From experienced incumbents to political newcomers, the 14 people campaigning for seven Kauai County Council seats are a diverse group, but one thing they agree on is that the lack of affordable housing for the working class is tearing at the fabric of this island community.
Council chair Mel Rapozo put it this way at a candidate forum last week: “It’s not fair that our kids have got to move (out of state) to live a life, and not be able to enjoy the life that we were able to enjoy growing up.”
First-time candidate Butch Keahiolalo concurred, saying, “There’s not a lot of kids here in their 20s. You look around the workforce; they can’t afford to live here.”
U.S. Census Bureau data backs them up: The two smallest age groups on Kauai are residents 20-24 and 25-29 years old, the census found.
There are myriad reasons.
A report published in May by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization found that Kauai has the second-highest level of median asking rent in the nation — second only to Maui. Landlords were seeking an average of $1,800 for one-bedroom units, more than $2,500 for a two-bedroom residences and about $3,600 for three-bedroom units.
More than 47% of renters on Kauai pay nearly a third of their income in rent, and 23% of renters pay more than half of their income in rent, according to UHERO.
And in 2023, nearly 37% of the 426 single-family homes sold on Kauai were acquired by out-of-state buyers, the report said. For condos, more than 60% of the 296 units sold were purchased by out-of-state buyers.
The median price of a single-family home in 2023 was $945,000 on Kauai. The median price of a condo was nearly $800,000, the highest average in the state.
The squeeze is especially severe for the middle class, candidates said.
Former council member Arryl Kaneshiro, running after sitting out a term, said the council must support housing programs for working class people as a way to alleviate the high cost of living for local families.
“We have a lot of low-income housing, but the housing that we need to be supporting in the future is housing where families don’t qualify for low income-housing, but cannot afford houses in excess of a million dollars,” Kaneshiro said.
The current council has taken a few steps to try to address this.
A resolution approved May 29 established a tax hike for hotels and vacation rentals. Proposed by Council member Billy DeCosta and introduced by Rapozo, the measure will add nearly $8 million to the county’s Housing Development Fund for the next fiscal year. The fund already contains more than $20.3 million for the current fiscal year.
“The county right now has a checkbook where they can go out and buy land, build infrastructure and work with the development of middle-class housing,” DeCosta said.
Another bill in its early stages would allow construction of one guest house per existing dwelling in residential, agricultural, commercial, open and university zones. This guest unit could never be used for short-term rental. Bill 2933 is on the council’s agenda for a public hearing Wednesday, and will be taken up by the council’s Planning Committee after that.
The Exodus Affects Everyone
At last week’s two-night forum organized by the YWCA, moderator Lexi Jones said an average of 15,000 Native Hawaiians leave the state each year.
It’s a problem that directly affects even council candidates.
“My parents just retired and moved to Alabama,” Keahiolalo said. “They can’t afford to live here.”
Council member Felicia Cowden said the issue means “a whole lot” to her, as recently her youngest son, his wife and their young children moved to Kentucky.
“While I’m happy to see them thriving there, it’s hard for me to be separated,” Cowden said.
She said she would like to see the county pursuing a first-time homebuyer program that would fund a repayable down payment of $200,000 to $300,000.
To Cowden, most of the displacement from the island happens because of housing problems, which are exacerbated by infrastructure problems.
Council member Ross Kagawa agreed, citing old and deteriorating infrastructure, especially potable water and wastewater systems, as obstacles to building more housing.
Many of the issues brought up at the forum, including housing, are not core responsibilities of the county. While acknowledging this, candidates said the county can and must work in partnership with state and federal governments.
Kaneshiro pointed to public safety, roads and county facilities as the county’s core responsibilities. But he noted the county has created its own housing department.
And the housing problem can lead to other challenges for the county, YWCA Executive Director Renaé Hamilton-Cambeilh said after the forum.
For instance, she said, the shortage of affordable housing often results in social harms that affect women: destabilization of households, homelessness, violence, drug addiction, child endangerment and even sex trafficking.
That’s why candidates were asked to address problems of particular significance to women and girls, Hamilton-Cambeilh said.
A main cause for women to become houseless is domestic violence. If they have children, she said, safe housing becomes an even more urgent need.
Problems Beyond Housing
Incumbent KipuKai Kualii said the state and county are partners when it comes to ensuring a good quality of life.
“I think we must do everything we can to lessen people’s suffering and struggle, and to make their lives better in every way than we can,” Kualii said of social services.
Fern Holland, making her second run for the council, also pointed to the county’s core responsibilities. She too emphasized the housing crisis as a critical need on Kauai, and said the county will need “all levels of government on deck to kind of figure out solutions together.”
