Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 10, 1 October 2018 — MAYOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAYOR

ĪHE QUESTI0NS The Kai Wai Ola urges all voters to take part in the November 6 election. Kai Wai Ola surveyed the 4 candidates for Mayor county of Maui and Kaua'i.

OQuestion As the cost of living continues to rise, the need for truly affordable housing is more important than ever. As Mayor, what specific plans do you have to deliver housing units that are truly affordable for county residents? What is your position on providing additional incentives to encourage the development of affordable housing?

RURAL Q'AHU-NEIGHBOR ISLANDS RURAL Q'AHU-NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

MAYOR / MAUI

COCHRANr ELLE DEMOCRAT AGE: 53 OCCUPATION: Maui County Council Member HOMETOWN: Lahainā, Maui E: ellekcochran@qmail.com P: (808) 281-7709 W: www.elle4mayor.com

Under my administration, Housing, Planning and Public Works Departments will operate in a more proactive and cooperative manner, with affordablehousingasapriority. Enforcement of short term rental laws will

be a priority. There are thousands of short term rentals in Maui County, up to 1 in 3 homes in South and West Maui, and a majority are operating illegally. Enforcing current short

term rental laws is the fastest and cheapest way to get a large number of long term rentals back on the market for residents. Currently, developers are responsible for all offsite infrastructure costs, whieh are passed on to the buyer of the home, increasing the cost of housing. As Mayor, I will be proactive in identifying and funding infrastructure projects that support construction of housing, with the understanding that housing built with that support should be truly affordable. Because those projects benefit from infrastructure funded by taxpayers, those homes will be affordable to lower ineome residents, and stay affordable in perpetuity.

VICTORINO, MIKE NONPARTISAN AGE: 66 OCCUPATION: lnsurance HOMETOWN Wailuku, Maui E: mikevictorino808@qmail.com P: (808) 281-9053 W: www.victorinoformayor.com

Housing is a multi-prong appmaeh. We need KEYS IN DOORS. As Mayor I am eommitted to Affordable Housing whieh includes both Affordable Purchase and Affordable Rentals. I will immediately begin work-

ing with the developers to get homes that have been promised tothe county off the booksand built. Toease costs of building, we will additionally work with the

home builders to, where appropriate, lay infrastructure up to the project boundaries. Another possibility is to implement a land-swap program where the County would swap countyowned lands (with builders) for larger pieces of developable parcels whieh would result in more affordable units being built. On both the affordable housing and homeless issue, we need to be partnering with State, County and other entities including OHA and DHHL. Additionally, we need to be working with our non-profit sector like Habitat for Humanity, Lokahi Pacific and others because the non-profits are able to get the housing built faster and more efficiently. This is a key to putting "keys in doors".

MAYOR / KAUA'I

KAWAKAMI, DEREK S.K. DEMOCRATIC AGE: 41 OCCUPATION: County Council Member HOMETOWN: Līhue, Kaua'i E: derekforkauai@qmail.com P: (808) 639-3790 W: www.derekkawakami.com

We will immediately identify shovel-ready projects and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles. We will emphasize development of multi-family projects at higher densities to reduce costs as well as, studioandone-

bedroom units for the 23% of our eommu-nity-many of them single young people and kupuna. We will push Smart Growth principles to decrease eommuter traffic.

We plan to use both in-fill and new affordable projects to increase the housing stock in Lihu'e, where 60% of jobs are. We will seek out partnerships with organizations like the Hawai'i HomeOwnership Center, the Contractors Assn„ the Dept. of Hawaiian Home Lands, major landowners, banks and agencies that provide educational outreach to potential first-time homebuyers. Incentives are an important to getting this job done and we support their use, but many of the impediments on affordable housing are within government itself, in the form of fees, permitting roadblocks and approval delays. That needs to change and we committo changing it.

RAPOZO, MEL NONPARTISAN AGE: 54 OCCUPATION: Council Chair HOMETOWN: Wailua, Kaua'i E: melforkauai@qmail.com P: (808) 645-0243 W: www.melforkauai.com

First of all, I would change the definition of affordable housing to household incomes of 100% or less than the median. On Kaua'i, it is currently defined at 140% whieh isnotaffordable. lwouldwork with private

landowners to secure lands from them in exchange for incentives, such as density credits, fortheir future developments. I would also provide true expedited

permitting for affordable housing projects and partner with non-profit affordable housing developers to complete these projects. We know that the County cannot develop affordable housing on its own and I would fully support incentives that will provide the mueh needed housing for the people of Kaua'i.