AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MAUI COUNTY COUNCIL

WE NEED AN EFFECTIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICY AND AUTHORITY FOR MAUI COUNTY

How do you quantify dignity? Is it something a busy County Council can insure while serving other time consuming tasks? Can the position of Mayor do so when the person will change every 4-8 years? Or is it a task which can be handed to an Affordable Housing Authority, whose main mission would be to insure dignity for the working people of our County for decades to come?

Substantive answers to this long standing dilemma have been offered and accepted by the Maui County Council. It’s time to turn these very constructive recommendations by Maui Tomorrow and MEO Affordable Housing Task Force into effective laws and agencies. 

Housing prices for local families have risen to unobtainable levels due to real estate speculation and a vast number of very affluent off-island buyers clamoring to own a piece of ‘paradise’. With infrastructure “at its capacity” and 38,000 new housing units planned by developers (John Summers, Maui County Planning Department), where will quality affordable housing fit into this huge picture? Who will define it? How do we insure the affordable homes go to long time residents and local families and not fuel an influx of new people? How do we insure that there is a generational future for the families that live here now?

If the present trend in development is reflected in the 38,000 new units, the majority will be for high end customers. As of today, twenty percent of Maui County homes are owned by mainland residents and are suspected to be part of the vacation rental industry. Do over 75% of these homes end up in short term rentals? How has this affected the price and availability of long term rentals, fueling the local housing crisis?
 
Truly affordable – what has been called ‘real’ housing - is vital to stop the exodus of long term residents and locals to the mainland. More Hawaiians now live on the mainland than here in Hawaii. Jon Matsuoka, Dean of the UH School of Social Work states, “You don’t have rich Hawaiians living on the mainland buying these (luxury) homes”.

Draining of our community, our culture and our people has continued despite a primary directive as required by the Hawaii State Plan (HRS 226-19) (the legal mandate for guiding development) which states that county and state housing policy must insure housing for our resident population as a priority over the development of housing for non-residents.

Our elected County officials are charged to protect our quality of life, to insure housing that we can afford. The diligence and forethought needed, the very mechanics necessary to make this happen, haven’t been codified in an effective manner. Today, we hear the frustration of the Maui County Council and a determined voice to make sustentative changes.

During deliberations on Hale Mua, Councilmember Tavares called for COMPLETING a new affordable housing policy, moratorium on 201G’s etc. Council Chair Riki Hokama voiced anger and frustration at the project. Councilman Dane Kane spoke of his concerns. Councilmember Michelle Anderson and other Members spoke of the inappropriateness of 201G breaking the General and Community Plans and our plans for the Maui future. And Councilman Danny Mateo ask – who are we building houses for?
Councilmember Molina’s concern was heard - the well at Hamakuapoko is planned as the water source for this subdivision. This well, now used as an emergency well for Upcountry during droughts, would be diverted. And yet, Hale Mua passed, 7 to 2. Let’s not allow this type of development be forced on the Council again.

No effective mechanism is available today to answer urgent affordable housing needs. The County’s Housing and Human concerns department has been an ineffective mechanism to handle the complexities of the County’s affordable housing. The present Director of this department has stated, “We (The Department of Housing and Human Concerns) are not in the affordable housing business” – though this is the department that is looked on to manage our affordable housing today. The people of Maui County urgently need a new mechanism that deals solely with affordable housing - a mechanism that will not increase or decrease its direction and goal with each change of director or political wind.

Affordable housing must have effective long range guidelines and policies – to give a balance of a large quantity of well constructed homes made of quality materials and built in geographic areas that follow our general and community plans. This is the way to insure dignity and a future for our families. It’s the only way to insure we keep our small towns alive. We need a level and understandable playing field for developers to have clearly delineated guidelines. The clarity from such focused guidelines works for everyone.

Our history has shown real affordable housing can be guaranteed only if we have a comprehensive, well thought out and enforceable affordable housing policy; or even better, the creation of a stand-alone affordable housing authority.  Such an authority would have the mission to insure perpetual quality affordable housing, for our police, fireman, elderly, teachers and the rest of our community. Housing that would stay affordable for the life of the property. Having the ability to set the amount of compensation a developer would give, while at the same time following our community plans.

