‘Stacks of rules for renters’

From Grassroot Institute, Jan 19, 2018

Everyone please welcome award-winning cartoonist and illustrator David Swann to the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii team. Formerly the editorial cartoonist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, he directs his first cartoon for us at recent news stories about Hawaii’s affordable housing crisis.

BTW, “STACKS OF RULES FOR RENTERS” was the headline of the lead story of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Sunday, Jan. 14 Insight section, which talked about about how state and county officials have “set rules that are meant to channel the lower-cost homes to people who otherwise struggle to afford housing … but some developers say constraints make the application process inflexible, a hard needle to thread.”

Paraphrasing a prominent local developer, the article added: “And units that go unrented in this costly environment will deter developers from building them … even more than they are already.”

Rules, rules, rules. No matter whom they cover — developers, homebuyers or renters — it’s clear there are too many of them. Can we come up some day for some air?

LINK: 75% Vacancy Rate for ‘affordable’ renters Thanks to Government Red Tape