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Gov. Josh Green is providing the political will to tackle Hawaii’s affordable housing crisis, as seen in his emergency proclamations. But where is the energetic public discussion about achieving housing affordability and housing for local residents?

Affordable housing is not impossible; it’s been done before. Some housing in the United States has remained affordable for decades, and there are multiple ways to achieve housing affordability.

State law in Hawaii allows for one of those solutions now, in the form of limited equity co-operatives, or co-ops. Additionally, affordable housing constructed with local money can be prioritized for local residents. Prioritization is important, since over 60% of Hawaii residents struggle with paying for housing.

Hawaii is considering building for-sale affordable units on state land at the stadium site. But time and time again, affordable housing becomes unaffordable when its resold and reverts to market rates.

What can be considered to keep those units affordable?

For decades, housing co-operatives — apartments with a different financing arrangement from condos — have kept housing affordable. In the early 1990s, my husband and I bought a co-operative apartment in Honolulu for $50,000 when the average price of same-sized non-co-op units was over $200,000. It was so affordable, with many living there for decades, even becoming a little “co-op community” and a very enjoyable place to live.

This option, the limited equity co-operative, or LEC, has maintained co-op affordability in the U.S. for many decades, and for many for more than a century. LEC co-operative housing is allowed by Hawaii law. If we build for-sale LEC co-ops on government land, such housing would also stay affordable.

Co-op housing looks like any other housing, but it is affordable because it has a different financing arrangement from condos. Co-op owners buy their units at affordable prices but don’t get a deed to the unit they occupy. Instead, they each own a share in the stock of the cooperative (In a 50-unit complex, for example, they own 1/50th share of the building).

Instead of a deed, they get a document proving they own a share of the co-op. Owners can cooperatively manage the building for everyone’s benefit (as we did in our co-op) or they can decide to pay a management company.

If an owner sells their unit, it is for about the affordable price they initially purchased it for, plus a limited reasonable amount of equity (thus “limited equity cooperative”).

When they sell, all 50 owners are held to an affordable resale price and cannot drive up their price to gain a big profit — the dynamic which fuels the speculative private market. This would keep housing on government land affordable for the next buyer. Those interested in maximizing their profit should buy in the private market.

As director of Housing Public Policy with the Hawaii Budget and Policy Center, Kenna StormoGipson’s research and work focused on ways to create affordable housing. She invited Finnish Housing First representatives to Hawaii to share methods Finns used to virtually eliminate homelessness in Finland.

The Finns described how they built affordable housing more quickly by giving developers loans — not grants, as we do — for the entire cost of constructing an affordable complex. After construction, when developers recoup their money, the loan is repaid and the money goes back into the affordable housing fund to loan out again

Since financing does not need to be cobbled together, Finnish build time is considerably faster than ours.

Why doesn’t Hawaii draw on options like these, such as switching from grants to loans?

To staunch the flood of local people moving out of Hawaii, serious numbers of affordable housing units must be built so Hawaii’s people, family and friends, can stay home. But is it possible to create affordable housing for the over 60% of local residents who need it?

StormoGipson explained that by using local money — state, county, local sources — we can prioritize that housing built with our money will be for local residents. She laid out a workable plan to create housing in the huge numbers Hawaii needs, pointing out that a 1% raise of the Hawaii general excise tax would bring in over $800 million every year, which the state can earmark for affordable housing. A 1% raise would create a large source of local revenue that elected representatives can commit to the build-out of serious numbers of affordable housing for Hawaii residents.

What should a housing policy include to ensure the continuous creation of affordable housing Hawaii’s people need?

Finnish public policy is to use public money for the half of the population that needs affordable housing. Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, half the people need affordable housing, and their public policy makes it available to them. The other half get housing from a vibrant private market, without siphoning off public money from public coffers into the private, for-profit market at the expense of people who need an affordable roof over their heads.

Any housing policy should also include provisions for continued affordability in perpetuity. Until recently, the Honolulu City Charter required affordable housing remain affordable in perpetuity.

In 2016 — at a time when there no longer were voter guides explaining what we were voting on — voters were asked to rescind the affordable-in-perpetuity requirement. If people knew that was what they were being asked to do, it is doubtful they would have voted for it. An affordable-in-perpetuity requirement for housing built on government land or with affordable housing monies would likely have broad public support.

The community urgently needs to consider housing affordability solutions and make them actionable. Why aren’t we exploring existing LECs with proven track records spanning over a century? Why aren’t we asking what they do to remain affordable and viable?

As for for-purchase housing built on government land (for instance, state stadium land), why don’t we create housing that’s affordable-in-perpetuity as existing mainland LECs have done — by combining an LEC and leased government land that stipulates affordability-in-perpetuity as a condition of use?

Hawaii desperately needs viable affordable housing solutions.