HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0074.033 2024-2026E
November 30th 2024
Council Member Kagiwada
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 1402
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Subject: Support for Hualalai Court Workforce Housing Project
Aloha Councilmember Kagiwada,
I am writing in support of the Hualalai Court Workforce Housing 201H application to build 104
affordable apartments in your district.
I am 23 years old. After getting my undergraduate degree in neuroscience, I moved back here for
more work experience in the healthcare field. I am working to become a Physician Assistant
(PA), which requires 2,000 hours of healthcare experience. I want to become a PA because I see
the extreme lack of access to quality medical care in Hawaii.
Unfortunately, entry level jobs in healthcare pay close to minimum wage, so I am living with my
parents. I can't afford to pay bills and live on my own. My 24-year-old brother also works full
time and lives at home with my parents and I.
This is not a unique story in Hawaii. One of my best friends that I grew up with went to college
in Oregon to get her teaching degree. After graduation, she came back to Hawaii because she
wanted to teach at Konawaena Elementary, but decided to move back to Oregon due to the
livable wages and rent prices.
After being away at college, and being an adult, it can be hard to live so closely with my parents.
I would love to live on my own and have my own space. I hope to become a PA and earn an
income that would allow me to afford to stay in Hawaii and provide quality medical care to the
people of Hawaii that desperately need it.
If you truly value the potential and talent of young people in Hawaii, stand by it through policy
and by legislation so that people who are from here can stay here and make it a better place.
Again, I truly hope that the Workforce housing project can be approved so that many healthcare
workers like me can enrich the precious people and community that we were raised in.
Dana Sugai
808-896-1312 1 sugaidana00@gmail.com