Lease renegotiations in Waiāhole may result in rents that are lower for tenants than initially offered by the landowner, the Hawai’i Housing Finance and Development Corporation, or HHFDC.
The HHFDC Board of Directors approved a plan last week to cut the rent for its 91 lessees in Waiāhole Valley, including tenants who may have already settled on a new amount.
The state has subsidized rents for tenants in the O’ahu valley at below-market rates for decades. But low rents and increased maintenance costs have led to an annual operating loss of $1.1 million.
"At the very outset, the board decided, under no circumstance, would the lease rent negotiations result in any farm business having to close or any residential lessee having to be displaced as a result," said Chris Woodard, chief planner at the HHFDC.
He said the affordable housing agency has continued to look for ways to meet the needs of their tenants.
"For most of those lessees, we’re revising our existing offers. We’re gonna come down a little bit on the rental rate. More on the higher lot size," he said.
"If you have a 1-acre lot, we’re willing to come down a lot more than if you lease say a 7,500-square-foot lot. So we’re in the process of preparing those revised lease rent offers."
Residential lessees have until July 1 to finalize negotiations on a new rent amount or face arbitration. Agricultural lessees have until Aug. 1 to settle on a new rent amount or face mediation.
