Housing committee wants to expand study to multiple locations statewide
Posted: February 1, 2023
The Hawaiʻi State House Committee on Housing advanced Wednesday a bill that would require the School Facilities Authority to conduct a feasibility study for the development of teacher and workforce housing at the Queen Liliʻuokalani Elementary School property in Kaimukī, Oʻahu.
House Bill 497 would appropriate funds for the feasibility study, which is estimated to cost around $100,000, according to the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance & Development Corporation (HHFDC). The study would include estimates on project design planning, traffic studies, community outreach, utilities, and sewer assessments.
According to the bill, the Legislature “finds that the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing are major factors that contribute to teachers leaving the profession or leaving the State entirely.”
HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. wrote in his testimony that “financial incentives and affordable options for teacher housing can be an important strategy for the recruitment and retention of teachers, particularly given that teachers’ salaries in Hawaiʻi continue to trail the nation when adjusted for cost of living, even
more so now with the recent inflation.
“Housing is a big portion of each teacher’s paycheck,” Tui added.
Laverne Moore, McKinley High School special education teacher and HSTA teacher lobbyist, testified live during Wednesday’s hearing and said, “We have a severe teacher shortage, and without housing, there is no way we can get teachers to staff our schools, and with the preschools coming on, this is even going to be greater.
“(On) Kauaʻi, you cannot even find an affordable rental. (On) Maui, you cannot find an affordable rental. Hilo, you cannot find an affordable rental. So there is no rental (opportunity) for our teachers. Even if they could pay for it, it’s not there to be had.
“This is a good start: to look at the possibility of changing Liliʻuokalani into a facility that can do preschool, office and housing for our working class and our teachers,” Moore concluded.
Rep. Richard Onishi (D, Hilo) asked during the hearing what the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education is doing for teacher housing.
Chad Keone Farias, executive director of the state School Facilities Authority, said the authority is looking to work with the HIDOE to identify properties statewide to develop teacher housing, but so far, no assessments have been completed.
Last August, the HIDOE received $15 million for the construction and design of public teacher housing in the Lahainaluna Complex Area, which includes Lahainaluna High, Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and King Kamehameha III Elementary. However, that project is being developed under the HIDOE, not the School Facilities Authority.
At Wednesday’s hearing, lawmakers unanimously passed House Bill 497, but also pushed for feasibility studies to develop teacher workforce housing across the state.
Rep. Onishi said to Farias, “What would make sense would be for us to help you fund your statewide assessment so that, as HSTA mentioned, that you can look at projects throughout the state on viewing property that would be able to be improved for teacher housing.”
Farias responded that they could “start that on a single site (Queen Liliʻuokalani Elementary School) and then try to scale it from there.”
The bill will next be heard by the House Education Committee.