HomeMy WebLinkAboutGolden, Robert
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Robert Golden <rgolden46@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, August 17, 2026 11:06 AM
To:Council Testimony
Subject:Bill 147 Testimony — Please Protect Resident Hosts
Aloha Chair and Members of the Hawaiʻi County Council,
I am writing to ask you to ensure that Bill 147 does not place unreasonable burdens on Hawaiʻi Island residents
who host guests within their own homes.
My partner and I live in Puna and host an Airbnb unit on the first floor of our home. This is not an absentee-
owned vacation rental or a commercial operation disconnected from our community. This is our home. We
live here, and we depend upon the income from our Airbnb to help make it financially possible for us to
continue living here in Puna.
I understand and support the County's desire to regulate transient accommodations responsibly. There are
legitimate concerns about housing, neighborhood impacts, safety, and ensuring that operators follow
reasonable rules.
However, I believe the County should make an important distinction between large-scale or absentee vacation
rentals and residents who simply rent part of the home in which they live.
Please do not create a regulatory system in which ordinary resident hosts face expensive permits, complicated
procedures, uncertainty about whether they can continue operating, or requirements that are disproportionate
to the actual impact of their small home-based rental.
For people like us, this income is not simply extra spending money. It is part of what allows us to afford to
remain in our home and in the community we love.
If Bill 147 moves forward, I respectfully ask the Council to provide resident-hosted rentals with a clear, simple,
affordable, and attainable pathway to compliance, and to protect existing responsible operators from being
unintentionally forced out of business.
Good regulation should address genuine problems without creating unnecessary hardship for the residents
who are already part of the fabric of our communities.
Please protect Puna's resident homeowners and small-scale hosts as you consider Bill 147.
Mahalo for your service and for considering my testimony.
With aloha,
Robert Golden
Puna, Hawaiʻi Island
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