Hawaii State Most Affected by Government Shutdown
Lahaina’s affordable Front Street Apartments ‘streamlined’ rebuild time—6 years
MN: … The 142 units at the Front Street Apartments were among more than 700 affordable housing units that were destroyed in the fire. These units sorely need to be rebuilt in a town where renters were a big portion of the population, but most have yet to start, complicated by the effort and funding it will take to rebuild them as well as their locations near the shoreline or in historic districts.
The latest plan for the future Front Street complex calls for 240 units, an increase over the 192 units proposed in January. Project developers say they are trying to move as quickly as possible but that they face “an impossible conundrum.”
“If there were any actions that we could take to change the timeline or provide other types of housing, we would take them,” said Anders Lyons, executive director of project developer Hale Mahaolu. “I absolutely feel for the people who are in a situation where the need is urgent and now. I just don’t have the resources to make that happen.” …
On July 1, 2023, the state and building owner reached an agreement that extended the lease for 31 years and reduced the annual rent, according to state documents. A month later, the wildfire that killed at least 102 people destroyed the apartment complex. Fortunately, all 260-plus residents and employees of the complex survived.
Front Street Affordable Housing Partners eventually gave up its ground lease and the state took over the rebuilding project in 2024. …
Dean Minakami, executive director of the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation, said the agency wanted to speed up rebuilding of the apartments, so it bypassed its usual process of seeking proposals from developers and chose Hale Mahaolu because the nonprofit is based on Maui and owns the property next door, Lahaina Surf, which it also plans to rebuild….
Lyons said developers plan to submit the project for fast-track approval in November or December. They expect to receive building and grading permits around June 2027, start construction in September 2027 and finish in June 2029….
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed a bill that would speed up the rebuilding of Front Street Apartments and three other affordable projects by allowing Maui County’s planning director to issue special management area permits for the projects instead of going through the state’s lengthy shoreline approval process. Lyons said this will “streamline” things, but 2029 is still “the expedited timeline.”…
Abraham pointed out that the county is continuing to work with 4LEAF to expedite building permits in the burn zone, including for multifamily structures. Only three multifamily structures have been completed so far, all at Kahoma Village, a workforce housing project largely spared from the fire….
Over the last two years, she’s watched the federal government and the state pour time and money into temporary housing projects.
“How much money was spent on these container homes that could have been put into a project such as Front Street Apartments to get our elderly people back to where they need to be?” she said. …
read … Lahaina’s affordable Front Street Apartments will be rebuilt with more units, but not soon enough for some former residents
‘Complete Failure’: Honolulu Permit Workers Say Tech Upgrade Is A Bust
CB: … A multimillion-dollar overhaul of Honolulu’s building permit software in early August was a disaster for staff who reported in the weeks after it launched that the dysfunctional system was making their jobs harder, slowing down already glacial permit reviews and raising concerns about the safety of newly permitted construction.
(CLUE: HGEA has a long record of opposing tech upgrades.)
In an anonymous survey of more than 150 employees — half the staff — respondents delivered almost universally negative feedback with many suggesting the entire transition to the new system was a mistake….
Tasks that used to take minutes suddenly took hours, they said. Data that was accessible before became impossible to find. And information could be changed without a log showing who edited what. One engineer went so far as to say they would refuse to enter a building that was reviewed under the new system because they can’t trust it is safe.
“I am absolutely terrified of what the Department will be approving with this barely-complete workflow in place,” the engineer said.
“These types of landmines that are being planted by incomplete and ill-informed reviews – because the correct data and information was not accessible to reviewers – are only going to be discovered years or decades down the line when people are severely injured or killed.” …
The most impassioned survey response came from the engineer who reported concerns about the safety of construction approved under HNL Build.
Under the old system, POSSE, every action by staff was permanently recorded and timestamped and could be pulled from the system “like a string of beads.” Not so with HNL Build.
“‘Show me what this permit looked like on August 24, 2013’ is possible with POSSE,” the engineer said, “but ‘Show me what this permit looked like yesterday’” isn’t even possible with Salesforce, let alone going years back. There is no confidence in actually knowing what happened, who did it, or why it happened.”
