As Hawaiʻi's hiring and retention costs climb, some employers are providing housing options to support their workforce.
In the next five years, Hawaiʻi's largest health system will build 150 below-market-rate residential units on Hawaiʻi Island, on the campus of a planned new hospital in Kailua-Kona. They're being built for a specific group: hospital employees.
It's the first employer housing for The Queen's Health Systems. And it's one of the most permanent examples of employers addressing Hawaii’s housing shortage and high cost of living.
Queen’s is planning to build an 80-bed hospital that will sit on a 32-acre campus in West Hawaiʻi Business Park. The 150 on-site housing units for hospital employees will be located in three low-rise buildings with rental apartments and for-sale condominiums.
Queen’s Health System President and CEO Jason Chang says the expected timeline for opening the new hospital is five years. He says that’s also the timeline to have the first employees move into their new homes, if not sooner.
The housing will be reserved for the hospital's full-time staff and will be offered at below-market rents and prices for as long as they work at the Kona hospital. Some units will also be reserved for the rotating doctors and specialists who live off-island but work in Kona a few days a month.
Queen's had attempted in the past to partner with developers on subsidized employee housing. But those projects fell through because investors wanted quicker returns. This time, Queen’s will fund and build the housing itself. That allows for a long-term approach and slower return on investment — Chang says as long as 20 years.
Chang says this model of employer housing could be transformational for the healthcare industry. And if it's successful, he says Queen's may continue the model across the Hawaiian Islands.