The most recent example of the County having no affective policy is the Hale Mua project. Hale Mua falls short in several areas, including segregation of affordable housing from high end housing, percentage of affordable, the high profitability for what was proposed as a 201G fast track development and the construction materials for affordable homes. Our County Council voted for approval Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005, even while expressing great displeasure with the project.

Hale Mua was negotiated into its present form during personal negations between Mayor Arakawa and the developer. What began as 100% affordable offering with larger lots was negotiated to 50% affordable, a smaller affordable segment lot size, so small that ohana units cannot be built. 80% of the lands in the development will now house ‘market’ priced homes – the original affordable numbers were negotiated in lieu of a bridge the developer has promised to build.

For the affordable segment we now will have - 5,000 sq foot lots, zero lot lines, questionable building materials, inability to build ohana units – and only 20% of the developer’s land going for affordable. The “market value” homes will have large, comfortable lots, with over a dozen multi-acre lots for the very rich to build their mansions. And ALL of these homes receive the affordable housing exemptions according to the rules of the 201G process.

201G was meant to insure rapid development of worthy affordable housing – 100% affordable – when written decades ago; today it is used by developers to package their market value homes - it is an old and outdated law that walks on the tenets of our General and County Plans. It pushes the Council to make hasty decisions.

201G developers should provide costs of development and projected profits. A limited percentage of profitability for fast-track is the only ethical use of such a process. Hale Mua stands to profit many millions of dollars.

Hale Mua affordable housing units will use recycled polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, sandwiched between wood chips held together with plastic resin. It has the potential to make people sick, is of questionable life expectancy, will live forever in our landfills and can give off noxious gases in a fire. When checked out on the National Institute of Health website, there are 474 listed scientific studies on safety and toxicity issues with Styrofoam.

Styrene is seen as a suspected developmental toxin, endocrine toxin, immunotoxin, reproductive toxin and respiratory toxin. (Toxic Substances – Focus on Children, Canadian Environmental Law Association, June 2004, Page 51)

According to manufacturer of Styrofoam, solvent-based wood preservatives, paint thinners and common solvents, "...will attack STYROFOAM Brand products, resulting in softening, shrinkage and dissolution. Polystyrene products will melt when brought into direct contact with high temperature heat sources (and) may burn rapidly." (Other websites talk of the thick black smoke and Cyanide gas that are results of such fires.)

Styrofoam is the brand name for the Dow Chemical product which is a plastic made from polystyrene, a chemical that is absorbed through the lungs, skin, and intestines. It has been listed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry as a "possible carcinogen" and an irritant that also affects the nervous system. The registry, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, reports on its web page that styrene vapors are most likely to come from building materials and consumer products such as food containers. On Dow Chemical's material safety data sheet, the company lists Styrofoam's hazardous routes into the body as "inhalation and ingestion" and says that it is dangerous to the eyes, may cause choking, is an "upper respiratory tract" irritant, and can cause depression and "irregular heart beats." http://www.fwweekly.com/issues/2002-02-28/metropolis.html

Is this the building material of the future for Maui County affordable housing?

An Affordable Housing Authority could insure better standards for materials As it is, this isn’t possible. The Maui County Department of Public Works Director states that as long as a material meets Universal Building Code (UBC) requirements, they will be permitted in affordable housing.

The UBC is a building industry organization with some government members. It has no mandate to delve into the concerns of the EPA and others to insure a higher standard of toxicological safety. This is a flaw in the County’s current review system for affordable housing.

If the Styrofoam/particleboard material meets such codes, then the codes and their authority are in question. The National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency rate these as hazardous materials for humans and the environment..

The Maui County Council has the ability today, thru legislation and enactment of a Maui County Housing Authority, to set the direction of our future and to insure the health and safety of affordable housing. We can have both good value and safe homes. The Maui County Council has heard from and given accolades to local organizations that have spent countless hours researching answers to the challenge of affordable housing.  There were major presentations from March to June 2005 to the Council as well as to individual Council Members by Maui Tomorrow and Maui Nui Affordable Housing Task Force. (info at: www.maui-tomorrow.org.)

The answers are before the Council. The Council was forced to spend considerable time on Pu’unoa and Hale Mua. An equal time commitment from them to hear and complete an affordable housing policy now will insure answers for future development and go far in showing the commitment of this Council.

Let’s start with hearings this month. Please let your Council Members know what you think of getting this done today. And back their efforts as they do so.

Sean Lester