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HOUSING Housing Hawaii's Future COMM,2'19
HAWAI'I'S ;,;, . PO Box 3043
FUTURE Honolulu, HI 96802-3043
7023 MAY 15 !tl 9: 33
May 16, 2023
TO: Chair Kimball and members of the Hawai`i County Council
RE: Bill 48 - Establishing the Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience
Housing Hawai`i's Future is a movement led by young locals who will create opportunities for
Hawai`i's next generation by ending the workforce housing shortage.
On behalf of Housing Hawai`i's Future, I write in support of Bill 48 with suggested
amendments.
One cause of Hawai`i's housing crisis is a failure to coordinate the efforts of departments and
agencies within county and state governments. Often, this is because departments and
agencies narrowly define their mission.
Effective governance requires that multiple goods be pursued simultaneously (e.g., affordable
housing, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, environmental protection). Unfortunately,
pursuing one good sometimes comes at the expense of another. To set up an organization to
pursue a finite set of goods without view to how those goods interact with others is folly.
For this reason, I strongly recommend that you amend the language of Bill 48, Section
37-2-21,to include the goal of providing abundant, affordable housing.
True sustainability means that our children and grandchildren can afford to stay here.
Renewable energy? Yes. Sustainable agriculture? Yes. But if the only people around to enjoy
that are Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah, then we have failed.
We have to ensure that while we make all of these adaptations for sustainability, we're not
losing the people that make Hawaii, Hawaii. That means ensuring that we have abundant,
affordable housing.
At this point the only mention of housing in Bill 48 is the "hous" in greenhouse gases.
Please support Bill 48 and amend it to make the provision of abundant, affordable housing
part of the duties of OSCER.
Thank you,
Sterling Higa
Executive Director
Housing Hawai`i's Future
sterlin (a�hawaiisfuture.org
+1 (808) 782-7868
Comm. No.
hawaiisfuture.org h �E�G
Ref. To: t' _
Ref. Date MAY 1 6 2023