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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJensen, Josh Tsuneda, Kaci From:Josh Jensen <jjensen1389@gmail.com> Sent:Sunday, November 1, 2026 4:51 PM To:Council Testimony Subject:Written Testimony — Bill 147 (Draft 3) — Josh Jensen — Support with Amendments To: Hawai ʻ i County Council From: Josh Jensen, Kailua-Kona Resident and Homeowner Re: Bill 147, Draft 3 — Hosted Transient Vacation Rentals and Related Property Tax Protections Position: Support with Requested Amendments Aloha Chair Inaba and Members of the Hawai ʻ i County Council, My name is Josh Jensen. My wife, Melissa, and I are raising our three children in Kailua-Kona, where we own and occupy our home. I am writing in support of establishing a reasonable legal pathway for hosted vacation rentals, while requesting greater consideration, flexibility, and financial protections for local families who live in Hawai ʻ i County and depend on rental income. For approximately 15 years, our family has been actively involved in serving the Kona community through local churches, ministries, and numerous community initiatives, particularly those supporting vulnerable children and families. We are also foster parents and have welcomed 12 Hawai ʻ i County foster children into our home, providing them with a safe and loving family environment. Kona is our home, and we hope to continue raising our children, fostering, and serving this community for many years. For approximately nine years, we have welcomed visitors through short-term rentals, hosting more than 1,000 stays. Our property is our family's primary residence. We live on-site, maintain the property, manage our guests, and remain accountable to our neighbors. Rental income is an important part of our family's financial stability. Much of our ministry and community work has depended on charitable support rather than traditional salaries. With the high costs of housing, property taxes, insurance, and utilities, along with substantial medical expenses related to one of our children, hosting helps make it possible for us to remain in Kona. I strongly believe local resident families who host guests in their own homes should receive greater freedom and consideration than absentee property owners who operate vacation rentals while living outside Hawai ʻ i County. 1 A family renting bedrooms in its primary residence should not be placed in the same regulatory or property-tax category as an investor who owns multiple multimillion-dollar vacation properties but does not live in our community. These are fundamentally different circumstances, with different impacts on housing availability, neighborhoods, and local families. I recognize the County's responsibility to protect residential neighborhoods and preserve housing. However, regulations should also recognize that hosted rentals can help local families remain in their homes rather than displace them. I respectfully request the following provisions and considerations: 1. Greater flexibility for local resident hosts. Establish a distinct category for qualifying owner-occupied hosted rentals, with greater flexibility and fewer unnecessary restrictions than unhosted or absentee-owned vacation rentals. Residency and genuine owner occupancy should be meaningful considerations in determining how these properties are regulated. 2. Multiple rentable bedrooms and flexible listings. Clearly permit qualifying homeowners to rent multiple bedrooms or suites to separate guests simultaneously, and to advertise those rooms individually or together, without each reservation or listing automatically being classified as a separate TVR. Occupancy and safety standards should govern actual use rather than the number of online advertisements. 3. Existing dwellings and ʻ ohana units. Provide clear standards for how existing legally permitted guesthouses, ʻ ohana units, and separate living areas may qualify for hosted accommodations on owner-occupied properties, including clarification of the one-TVR-per- building-site restriction. 4. Special property-tax provisions for local homeowners. Establish property-tax classifications or relief provisions that distinguish qualifying full-time Hawai ʻ i County residents renting portions of their primary homes from nonresident investors operating vacation properties. Local families should not automatically face the same tax treatment as owners of high-value investment properties. 5. Property-tax amnesty for existing resident hosts. Provide a reasonable amnesty or voluntary compliance program for qualifying local homeowners who have previously hosted guests while maintaining homeowner property-tax classifications. This should include consideration of relief from retroactive assessments, penalties, and interest, allowing families to become compliant without facing financially devastating liabilities. I ask the Council to consider these protections alongside the related tax-amnesty legislation. 6. Income-based tiers and protections. Consider a tiered framework that accounts for household income, rental revenue, owner occupancy, and property value. Lower- and 2 moderate-income resident hosts should be distinguished from high-revenue commercial operators and owners of multimillion-dollar investment properties. Other jurisdictions use differentiated classifications and income-based relief programs, and I encourage Hawai ʻ i County to consider approaches appropriate to our local community. 7. Reasonable registration and transition requirements. Provide clear registration instructions, affordable fees, reasonable compliance periods, and appropriate consideration for established lawful operators. Registration should reflect actual accommodations rather than imposing duplicative requirements simply because the same bedrooms are advertised in different combinations. I support reasonable building, fire, wastewater, parking, occupancy, and neighborhood protections. My request is not to eliminate accountability, but to establish a fairer system that recognizes the substantial differences between local families sharing their homes and commercial vacation rental investments. For our family, this legislation is about much more than a rental business. It affects our ability to afford our home, raise our children in Kona, continue welcoming foster children, meet significant family medical needs, and contribute to our community through churches, ministries, and local service initiatives. I respectfully ask the Council to give greater consideration to families like ours who live, work, serve, and raise children in Hawai ʻ i County. Please ensure that Bill 147 and related property-tax legislation distinguish genuine resident-hosted accommodations from absentee-owned vacation rentals, provide meaningful protections for lower-income homeowners, and create a practical pathway for existing hosts to comply. Hawai ʻ i County should be a place where local families can afford to remain in their homes, not one where resident homeowners are regulated and taxed as though they were wealthy absentee investors. Mahalo for your time, service, and consideration. Respectfully, Josh Jensen Kailua-Kona, Hawai ʻ i 3