Pointing to the lack of housing inventory that forces multigenerational families to pack inside one- or two-bedroom units, more than 30 Lanai residents came out to testify Monday on a rental project proposed by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison’s company Pulama Lana’i. 

The Hokuao project plans to develop 150 rental units — with 49 percent slated for market rates and the other 51 percent for affordable rates — under the state’s fast-track approval process for affordable housing, which allows exemptions from certain rules if the project is at least 50 percent affordable.

The project was heard before the Maui County Council’s Affordable Housing Committee Monday, but no legislative action could be taken as an exhibit was corrected and legislation had to be revised at the last minute. The item was deferred and is scheduled to be taken up at the committee’s Aug. 16 meeting.

The Maui County Council has until Sept. 4 to take action or the project is automatically approved.

Lanaians told committee members that residents are overcrowded in multigenerational homes.

They also described situations where low inventory and high purchase costs eliminate chances to buy; many are forced to move off island despite wanting to stay; and former residents who want to come home cannot due to lack of housing. 

“As a recent grad I can see first-hand the effects that the housing shortage on Lanai has on its young adults who want to rent their own place but can’t,” testified Kainalu Morimoto, who graduated from Lanai High and Elementary School. “This leaves the working youth two options: to continue living with their family having crowded, stressful, small homes or to move elsewhere.”

Moreover, it’s been more than three decades since a large housing project has been built on the island, and housing units are long overdue, testifiers said.

Linda Kay Okamoto said she’s lived on Lanai for more than a half century and people are “stacked” with two or three families in one house. 

“When I was teaching school, you lived in a teacher cottage or you didn’t get housing because it was so tight,” she said. “Fifty years later, it still seems to be the same — housing is very tight.”

Phoenix Dupree, general manager of Lanai’s Blue Ginger Cafe, said the project should be approved because it’s in the community’s best interest.

“Don’t do this for me or for Pulama or for Mr. Larry Ellison,” he said. “Do this for the young Lanai families that are not here today because they are working double jobs to pay for rent. Do it for Lanai families that have left already to find affordable housing elsewhere. And do it for Lanai families that wish to return but can’t because there is no housing.”

The vast majority of testifiers live on Lanai and said they support the project. More than a dozen of them were Pulama Lana’i or Four Seasons employees.

But Lanai resident, Butch Gima, said he has many reservations about the project, including location, proposed water plans and its change from selling to renting homes. 

Another longtime resident, Pat Riley, said he opposes the project because some units should be for sale.

“I’m advocating not for myself but for that group of Lanaians that have lived and worked here for years and years and years and can never get an asset, they can never have a house. They are going to work the rest of their lives and have nothing,” said Riley, who’s lived on Lanai 43 years and worked at the main school for 31 years. 

“It’s not right that people work their whole life — whether in pineapple, hotels or any other corporation — and that corporation denies them a right, which I will call a right, to at least have some legacy for their children.” 

The Hokuao project would build two-bedroom rental homes — 76 affordable and 74 market rate — on about 76 acres of former pineapple fields neighboring Lanai City. Workforce units would be rented to qualified households earning between 80 and 140 percent of the area median income established by county guidelines. The project also includes a 1-acre park, a 1,500-square-foot community center and 60 parking stalls.

Karlynn Fukuda, president of project consultant Munekiyo Hiraga, during a presentation Monday said Hokuao homes could be available in 2023 or sooner with county approvals.

Hokuao will increase Lanai’s affordable units by 69 percent and Pulama Lana’i is committed to keeping the affordable units in the affordable housing pool in perpetuity, she added.

Also, Fukuda said Hokuao could complement the county’s Lanai City Maui County Affordable Housing Project that’s situated nearby. 

Officials over the years have said the high cost of developing infrastructure for water and sewer have stalled the county project.

“Hokuao and the county project could complement each other and Hokuao could assist in preventing the county site from remaining landlocked without access to infrastructure,” she said. “We understand that the county is contemplating the issuance of a request for proposal for the Lanai City affordable project in the future. Hokuao could provide a stub out for the county project for water and sewer services.”

The project will be financed by Lanai Island Holdings, another entity owned by Ellison, who acquired 98 percent of Lanai in 2012. Ellison, the founder, chief technology officer and board chairman of Oracle Corp, had a net worth of about $102 billion as of June 22, according to the project documents submitted to the county. He is ranked seventh on the World’s Billionaires List by Forbes. 

* Kehaulani Cerizo can be reached at kcerizo@mauinews.com.