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Stanley Chang
State Senate | Honolulu, HI

ALOHA Homes

Idea Category: Housing

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Hawaii has long grappled with a severe housing shortage. Median home prices on Oahu, the most populous island, have soared to over $1.15 million for single-family homes and $515,000 for condos. This unattainable cost of living has driven many residents to leave Hawaii, resulting in seven consecutive years of statewide population decline and more Native Hawaiians living away from their homeland than within it.

Hawaii Senator Stanley Chang introduced The ALOHA Homes Program (Affordable Locally Owned Homes for All) which would promote more dense construction, sold exclusively to Hawaii residents. Key components of the ALOHA Homes Program include affordable down payment assistance, promoting socioeconomic diversity and simplifying eligibility, self-sustaining funding as the State recoups its investment through unit sales, and transit-oriented development.

Impact:

The ALOHA Homes program was signed into law as a pilot program in 2023. Chang hopes the program will create momentum for many more housing projects on state lands along the rail line, eventually creating the critical mass of inexpensive housing that will house Hawaii’s future population growth. The ALOHA Homes model is essentially the method that Singapore and Vienna use to house 82 percent and 60 percent of their populations, respectively, in attractive, desirable, well-maintained public housing.