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THE INFRASTRUCTURE BARRIER TO HOUSING IN HAWAIʻI

INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS — A HIDDEN BARRIER TO MORE HOUSING

WHY INFRASTRUCTURE MATTERS TO HOUSING IN HAWAIʻI

Hawaiʻi’s housing shortage is not only about land or permits. New homes also depend on roads, water, wastewater, drainage, utilities and other public improvements that are expensive and often must be built before housing construction can begin. When communities lack a practical way to finance that infrastructure, projects can stall, costs can rise, and fewer homes are built.

Housing No Kākou supports Resilient Infrastructure for Shelter and Equity (RISE) as a new county financing tool to help remove this barrier and unlock more housing for Hawaiʻi families.

HOMES NEED INFRASTRUCTURE

Housing cannot be built without roads, water, wastewater, drainage, utilities and other public systems needed to support new homes and growing communities.

COSTS ARRIVE BEFORE HOMES

Infrastructure costs often arrive years before homes are completed, requiring large upfront investments that can make otherwise viable housing projects harder to finance.

ONE PROJECT CAN’T CARRY IT ALL

When a single housing project must carry major public infrastructure costs, development becomes more expensive and fewer projects can move forward.

COUNTIES NEED A SCALABLE TOOL

Existing capital budgets and project-by-project contributions do not always provide the scale or timing counties need to finance infrastructure for major housing areas.

DELAYS MEAN FEWER HOMES

When infrastructure is delayed, housing is delayed. Fewer projects move forward, fewer homes reach the market, and Hawaiʻi’s shortage gets worse.

HOW RISE IS DESIGNED TO UNLOCK MORE HOUSING IN HAWAIʻI

RISE is a form of tax increment financing that allows counties to fund eligible public infrastructure in designated districts and repay the bonds solely from future property-tax growth within those districts—not by increasing existing property-tax rates.

STEP 1: COUNTY CREATES A RISE DISTRICT

A county designates a RISE district and identifies the public improvements, project costs, financing plan, fiscal impacts, duration, reporting requirements and oversight needed before bonds can be issued.

STEP 2: PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE IS FINANCED

RISE bonds provide upfront funding for eligible public improvements such as roads, water, wastewater, drainage, utilities, parks and resilience projects. This allows infrastructure to be financed when it is needed instead of requiring a single housing project to absorb the full upfront cost.

STEP 3: FUTURE GROWTH REPAYS THE BONDS

As new development increases property-tax revenues inside the district, the bonds are repaid solely from the future growth generated there. Existing property-tax rates do not have to increase to repay the bonds.