||| FROM SFGATE.COM ||| REPRINT AT REQUEST OF CLAYTON PARSONS

As Hawaii’s high housing costs and rising property taxes continue to price out struggling residents seeking to find and keep their homes, Maui is examining how to create long-term housing opportunities to make sure local residents remain local. However, some of the solutions remain complicated.

This past year, as visitor numbers reached their peak, housing prices did as well. According to the Realtors Association of Maui, in September, the 12-month average price for a home on Maui rose to $965,000, an increase of 26.7% from the previous year. This is partly due to low inventory of housing, as well as demand from wealthy off-island real estate investors.

In one of several efforts to both mitigate overtourism issues and help solve the county’s vast housing crisis, Maui’s County Council is considering legislation to phase out a large portion of short-term rentals in apartment-zoned districts across the Valley Isle.  The divisive measure would affect roughly 3000 units, Maui Council Member Tamara Paltrin confirmed to SFGATE. 

It’s garnered considerable backlash — but also considerable support.

Curvy coastal road with views of cliffs, beaches, waterfalls.

Curvy coastal road with views of cliffs, beaches, waterfalls. Royce Bair/Getty Images

“Maui has been seen as a great investment opportunity by outsiders,” said community member Jordan Hocker, who spoke out in support of the bill at a recent public hearing. “And what I see being done with legislature like this, and the other agenda item is a clear message that our local residents need to be taken care of. And when I say ‘local residents,’ you know, I’m referring to people who grew up here, whose families are in danger of moving away or already have had to.”

Research from the University of Hawaii showed that 67,293 Hawaii residents moved to the continental U.S. in 2018; that represents more than 4.5% of the state’s total population. And the continental U.S. saw a 31.6% increase in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population from 2010-2020, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Many had been priced out of their ancestral homelands.

Tamara Paltin, the West Maui councilwoman who authored the bill, has experienced firsthand immediate family leaving the islands because of affordability, as well as friends who are currently struggling in subpar living conditions.

“We have way too many tourists for our infrastructure to handle and we’re trying to stabilize the situation,” she told Hawaii News Now, adding that she hopes this will unlock more long-term opportunities for residents.

But other short-term rental owners say this is an example of government overreach.

“It will pull the rug out from under us,” an anonymous Luana Kai condo owner wrote in public testimony explaining that when she and her husband recently purchased the condo they had to take a large home equity loan on their primary residence in Seattle with the hope that their short-term rental income would offset Seattle’s high monthly expenses.

Many off-island property owners who provided feedback did not acknowledge the impact they had on local residents. Others who did, such as testifier Kimberly Lee, who owns a condo in Kihei, said that the issues brought about by short-term rentals can be felt across the United States.

Lee said that she hoped that not one group of people would suffer over another, but could work together in terms of finding solutions. However, others have said that phasing out these rentals could have unintended financial consequences on the county’s other affordable housing solutions.

READ FULL ARTICLE: www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/maui-to-phase-out-3000-short-term-rentals-16649298.php

 

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