At his sixth State of the City address, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi focused on improving affordability for Oʻahu residents and streamlining local government.
Blangiardi began his address Wednesday evening saying that the city faces many challenges, but that “ there is none greater and none more consequential to the people of Hawaiʻi than our affordability crisis.”
He said the goal for many of his administration’s efforts is to make it easier to live on the island, saying that the city’s outmigration rate is higher than the rest of the state.
He touted some of his initiatives to create more housing on Oʻahu, including 2,500 housing units in the works and 65 transactions for land where thousands of additional units can be built.
The address emphasized the regulations that he said slow housing and other parts of the government.
“When we deregulate, when we modernize our permitting systems, we reduce what it costs to build housing. When housing costs less, we build more and we create more jobs in the process,” Blangiardi said.
“When we eliminate waste, when we cut red tape, when we move faster, your families pay less. It's that simple. And this is what our team is focused on — driving change in city government that makes Honolulu more affordable.”
Structural adjustments
Some changes to reduce delays include the creation of the city’s Department of Housing and Land Management last May to speed up the conversion of underutilized land to housing.
He noted that the passage of the city’s Bill 7 also provides incentives for developers to build affordable housing.
Blangiardi said that the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting’s modernization and use of artificial intelligence speed up its permitting process — one of the major sources of delay for housing developers.
The mayor also said the city is “taking the lead” on rezoning land around the Honolulu rail so that developers don’t have to do that work themselves, which could help speed up the development of transit-oriented communities.
“When we concentrate housing near transit, we reduce traffic, we reduce commute times, we give families back hours of their lives every week, and we lower the cost of living,” he said.
The city is supporting a constitutional amendment that would allow counties to tap into the growth in property taxes, which would be used for infrastructure projects like wastewater drainage and other utilities.
The mayor said those are the “largest impediments” for housing developers.
He also wants to change regulations for housing developers, who can receive incentives if they produce a certain number of affordable housing units. But he said, “A policy meant to create affordable housing can end up making it harder to build any housing.”
Blangiardi said a faster government doesn’t just help with housing, but has also allowed the city to hire more quickly. He said the number of city employees has grown for four years straight.
The city’s Department of Customer Services will also start implementing artificial intelligence to handle phone calls about routine services like trash pickup days, so that employees can “focus on the work that requires a human touch,” he said.
Blangiardi touched on his efforts to reduce homelessness. He said that his goal last year was to get 1,000 homeless individuals off the street, and reported that the city has helped 2,000 individuals since the start of 2025. He credited investments in the city’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement team, and in opening facilities that provide housing and wraparound services.
He also called on the state Legislature to assist the city with siting a new landfill for the island, one of the most pressing issues the island is facing. The current Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, located on Oʻahu’s west side, is nearing capacity.
His administration wanted to place a new landfill in Wahiawā near an aquifer, but was barred from doing so after state lawmakers passed a law prohibiting that.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai’i, and it’s the people of Hawai’i who keep us independent and strong. Donate today. Mahalo for your support.
