Hawaii’s housing market causing more homelessness
By Melissa Wirkus
America’s housing
market is experiencing steady declines throughout
most parts of the nation, although some areas are undoubtedly
fairing better than others.
The places that experienced the most tremendous price
appreciation and had the “hottest” markets
are now probably the places that are struggling the
most.
Although most of the focus is on the mainland United
States, we cannot forget about the housing market in
Hawaii, something that needs attention immediately.
Hawaii was one such place like California, Florida and
Arizona, that saw home prices double and even triple
in a very small amount of time.
Now that the housing boom is over, these areas are having
a lot of trouble recovering from the boom and adjusting
to the market’s new environment, which consists
of falling prices and slow
sales.
If this wasn’t enough, Hawaii’s housing
market is also contributing to the homelessness epidemic
that plagues a huge majority of the state and its residents.
A December 4, 2006 article from rismedia.com, “Honolulu’s
real estate boom contributes to homeless problem,”
discusses the problems that are going on in Hawaii right
now in terms of housing un-affordability.
Most people associate living in Hawaii as being paradise
on earth, since most only get to visit for a vacation
or some other special reason, but in reality, there
are some pretty severe problems going on right now.
“Homelessness in Hawaii, a major social problem
that has always been a part of life on the island for
a small segment of the population, has in the last few
years grown to such an extent that it has become national
news. Surprisingly, Hawaii's wide real estate popularity
is a contributing factor to this troubling dilemma.”
The reason for the increase in homelessness
is because of a variety of factors, but one major contributor
was that the boom of the past few years caused rental
prices to go up and become virtually impossible to afford
for a large portion of the population.
“Hawaii is at the end of a tremendous real
estate boom, and for years the housing market was
red hot. The effects of this over-heated housing market
trend can be seen along the Waianae Coast of Oahu where
the average monthly Oahu homes' rent jumped 90% over
the past few years. Landlords, watching the median price
of condos and homes skyrocketing, with average increases
of around 200% between 2001 and 2005, rushed to sell
their rental properties to cash in on this bonanza;
thus, dramatically reducing the stock of available affordable
rental accommodations.”
The median price of a home in Oahu stands at $660,000.
The troubling thing about this problem is that many
of these homeless people are employed full time. According
to statistics, an estimated 17-42 percent of Hawaii’s
homeless population is employed full-time. There is
something very wrong with this.
“With sky-high home prices and a diminishing number
of affordable rental units, people have limited alternatives.
Rising prices have pushed a number of low-income renters
out the door and onto the beach.”
Although this problem is getting out of control local
officials and members of the community are doing something
about it.
There have been countless donations of food and clothing
as well as various businesses that have donated their
services.
“When asked what the government can do to solve
the homeless crisis, the over-whelming answer from the
people along the Waianae Coast was, "do something
about the high cost of rent."
Addressing the matter head-on, Governor Linda Lingle
has proposed a package to the state legislature that
would boost state funding dedicated to developing more
affordable housing. Along with other changes, her package
advocates eliminating the cap on the current rent supplement
program. Of course, this is only the start. There is
much more that needs to be done to overcome the problems
that have resulted from the high price of real estate
and get Honolulu's working poor off the beaches and
into affordable housing.”
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