Council member Bernard Carvalho, who served as mayor from 2008 to 2018, said the biggest part of finding solutions is building strong partnerships with state and federal governments to bring money for different services.
Council member Addison Bulosan said that during his first two years on the job, he applied his life lessons to collaborate with county department heads, and state and federal officials to come up with solutions.
“The majority of my job, oftentimes, is seen as creating legislation, but really most of the time we spend is nurturing and taking care of relationships, and making sure we’re all working together,” he said.
Community members must also help each other, said first-time candidate Abe Apilado, who added it’s “foolish” to think seven council members, a mayor, a governor and even a president can solve all of society’s problems.
“Hold the justice system accountable” instead of letting domestic violence offenders off easy, Apilado said.
Apilado and Keahiolalo both said they are dealing with relatives who need mental health treatment and would support any county program or nonprofit organization addressing mental health.
“It takes a lot of people. I mean, even an entire family, sometimes, can’t even help one of their own family members. It can be very, very difficult,” Keahiolalo said.
Rapozo called mental health a national crisis and said it’s one of the issues county officials focus on when they meet with Hawaii’s congressional delegation, he said.
“It’s not acceptable for a parent, or a sibling, or a mom or dad to call for help and be told, ‘sorry, there’s a waiting list.’ How can there be a waiting list for mental health?” Rapozo said. “I get emotional about this because it’s wrong and we lose so many people unnecessarily.”
Childcare And Gender Equity
Last year, Hawaii was ranked the second most expensive state for childcare, according to Jones. Many candidates said they are directly affected by that.
DeCosta praised the county administration for building a day-care facility at the county building.
Cowden suggested paying mothers or fathers a stipend to allow them to care for their own children because “sometimes nobody does a better job.”
“We currently have programs in place that can help at different levels, income levels, sometimes free,” said Carvalho, who has six grandchildren.
Kagawa said one of his grandchildren attends a school in Lihue that provides childcare for up to 25 children. If parents cannot get their children enrolled, other options can get expensive, from $1,200 to $1,500 per month, he said.
Anything that the federal or the state government can do would be a tremendous benefit, whether it would be through providing tax credits or preschool for kids, Kagawa said.
Kaneshiro said coming out of the pandemic, everyone realized how important childcare was. He said the state is looking to provide preschool for all children by 2032.
On another issue, gender equity in law enforcement and firefighting is lacking on Kauai. Jones said there are no active women firefighters, and only 11 out of 85 Kauai Police Department patrol officers are women. There are no female detectives and no women in leadership positions above the rank of lieutenant.
Kualii said the Kauai Fire Department chief told him there were two women in last year’s recruit class, and both failed the agility tests.
“It’s very clear that in order for our county to achieve gender equity — more female representation in our fire and police departments — we need to do a better job with our recruiting,” Kualii said.
Cowden said women might make different types of police officers by approaching situations differently.
‘Sex Trafficking Isn’t What I Thought It Was’
Jones said in 2022, the average age of sex trafficking victims on Kauai was 19, with 43% of victims Native Hawaiian girls and women.
Kagawa said he has been told by the county prosecuting attorney and the police department they need help to address sex trafficking. He was not aware of the scope of the problem, he said, perhaps because police and prosecutors may withhold details out of privacy concerns. But as a father of two grown daughters and a grandfather of three young girls, he said he is willing to tackle the issue.
“Sex trafficking isn’t what I thought it was,” Kaneshiro said. “It’s actually happening here in the home, and it’s a very hidden thing.”
Kaneshiro, who had just watched a presentation on the topic, said it can be as simple as someone sending pictures in exchange for money, or something worse, such as someone “doing things” because of a financial burden, drug abuse or domestic violence. He said the perpetrator is usually someone close to the victim’s family.
The presentation he had watched, Kaneshiro said, noted young homeless women out on their own usually get solicited within the first two days for some type of sexual activity.
The YWCA invited seven candidates to attend each night, Wednesday and Thursday. On the first evening, Rapozo attended along with Carvalho, Kagawa, Holland, Keahiolalo and Kaneshiro. Bart Thomas was absent due to a medical emergency.
The second day was attended by Cowden, Kualii, Bulosan, DeCosta, and Apilado. Hamilton-Cambeilh said Sherri Cummings and Jakki Nelson did not respond to invitations.
Civil Beat will host a Kauai County Council candidates forum Friday, Oct. 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Kauai Community College Fine Arts Auditorium, 3-1901 Kaumualii Hwy., Lihue.
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