2024-04-15 Bill 121 B&M Luz - Laserfiche WebLink

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From: B&M Luz To: LPCtestimony Date: Monday,April 15,2024 12:55:58 PM To whom it may concern, I write to testify against the proposed changes to TARS, Transient Accommodation Rentals. Hawaii is a unique place and we are blessed to call such a place home. As you who live here know, living on an island has advantages and disadvantages. Some disadvantage are the cost of living, limited space, limited job options, extremely low wages and the importation of goods. This makes it hard for the average family to make ends meet. To do so we have to hustle. This means many of us are not only employed but simultaneously employed and self employed. We not only work one job, but we still have to hustle with side gigs in order to pay our rents or mortgages, our utilities,property taxes, home and car insurance, food, clothing, and other necessities. It seems that some would think the average resident is greedy and making thousand of dollars monthly by renting TARS,by the way you tax us. It seems that some would think that we have expansive living situations or multiple dwellings that could house whole families,when in fact many of us are making a sacrifice by renting out rooms in the very homes in which we live just to make ends meet. We limit ourselves and our families, our privacy and homes which are supposed to be our havens, our safe place and a refuge. But out of necessity we must share a room or portion of our own dwelling with complete strangers. It is heartbreaking and insulting when we, the middle class residents just trying to make a decent living, are targeted and blamed for the mismanagement of the county and state regarding the lack of housing available. We pay high taxes to rent our TARS,we are denied our home owners exemption and therefore pay outrageous property taxes. The costs to running a TAR are not cheap. In the end is it even worth it? The county needs to cease from attacking TARS and those operating/managing them who reside on the island. We contribute to our community because we live here and the vast majority of our earnings are spent here, in our community. We have a unique relationship with our guests, who have always thanked us for opening our home to them. Through knowing us, we give a face, a name and a real person in the community to relate to and respect. Since many of us live on location, we are able to monitor our guests ensuring that they are respectful of our neighborhood. We are the low to middle class who do this out of necessity. The middle class is needed. We do many of the tasks and are employed in many of the occupations that those with authority and power would not choose to work in but still utilize the services. By slowly chipping away at our rights and condemning us by preventing us to afford our lives here,you will eventually push us out and give us no option but to leave the island. Many of us are kama'aina, some of us were already priced out of the other islands. The Big Island has largely been the last affordable of the islands to live on. Unfortunately Hawaii depends on tourism. There is no denying that. These laws seek to not only jeopardize our existence,but also harm the state as a whole as a tourism deterrent since, if they pass,the number of TARS on the island will dramatically fall resulting in less housing for tourists, therefore greatly limiting the numbers of tourists that visit yearly,which will affect the State's economy negatively.