Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth on Monday signed into law Bill 72, which establishes “an affordable housing preference” for Hawaii Island residents.
According to a press release from Roth’s office, the bill amends key provisions of Hawaii County’s Affordable Housing Policy — contained in Hawaii County Code Chapter 11 — to enhance access to affordable housing for those who live and work on Hawaii Island.
“Our local kids and their families are our number one priority,” Roth said in the press release. “Signing Bill 72 into law solidifies our county’s commitment to our people and ensures they will legally have preference in receiving housing under our county’s Affordable Housing Policy.
The measure was spearheaded by County Council Chair Heather Kimball and Vice Chair Holeka Inaba.
The bill revises the definition of an “eligible buyer” to mean a person who meets eligibility requirements, including income limitations, as established by the chapter or by rule. This change effectively broadens the eligibility criteria, potentially allowing more residents to qualify for affordable housing.
The bill also adds language defining three types of qualified applicants for affordable housing: a “qualified resident,” a “qualified returning student” and a “qualified worker.”
The third amendment to Chapter 11 establishes preference criteria for affordable housing applicants. It outlines specific applicant preferences based on the three new definitions listed above.
Kimball told the Tribune-Herald on Monday said that anyone nationwide is able to apply for affordable housing in the county, which can pose problems.
“We realized that we’re subsidizing all this affordable housing, but county residents aren’t getting any kind of priority,” Kimball said.
Kimball said the bill doesn’t prohibit out-of-state residents from applying for county affordable housing — hence the language referring to “preference” rather than “requirement” — and that the county Office of the Corporation Counsel went to great lengths to ensure that the measure doesn’t violate any anti-discrimination laws.
The housing administrator is given the authority to set the order of preferences and the selection process for applicants for any given county-managed affordable housing project.
Kimball said she expects the Office of Housing and Community Development will set up a scoring system to determine who is selected for a project, but added that it likely will be implemented on a project-by-project basis.
“When we are investing and using public funds on affordable housing projects, we want to make sure that we can give Hawaii residents preference for housing when possible,” said Housing Administrator Susan Kunz. “This law creates the mechanism to do just that for projects overseen by the Office of Housing and Community Development.”
