City Still Failing on Affordable Housing

News Release from www.Djou.com  September 22, 2016

Honolulu, HI - Honolulu Mayoral Candidate Charles Djou, with housing expert Peter Savio, commented on today's zoning committee hearing on the Manaolana development.  The Manaolana project, to be located at Atkinson St and Kapiolani Blvd, is the first rail transit development to be considered by the City.

"Last week we learned that the City failed to spend tens of millions of dollars in the affordable housing fund and we may now lose this money.  This week we learned that millions of dollars the City did spend on affordable housing was inappropriately spent and may have to get repaid to the Federal government.  Today our community learns that the first rail development project, which is supposed to have an affordable housing component, is botched," stated Djou.  "This shows a clear pattern of failure by the City administration on housing for our people.  This is more than just typical City mismanagement.  We have a severe affordable housing shortage and a homeless crisis unfolding on our streets.  The failure of the City to get its act together hurts real people who are in desperate need of housing."

Peter Savio commented, "We need to provide a path to home ownership, by encouraging equity-build affordable housing, not just more rentals."

To date, the Caldwell administration has still not yet submitted its affordable housing plan to the City Council. 

• Last week, it was reported that the City has failed to spend $26 million in the affordable housing fund and such failure may require the City to give back these funds to the Federal government.
• This week, an audit uncovered that $16 million the City did spend on affordable housing may have been mis-spent, and the City may have to refund the money.
• Today at the Zoning Committee, the City Council deferred action on the Manaolana hotel and condo project because the City administration still has no final affordable housing plan and no idea if any in lieu fee for the project will actually get used for affordable housing.

Djou with affordable housing expert Peter Savio at the corner of Atkinson St and Kapiolani Blvd where the Manaolana development is slated to be built.  This would be the first rail development project for Honolulu, but it has no clear affordable housing component.

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Charles Djou is running for Mayor of Honolulu. He represented Hawaii's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House and previously served on the Honolulu City Council and Hawaii State House.  Djou is an Army Reservist and Afghanistan war veteran.  He is married to Stacey Kawasaki Djou and together they have three children.