Maui County officials ‘eager’ to work with Green on proposals

Governor wants to build tiny home villages, tackle homelessness

The Maui County Council's chairwoman is "eager" to discuss a partnership to help the homeless by setting up tiny home villages across the state, as proposed Monday by Gov. Josh Green during his State of the State address.

"I'm eager to discuss a county-state partnership that could facilitate the building of a 'kauhale' village that Gov. Green referenced in his address," said Chairwoman Tasha Kama, who attended the speech at a joint session of the Legislature Monday morning on Oahu. "Cut mountain (in West Maui) could be a great potential location for a kauhale since a major cleanup needs to happen there anyway, to address community concerns."

Kama said in a text message following the address that she has been speaking with some Maui County legislators about the need for emergency shelter for "our homeless, especially in West Maui where there are already encampments on county land."

Green said he and his administration "are committed to the development of 12 new kauhale across our state." Soon ground will be broken on a kauhale in Kailua-Kona, Green said.

The tiny home villages were just one of the proposals Green discussed to deal with the state's homelessness situation as he also signed an emergency proclamation during his speech to work with federal and county agencies and to streamline various housing-related processes. This includes improving the construction process for housing and "removing unnecessary red tape."

Another area where Green specifically would need the counties' help and consultation on is affordable housing.

In all, he is proposing more than $1 billion of new investment in housing.

"I will partner with all of our mayors, and regularly convene stakeholders so we can troubleshoot and streamline processes to speed up housing projects across the state," Green said. "We've got to cut the red tape now so we can provide the housing we need as soon as possible."

Kama, who's previously chaired the council's Affordable Housing Committee, called streamlining housing "a great tool for us to use" but she said it must be used properly and "ensure environmental standards are adhered to."

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr., who also attended the address, said afterwards that he expects the conversation about housing with Green to happen in a monthly meeting that the governor has set up for the mayors to discuss various issues.

Bissen said specifics have not been shared by Green on what he will address in the meetings, but the governor did say he wants to assist the county with its housing issues.

"He knows it's priority for us, and I guess every county," Bissen added.

Bissen, a first-time politician, called Green's speech "inspiring."

"I thought it was very comprehensive as well. It covered a lot of ground. It covered a lot of topics," Bissen said.

Responding to Green's plans, Maui state Rep. Troy Hashimoto, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Housing, said, "I think it's a good start."

"He is proposing to make the big investments, but I think the challenge at least for housing is if we can spend the money and make sure these projects can come to fruition," Hashimoto said Monday afternoon.

"At least we have the bones for the homeless side. He did declare an emergency proclamation for homelessness. In theory that should help to push things forward," he added. "But I think it gets little more complicated when we start to talk about regular housing that's not in that homeless category."

Hashimoto said that out of the more than $1 billion for affordable housing proposed by Green, around $500 million would go to the dwelling unit revolving fund. He said that fund is typically used for infrastructure work, which can sometimes take the longest to figure out.

"We have to see if that's what we can get out of the door within the next year," Hashimoto said, noting that there is usually a time frame on when the money needs to be spent.

"I think we are on the same wavelength that housing is important. It's just now a matter on how we get it from the conceptual phase to actually getting things built. That's always the problem," Hashimoto said.

On the tiny home villages, Hashimoto said determining a location with "hard infrastructure" such as showers and a septic tank will be a challenge and work will probably fall to the counties and in this case Bissen's administration.

While Green looks to cut the "red tape" to help expedite housing, Hashimoto said that the state must look at its own agencies and processes that could also be streamlined.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.