unit — like, you’ve got some relatives that you need to try to house on your property — or you can build an ADU. This will allow you to build up to two units on your property.
“This is a very straightforward way to help, in the right place, build some of that additional capacity for our people so they don’t have to leave and be in other states.”
Other legislation Green signed into law includes:
• House Bill 1760, which enables the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and counties to implement a bond volume cap and ensures the exclusion of any bond debt incurred by the program from the state’s outstanding debt limit.
• House Bill 1925, which establishes and funds the Hawaii State Planning Act Phase II Task Force, continuing the work of a previous task force to guide long-range state development and housing policy solutions.
• House Bill 2090, which directs counties to allow adaptive reuse of existing commercial buildings, increasing housing inventory by repurposing underutilized commercial spaces and office buildings.
• Senate Bill 2066, which provides an alternative pathway for housing projects to seek exemptions from certain state laws and rules, expediting the regulatory process to increase affordable housing units.
• Senate Bill 2133, which authorizes the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to issue bonds for housing project infrastructure, financing the development of regional state infrastructure projects, particularly in transit-oriented development (TOD) areas.
The bond volume cap, which is the current annual limit for tax-exempt bonds, is $378 million.
“These bills, each incrementally, do something different to help expedite building,” Green said. “And sooner or later, the fever will break, and we’ll have housing for a lot of people. But this is what it’s going to take.
“We committed to building 13,000 affordable units by 2026, so we need tools to do that,” Green said. “And the Legislature has given us a number of tools which are fantastic. We also have 60,000 units in the pipeline, but a lot of them get stuck in the pipeline because the financing doesn’t match up, or the properties are just too difficult to acquire, or people don’t make moves on (TOD). So many problems, we have to kind of break this logjam.”
Hawaii U.S. Sen Brian Schatz, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, praised the actions taken by Green and the Legislature — in particular, referring to SB 3202 as “a seminal moment for Hawaii politics and for Hawaii housing.”
“If you want to embrace your neighbors, if you really care about the firefighter, the teacher, the construction worker, the elderly, the disabled, the student — you have to allow them to find a place to live,” said Schatz. “And that’s what this bill does. If we want to change Hawaii for the better and stop losing our local families, we simply have to find a way to make it easier to build enough housing.
“It is not enough for us to say we are in favor of housing generically. We also have to be for housing when it may inconvenience us, when we may see that housing, when it may even be in our own neighborhoods. We are tens of thousands of units short. And if we are serious about changing that, it’s going to take courage and clarity, and a willingness on the part of the Legislature and community leaders to do hard things.”
In addition, Green mentioned SB 2919, legislation he signed into law May 3 that would give counties the authority to control the time, place, manner and duration of land uses — particularly transient accommodations, including short-term vacation rentals.
“We have way too many short-term rentals in our state; many of them are illegal,” Green said. “And we now have empowered the counties to bring some of those short-term rentals back to local families. The numbers are about 89,000 short-term rentals across the state. We believe about 75,000 of them are of questionable approval.
“We will do well if each of the mayors take advantage of that legislation and bring housing back to the market — particularly in West Maui in the short-term. There’s about 7,000 units that need to be brought back to the market. … If that happens, we can get through the tragedy on Maui much more easily.”
Green asked for those opposed or skeptical of the Legislature’s actions to “please give it a chance.”
“We have a housing crisis,” he said. “It is serious; it’s affecting everyone in our state. And our Legislature stepped up. We’re taking action.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
