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Our state legislators should pass a statewide law that allows new home builders to bring in mainland manufactured homes using third-party inspectors and/or that allows for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations to satisfy our county building codes.

We have very few homes that are manufactured in mainland factories in Hawaiʻi. These homes can be mobile, modular or completely manufactured (if you have never seen a manufactured home just Google “California Manufactured Homes”).

These homes cost less than half the price of homes built in Hawaiʻi.  There are many reputable companies turning out over one thousand new manufactured homes per week on the mainland.

We have shipping companies that have the ability to handle roll-on/roll-off platforms for delivery of these manufactured homes to each island. The shipping prices added to the manufactured prices are still very low (less than half) compared to homes built in Hawaiʻi.

What is the problem with choosing a mainland manufactured home?

First, our county departments of planning and permitting require building inspections. They have not yet implemented the process to inspect any new home under construction at a factory on the mainland.

Second, the powerful carpenter’s union and builders groups have lobbyists that object to these low-cost mainland manufactured homes whenever they are discussed — for fear of competition.

A few years ago, at the State Building Code Council (part of the Department of Accounting and General Services), at the Oct. 20, 2020, meeting, two solutions were discussed for Hawaiʻi that are in use on the mainland.

First, simply allow third-party inspectors to inspect new homes under construction on the mainland for our local contractors and building departments.

The inspector would then certify that the homes satisfied all local building codes. Almost all states allow for this type of third-party inspection.

Second, there are national HUD standards for pre-manufactured homes. Manufacturers can certify that their homes are compliant with all HUD regulations and a plaque is attached to the home. Most states accept HUD certification as compliant with their building codes.

Because our shipping companies can only handle a specific number of these roll-on/roll-off manufactured homes per month, the opposition by the powerful unions and builders is misguided.
New lessees at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands can also use  these low-cost manufactured homes when they are given their “handbook” and the first item is “Build your own home.”

If we had started these policies five years ago, we could have approximately 5,000 new — less expensive — homes in Hawaiʻi. No zoning or height changes are necessary for these homes.

Stop Importing Food

Our state legislators should require all levels of government to buy most of our food locally. For many reasons, today we are almost entirely dependent on shipping companies to bring in our food in containers. 

The shipping companies have increased their reliability with modern electric cooled and chilled containers.

Today, we live in a “fresh food desert.” Our supermarkets are filled with 7- to 10 day-old fruit and produce that arrives in a container.

In the past 50 years the number of people on Oʻahu has doubled. What happened to the meat, pork, milk, produce and fruits we used to produce 50 years ago?

Today, we produce less than 20% of our own food. Today, our stores only hold about a 10-day supply of food at the most. Today, we have no state food security program to prepare us for the day when the containers stop arriving. Imagine the panic when our grocery stores are empty.

The price of imported food from very large mainland farms is hard to compete with for our local farmers. Safeway wants hundreds of pounds of Grade A produce and fruit delivered each week.
Besides price, this amount and grade of produce is hard for our local farmers to deliver.

Shipping containers are electric and the temperature is controlled at each step from the mainland packers, to the ships, to Safeway. How can bananas from Ecuador compete with our local bananas in price — but they do?

The shipping companies cannot guarantee their deliveries. What is our state plan when the container ships are interrupted by a strike, hurricane, tsunami, military taking for war, fire or earthquake? We need shipping/food insurance.

We should create an artificial market for our farmers by mandating our state purchase more food locally. This artificial market will increase the cost of our food, however, it is worth it.

The increased price is the cost of our shipping interruption insurance and restarting our local food production. The new guaranteed market (government’s requirement to buy local) will bring back our farmers. New farms are part of our food security program. We should bring back the dairies and pig farms immediately.

There is no agenda more important at this year’s legislature than creating a food security program for the over one million people who live in Hawaiʻi. Continuing to “roll the dice” and depend on the container ships to feed us without any guarantee, as we see our local food dwindle, is gross negligence.