Workforce Housing Requirement Under Attack

luxury oceanview development

Maui Tomorrow is working with the County Council and the State to increase the availability of affordable housing for our residents.

Maui has one of the highest cost of housing of any state in the U.S. With wages much lower than required to qualify for loans, this has created a huge housing gap for Maui County residents.

Since luxury vacation subdivisions for offshore vacation homes were quite profitable, more and more of Maui’s developments went in that direction.  With the 2008 economic crash, nonresidents seeking vacation homes have begun to buy in to residential neighborhoods.

In other communities such as Aspen, 70% of new developments must be dedicated to affordable residential housing.  In this way, the economic forces that drive dwindling land into nonresidential development can be offset and residents are able to live in home.

Maui Tomorrow worked hard to get our 50% affordable housing set aside in new developments.  But the Workforce housing ordinance is under attack.