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What does Hawaii have against renters?

Nearly half of the residents of Honolulu fall within that category, and they pay among the highest average rents in the United States. Statewide, Hawaii renters face the  they earn of any state in the country.

Hawaii shows its gratitude to those of us writing fat monthly rent checks with laws that heavily favor landlords, do nothing to control rising rents and provide a frankly insulting $50 a year state income-tax credit.

Mahalo for nothing.

´¡Ìýdetailed report Tuesday by Civil Beat’s Anita Hofschneider documented these and other challenges confronting Hawaii renters, along with the many costs of lacking any organization on Oahu or neighbor islands solely committed to tenants’ best interests. Among the most serious:

• Despite rents roughly double the national average, Hawaii has no policies in place to stabilize rents nor any rent-control law. New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, to name a few comparable rental markets, use such regulations to keep long-term residents from being squeezed out by gentrification and spiraling rents.
• Hawaii landlords win 97 percent of lawsuits involving renters, according to a draft study by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. That study, involving 200 cases, is due to be published in 2016. Renters had legal representation in only 4 percent of the cases studied.
• In legislative matters, renters lack consistent representation. Even when individual legislators or municipal representatives are motivated to look out for their interests, renters still risk being pushed aside in favor of legislation that takes the side of landlords.

It might be possible to address some of these issues with the leadership of a strong renters’ association, but the nature of the Hawaii market stacks the odds against organizing such a group. Four out of 10 Hawaii rental units are single-family homes or duplexes, spread out over large areas. The relative lack of big apartment complexes with concentrations of residents makes it harder than in more urbanized markets to build a critical mass of members for such a group.

Addressing Renters’ Interests

It’s likely to take a multitude of organizations and government entities joining forces to begin adequately protecting renters’ interests in Hawaii, and to forge a strategy that recognizes the unique challenges posed by our state environment.

Groups such as Appleseed, Catholic Charities, the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii and PHOCUSED already are making a difference, independent of one another, in tackling some of the discrete challenges facing renters. Joining forces expressly to create an organization for renters would strengthen each of them by giving them a strong connection to a group representing 46 percent of Honolulu residents.

But non-profit leadership alone won’t fully address renters’ needs. Gov. David Ige has shown an interest in digging into policies and practices that are contributing to homelessness — for instance, revisiting the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s lifetime ban on renters who have been evicted from public housing — and the plight of Hawaii’s disempowered renters ought to be part of his considerations.

Renters who can’t keep up sometimes slip into homelessness. No one knows how many of the state’s estimated 7,200 homeless became that way through eviction. But the thousands of renters each year seeking legal assistance through the Legal Aid Society and the nearly 2,200 landlord-tenant cases filed with the state Judiciary so far this year would indicate it’s a major contributor to individual and family homelessness.

Ige asked the Legislature for $100 million for the Rental Housing Trust Fund earlier this year. Funding at that level would have allowed for modest progress. But instead, the Legislature approved less than half that amount — $40 million.

At some point, the executive and legislative branches need to reach a simple understanding: Housing costs money, and if we are to provide more affordable housing and get more homeless people off our streets, it’s going to require substantial investment. The governor must renew his request, and this time, the Legislature must be prepared to meet it with a serious response.

Other ideas, such as rent stabilization and rent control, may take longer to digest and build consensus around. But the governor and legislators can begin making a difference two months from now.

With the assistance and hard work of leadership in the non-profit sector, bigger policy ideas may be ripe for passage in 2017. We won’t get there unless the work begins now.