The system tracks the history of a limited number of fields, the staffer wrote, but tracking can be silently disabled and re-enabled. Takeuchi Apuna acknowledged in a recent interview that could be a problem in a department that was rocked by a bribery scandal that in recent years sent six people to prison. …
CLUE: Audit fuels “clinically psychotic” HGEA effort to strangle tax collection
ANOTHER CLUE: Tech: 'Clinically Psychotic' HGEA Signs Suicide Pact
read … ‘Complete Failure’: Honolulu Permit Workers Say Tech Upgrade Is A Bust - Honolulu Civil Beat
Farmworkers Earn Well Over Minimum Wage But Not Enough For Hawai‘i
CB: … Ranch and farmworkers earned $21.98 an hour in 2024, which is 13.1% higher than the national average. That’s still less than the so-called survival wage that nonprofit groups consider to be the minimum needed to meet basic needs in Hawaiʻi, one of the most expensive states in the U.S. And it’s far below the average Hawaiʻi resident’s salary of $36.86 an hour….
read … Data Dive: Farmworkers Earn Well Over Minimum Wage But Not Enough For Hawai‘i
The Supreme Court Challenge to Hawaii’s Gun Laws
AC: … It is no surprise Hawaii, with some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws, now finds itself before the Supreme Court, seeking to defend its position against a challenge that could reshape many states’ approach to firearms. …
read … The Supreme Court Challenge to Hawaii’s Gun Laws
Hawaii's strategy: Milk the tourists for every penny
SFG: … The shift toward fewer visitors who are spending more reflects the type of visitor Hawaii is now aiming to attract….
“In 2019, visitors to Hawaii spent about $196 per person per day statewide. After travel resumed in 2021, that average rose to roughly $215 per day, with far fewer visitors,” Caroline Anderson, interim president and CEO of Hawaii Tourism Authority, told SFGATE in an email.
“From 2022 through 2024, daily spending stayed consistently high — between $230 and $250 per person per day,” she continued. “And in 2025 to date, it’s averaging around $250 statewide, with Maui and Lanai exceeding $300.” …
As the data indicates, hotel rates have risen dramatically in recent years. The state’s average daily hotel room increased to $360 in August 2025, a 25% increase compared to 2019. The Island of Hawaii rose the most with a daily rate of $444, an increase of 59% from $280 in 2019….
read … Hawaii's strategy for higher-spending tourists is working
Sentry Golf Domino Effect
SA: …now that The Sentry is gone for at least one year, questions abound not only about its future at Kapalua, but that also of what was previously called the Hawaiian Open and has been held at Waialae since 1965. Concerns are compounded because the upcoming tournament in January is the last of the current contract with Sony, which has been the title sponsor since 1999.
In a phone conversation Friday, Michael Balker, the PGA’s director of golf communications, would only confirm that the 2026 Sony Open, scheduled for Jan. 12-18, and the Mitsubishi set for the following week will go on as scheduled. He declined to speculate on the future of any PGA events in Hawaii.
The absence of The Sentry will likely affect the quality of the field of the Sony Open. It makes much more business sense for top players to at least consider playing at Waialae if it is the second of two tournaments in two weeks in Hawaii.
Some played in The Sentry, but skipped the Sony Open, anyway….
read … Dave Reardon: Cancellation of Sentry on Maui could put Hawaii swing in jeopardy | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Some On-Line ‘Sweepstakes Casinos’ Allow Hawaii Gamblers
CasinoBeat: … Hawaii, one of only two US states that prohibit all forms of gambling (the other being Utah), could become the next territory of interest. A sports-betting bill that passed both chambers earlier this year ultimately failed after lawmakers couldn’t reconcile Senate amendments before the April 25 deadline.
In the absence of legal gambling, many Hawaiians have turned to sweepstakes casinos operating in a legal gray area. While state officials haven’t yet moved against these platforms, several have pre-emptively updated their terms to exclude Hawaii….
read … Most Sweepstakes Casinos Remain in California
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