Testimony Needed: Tell City Council that we need affordable housing

This Thursday, September 22 starting at 9:30a, The Honolulu City Council’s Zoning & Planning Committee will be hearing two bills that may significantly impact affordable housing:

Resolution 16-172 (for the Manaolana Place luxury condo-hotel across from the Convention Center near the proposed Ala Moana Rail station): This will only require the developer to contribute only $2.4 million to an affordable housing fund. Alternatively, the developer could build at least 16 affordable rental units within a half mile of the Ala Moana or Kakaako Rail stations, but only if they prefer to do that rather than contribute the money.
Bill 74: This bill would lock in development standards for transit-oriented development along the Rail stations. Currently, there are no real affordable housing standards for this type of development, and Bill 74 doesn’t propose any.

We must continue to hold corporations and developers accountable to our community, and demanding real affordable housing is one way to do so. Rail was supposed to help provide a better quality of life for local residents, including building affordable housing for working people along the Rail.

Submit testimony to the Zoning & Planning Committee before 9:30a on Thu. 9/22: demand to City Council that we need affordable housing now. You can testify in person, or just submit written testimony. Here are two ways you can submit testimony:

Visit the City Council website. You must submit one form for Resolution 16-172 and one form for Bill 74:
- Fill out your name, phone number, and email
- Meeting date is 9/22/16.
- Council/PH Committee is Zoning & Planning Committee
- Agenda item is Resolution 16-172 and Bill 74 (remember to submit one form for each)
- Your position on the matter: “I just wish to comment”
- You can register to speak in person at the hearing, or not
- Write your written testimony in the box, or attach it as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
Email your testimony using the form below, with the Zoning & Planning Committee CCed:

Your Name

Your Email

Subject Line

Your Message

Aloha, City Council Zoning & Planning Committee: \n\n The point of transit-oriented development was to build affordable housing for working people along the Rail so that people can take Rail to and from work. Statewide, people are struggling every month to pay their rents and mortgages. Hawaii has an affordable housing crisis, and we need at least 64,000 affordable housing units to meet the growing need. \n\n It is alarming that Resolution 16-172 will allow for a 400 ft. luxury condo-hotel to be built near the future Ala Moana Rail station, and the developer will only be required to give only $2.4 million to an affordable housing fund, or build only 16 affordable housing units. \n\n Meanwhile, Bill 74 contemplates affordable housing as a community benefit in transit-oriented development areas, but sets no actual standards or quotas; the language can be easily ignored by developers. \n\n City Council should put in real, quantifiable affordable housing requirements that any residential development seeking a Planned Development-Transit permit must meet, which cannot be waived, reduced, or met with in-lieu fees. Developers should be required to incorporate a significant amount of truly affordable housing (equivalent to at least 20% of the project's units as rental units for people at 80% of AMI or lower, or 25% of the project's units as for-sale units for people at 100% of AMI or lower). \n\n I strongly urge you to make sure that our community gets a fair deal for the benefits and waivers we are granting to developers.