Hawaii Congressional Delegation--How they Voted January 3, 2025
Political Connections Pay Off: Some ‘affordable’ housing subsidies are a lot fatter than others
CB: … From 2020 through 2024, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. — which oversaw the distribution of the money — doled out awards to 40 projects promising nearly 5,000 affordable rental units statewide….
The Legislature directed the $300 million in 2022 to the state’s Rental Housing Revolving Fund, which makes low-interest loans to housing developers.
It was the revolving fund’s largest cash infusion in its then-16-year history. In 2021, legislators had earmarked $25 million for the fund and it later would add $280 million to spend during the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years.
Gov. Josh Green in December proposed keeping the momentum going with $250 million more for the fund over the next two fiscal years, which, if approved by the Legislature, would be raised through general obligation bonds.
Following the record appropriation, $320 million went to develop about 2,000 apartment units around the state, from Hilo to Kihei to Kaka’ako….
(DO THE MATH: ($320M / 2,000 = $160K per unit subsidy)
“Without it we wouldn’t be able to build rentals,” said Carr, who received $24 million in Tier 2 funds to help build 124 units.
(DO THE MATH: ($24M / 124 = $193K per unit subsidy. This means Carr is #2.)
Kahuina will include a mixture of market rate and affordable condominiums. It is set to break ground in 2025, Carr said, and will take about 2½ years to complete. Rents will range from $1,715 for a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment to $3,396 for a three-bedroom, two-bath.
(That’s affordable? No that is a trap designed to keep you on the rental treadmill. You will never be able to save money for a down payment.)
A second project that won a workforce housing award in 2002 — the 97-unit Koa Vista II, in the Central Oʻahu town of Waipiʻo — has also progressed and workers are preparing the site for construction. Koa Vista received $25 million in state support.
(97 1br units renting at $1,500/mo = 145,500 x 12 = $1.7M/$25M = 6.98 GRM)
(REALITY: We are paying them $25 so they can collect this rent, LOL!)
(CLUE: Koa Vista II is Castle & Cooke.)
(DO THE MATH: ($25M / 97 = $258K per unit subsidy. This means Castle & Cooke is #1.)
Just over half the 2022 appropriation went to five lower-income projects — four of them now being built — for a combined 1,036 apartment units.
(DO THE MATH: ‘Just over’ $160M / 1,036 = ‘just over’ $145K per unit subsidy. These are the runners up.)
(CONCLUSION: Better connected developers are getting better subsidies. Based on the numbers, Castle & Cooke is #1, Stanford Carr is #2, and the rest need to make more campaign contributions.)
read … Is Hawaiʻi's Historic Investment In Affordable Housing Paying Off?
Double your sewer fees to fund $12.6B boondoggle as big as Rail -- Calvin Say’s last Hurrah
SA: … Near the end of his final term on the Honolulu City Council, Calvin Say offered a piece of legislation with one stated purpose: to relieve Oahu taxpayers from having to pay for one major economic burden that’s been in place here for nearly 15 years.
(TRANSLATION: Double your sewer bill with a Christmas tree’d list of sewer projects.)
Say’s plan under Resolution 24-287, which he introduced in December, would postpone or terminate the City and County of Honolulu’s federally mandated 2010 consent decree with regard to its wastewater collection system in order to reduce billions of dollars in city spending.
($2.5B for consent decree … aaaannnndddd $10.1B in other miscellaneous projects hung on Christmas Tree—making this almost as big as rail. Calvin Say going out with a bang you will pay for until you move to the Mainland. Link: SOURCE.)
But to make any change to that consent decree — meant to prevent untreated sewage from entering Oahu’s marine and shoreline environments — is difficult to accomplish, city officials say.
That’s because the legally binding agreement — entered into by the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health on Dec. 17, 2010 — also mandates extensive improvements, upgrades and preventive maintenance to the city’s waste collection system.
The work is currently centered on an estimated $2.5 billion “full secondary treatment” upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant at 1350 Sand Island Parkway.
The project, which turns contaminated water into recycled water that can be used for things like landscaping, must be completed by 2035, the city said.
A similar $536 million upgrade to the city’s 45-year-old Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ewa Beach was completed in May.
Still, Say believed deferring or delaying work at the Sand Island plant could help taxpayers as they face the city’s newly proposed sewer fee hike this year.
(REALLY EASY IQ Test: Do you believe any of this is motivated by a desire to ‘help taxpayers’?)
If approved under Bill 60, the city Department of Environmental Services says the planned sewer fee increases — which amount to a total increase of 115% across all rate-paying classes over a decade — would take effect July 1.
Overall, the city’s proposed sewer rate hikes will start with a 9% annual adjustment for the first six years, followed by smaller increases of 8%, 7%, 6% and 5% in the final four years, officials said.
Currently, the city says, an average single-family residential sewer bill totals approximately $110.89 a month. By July 1 that bill would rise to $122.05 a month.
And by July 2034, the city predicts, the average monthly sewer bill will be $248.53 — a 124.1% increase from the current average sewer bill. Rate hikes for commercial or nonresidential customers mirror the increase to residents, city officials say….
(Don’t add, multiply. It is a 224% increase.)
Text, Status: Resolution 24-287
SA: City proposing 124% residential sewer fee hikes over the next 10 years on Oahu -- "City officials say the proposed sewer fee hikes are necessary to support ongoing wastewater operations and maintenance efforts, as well as a $10.1 billion capital improvement program for Oahu’s wastewater collection and treatment system that is planned through 2040. The fee hikes also will fund projects to prepare the city’s wastewater infrastructure for climate change and sea-level rise, city officials say. And they assert the work includes a $2.5 billion upgrade to the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant as required under a 2010 federal consent decree."
read … Council considers city’s planned sewer fee hikes | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Council Members Travel on Your Dime
CB: … Members of the Honolulu City Council … receive annual allowances of $25,000 apiece.
