Membership Drive
Hopefully you’re finding our updates helpful. If you’re not a paying member, please sign up. The HTA and hotels are spending millions of dollars trying to legislate our industry out of business. Membership is only $10/mo and supports both our Hawaii Island and state wide organization.
Our advocacy benefits everyone in the industry so please pay your fair share.
Ohana Aina Fund - Being Part of the Affordable Housing Solution
On Sunday we launched the Ohana Aina Fund, a $100M real estate investment fund designed to help aspiring short term rental hosts to become homeowners.
We had several candidates for public office attend, however, none of the incumbent county councilors considered affordable housing important enough to make time for the event.
The fund is designed for hospitality workers with solid credit, but it is open to anyone who manages their money responsibly and wants to become an on-site host. If you have a housekeeper, maintenance worker or property manager who fits that description, please share the application link with them.
We have already completed our first project where we put two median income maintenance workers into a 5,400 sq-ft, 7 bedroom, 6 bathroom, $2.1M home.
The project is based on an idea Joshua wrote up in CivilBeat in 2022 and funded out of his own pocket. Future funding will take the form of a real estate investment fund paired with a long term debt instrument.
Our next step is to select additional families for the program, so please share this as widely as possible.
Our goal is to prove that there are enough qualified hosts interested in the program to justify the time and money it will take to make it a success.
Windward and Leeward Planning Schedule - Bill 121
We have been informed that the tentative schedule for Bill 121 is as follows:
- April 4, 2024 - Windward Planning Commission
- April 18, 2024- Leeward Planning Commission
In our next update we’ll provide some guidance and tools for generating testimony that we fee will be effective.
Many of you may have seen the hundreds of people who showed up to oppose the Punalu’u Black Sand Beach Llc project. Their opposition was effective - the issue has been tabled for the foreseeable future.
If we can turn up a crowd this size there is a real possibility we can stop this legislation. Put it on your calendar, put it on your housekeeper’s calendars, put it on your maintenance worker’s calendars, bring it to the attention of other owners.
It’s your livelihood, protect it.
Be there.
UHERO Study - 58% of Housing Costs are Regulatory
It turns out that short term vacation rentals aren’t the cause of our housing crisis. Who would have guessed?
The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization ( UHERO ) released a study last week that indicated 58% of housing costs in Hawaii are regulatory.
So the buyer of a $600,000 new home is paying $348,000 for paperwork and $252,000 for the new home.
Hawaii County is trying to lay the affordable housing crisis at our feet. Don’t let them. It is our elected officials, unelected boards and Zendo Kern’s Planning Department that have caused the crisis. Don’t let them forget it.
HTA Survey - Let Them Know What You Think
The HTA wants to know what we think of them. Please take a moment and let them know!
Here are a couple of comments I made:
“The HTA has waged a multi-year war against our industry despite receiving millions of dollars of funding through the TAT and GET we pay.
The Hotel’s effort to put us out of business with Bills HB1838 and SB2919 is simply the latest in a long line of activities designed to regulate competition out of business so they can boost their bottom line.
Despite making up almost 1/3 of the total industry, we have no representation on the HTA and are constantly having to defend ourselves against anti-competitive regulatory interference.”
Some of my other comments may have included four letter words. Please feel free to do the same.
