Senate President Ron Kouchi said many of the state’s problems can be traced back to one thing: housing.
"I know there's a lot of you out there who are still fighting to get your children home, or your grandchildren home, and the obstacle is the housing. But that's why we need the investment in the infrastructure," Kouchi said Wednesday.
"We need to get through the permitting process and build the units faster because this housing affects everything we're trying to do in this economy, everything in what we're trying to do in creating a better life for all of us here in Hawaiʻi."
Gov. Josh Green requested a $250 million investment in housing, and Kouchi said that because the state is in good financial shape, it’s something the Legislature should be able to do — if not more.
Across the Hawaiʻi State Capitol courtyard in the House, Speaker Nadine Nakamura said investing in more affordable housing will be top of mind for lawmakers as they try to address the cost of living in Hawaiʻi.
"For those families between 60% and 140% of AMI, making sure that we have funding in there to subsidize the development of affordable rental housing so that working families have a place, have options in Hawaiʻi, and it's not going to be built without state assistance and state subsidies," she said, referring to area median income.
To compound the state’s housing shortages, insurance premiums on condominiums have become increasingly challenging for owners to find and afford.
Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, the chair of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, said the future of insurance is even more uncertain following the devastating fires burning in Los Angeles.
That’s why lawmakers will be considering measures to establish a state insurance model that homeowners could use as a last-ditch effort.
"We have limited resources in state government, so we can't guarantee that prices will be at the levels that homeowners are accustomed to. But what we don't want to do is leave homeowners to the four winds to have to access unregulated, out-of-state insurance, from anywhere around the world. We want to try and make sure that they have options available in Hawaiʻi," he said.
Keohokalole said that in the long term, homeowners will need to harden their homes to make them more fire-resistant and build more security within the housing market.
One way the governor wants to accomplish this is through two funds equal to about $2 billion to go toward climate resiliency and make direct payments to households in natural disasters.
Green is suggesting using interest from the state’s $1.5 billion rainy day fund to do this.
But House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita was hesitant about touching the state’s reserves due to fluctuations in the economy.
Speaker Nakamura said there are two unknowns looming over the session.
One is whether or not the $4 billion Maui wildfire victim settlement — to which the state would contribute $800 million — will go through.
The second involves federal funding impacts under President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on Monday.