A look at the 2024 reports for all nine council members finds public money was forked over for typical office necessities such as newsletters, copying, printing, postage, photos, business cards, honorary certificates and lei. It’s just part of the job.
The Blog was surprised to learn, though, that each council member also enjoys a monthly car allowance of $350. No one reported paying for a Holo card to catch TheBus or Skyline.
And most council members (except for Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Augie Tulba and Val Okimoto) also spent about $50 a month for cellular service and/or $40 a month for a mobile hotspot device.
The biggest expenses by far were for travel to conferences and other council-related events: Okimoto to the Philippines, Santos-Tam to the Philippines and Las Vegas, Calvin Say to Vegas, Radiant Cordero to the Philippines and Philadelphia, Andria Tupola to Scottsdale, Arizona, and Esther Kia‘āina to Washington, D.C. and Sonoma County, California….
read … The Sunshine Blog: About That Whale We Sent You Pictures Of? Never Mind - Honolulu Civil Beat
Whale ‘Amakua Censorship: New Age woo-woo stuff masquerading as Hawaiian culture
CB: … The Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources alerted the media Friday morning about the discovery of a deceased humpback whale calf on Maui. Responders were working with staff from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary to tow the remains offshore for disposition
DLNR and the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration provided images downloadable via Dropbox.
Just 90 minutes later, however, a second press release from DLNR Communications Director Dan Dennison explained that a cultural practitioner and agency representatives on the scene asked the media not to use the photos.
“Our apologies for the confusion and the Dropbox album will be deleted,” the release stated, although a Google search suggested that at least one local TV station had posted a photo of the whale before the image was scrubbed.
Humpback whales, according to NOAA, are considered to be ‘aumakua (spiritual protectors) in the Hawaiian culture “and were generally viewed as divine beings.”…
CLUE: New Age woo-woo stuff masquerading as Hawaiian culture.
REALITY: The Hawaiian Kingdom capital shifted to Lahaina in the 1830s to be close to the whaling industry. That’s the real Hawaiian culture.
read … The Sunshine Blog: About That Whale We Sent You Pictures Of? Never Mind - Honolulu Civil Beat
Kapolei HONU moves 104 bums into Shelters
KHON: … In October 2024, the City and County of Honolulu announced the HONU program was moved from Neal S. Blaisdell Park to the “Musubi Lot” in Kapolei across from Kapolei Hale.
Since the move, the shelter has made tremendous strides in helping 195 clients.
Officials said out of the 195 clients, 20 have been reunited with family, eight have moved into more permanent housing, two have moved into transitional housing and 74 have found a shelter bed.
Among those people are Amie Kama and Tearo Navarro, who have been sober for more than three months.
“Helped us get things that we needed like treatment, drug treatment, and we’re sober now and just trying to do the right thing. HONU helped us a lot, stay out of trouble. It’s like our safety zone,” said Kama, HONU client.
The City added that HONU provides more than housing. The program also provides Social Services until access to housing or treatment options is available. Each client is also given a case manager.
It can be found mainly in city parks between 90 and 120 days. The shelter is open 24 hours, seven days a week.
More information on the program can be found on the City and County’s website….
read … HONU provides 'safety zone' for Hawaiʻi's houseless
Hawaii buys 1-way trips to Guam for homeless?
PG: … “Are we still getting the one-way homeless people from Hawaii? For a while there, Hawaii was really smart. They bought them a one-way ticket, put them on a plane and sent them to Guam,” Chiu said.
“Once they get over here, they can’t get back. That’s how our homeless population grew. I mean it’s pretty sad, but that’s a fact.” -- Guam Visitors Bureau Chair George Chiu ….
The Guam Daily Post reached out to the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention to confirm if Chui’s assertion was indeed fact, however, the agency could not.
“We are not aware of any entity sending homeless individuals from Hawaii to Guam. It’s a long-rumored assertion but just hearsay to my knowledge,” said Rob San Agustin, director of OHAPP.
As the 2025 point-in-time count is gearing up, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released data in December 2024 collected from the 2024 PIT count, which estimated that 1,249 individuals were identified as experiencing homelessness.
This represents an increase of 174 from the previous year….
read … Officials address a belief that Hawaii buys 1-way trips to Guam for homeless people | Guam News | postguam.com
Eco-Activists Thrilled by Opportunity to Shut Down Catamaran Tours
MN: … Cahill is set to consider the state’s request to reconsider the order in 2nd Circuit Court at 9 a.m. on Jan. 17. He also denied the community groups’ attempt to hold the state in contempt of court….
read … Preservation groups demand state follow court order and pause commercial permits at Kā‘anapali Beach until study is done : Maui Now
The US Spent Billions ‘Fighting Pacific Climate Change’. Where Did It Go? (LOL!)
CB: … A GAO report says the U.S. needs ‘more detailed information’ to ‘ensure accountability’ over funding to help Indo-Pacific countries and territories address climate risks….
PDF: Climate Change: Improved Data and Performance Management Would Strengthen U.S. Support to the Indo-Pacific | U.S. GAO
read … The US Spent Billions Fighting Pacific Climate Change. Where Did It Go? - Honolulu Civil Beat
Fireworks Deaths:
QUICK HITS: