Two truths in tension: Hawaiʻi’s housing crisis and the urgent need for anti-displacement measures
Hawaiʻi is in the midst of a deepening housing crisis. Families are being priced out, young people are leaving, and essential workers struggle to find places they can afford near their jobs. We need more housing—that much is clear. But the way we get there matters just as much as the goal itself.
At the heart of Hawaiʻi’s housing debate lies a fundamental tension:
Truth #1: Hawaiʻi urgently needs more housing, at all income levels, to address our affordability crisis and stabilize the market for locals.
Truth #2: We cannot afford to meet this goal through inequitable means that displace the very communities most in need of stability.
Redevelopment in Hawaiʻi—especially in urban core areas like Honolulu where existing housing is being replaced with denser, more modern units—often prioritizes future residents over current ones. Without strong tenant protections, our long-term goal of increasing the housing supply ends up pushing already cost-burdened families out of their homes and neighborhoods. And while new development can ease regional housing pressure over time, it’s not fair to ask those living on the margins to pay the highest price now for benefits that may not materialize for years.
This is why anti-displacement measures like House Bill 1325 are more than just a side consideration—they are essential to a just and effective housing strategy in Hawaiʻi. We need a balanced approach rooted in supply, stability and subsidy to create housing solutions that are both sustainable and equitable.
We have an opportunity this legislative session to enact HB1325 into law. The bill would establish minimum displacement mitigation requirements for redevelopment projects that ensures:
Right to return; or
Relocation and rental assistance.
Balancing Supply, Stability and Subsidy
So far, Hawaiʻi’s housing strategy has focused on subsidy and supply. We invest millions into special housing funds to spur affordable development. Recent laws—such as Act 37 and Act 39 (2024)—aim to remove arbitrary regulatory barriers to new units. These are important and meaningful steps when it comes to addressing our housing crisis. But without equal attention to stability, we risk undermining our progress.
If redevelopment is seen as a threat rather than an opportunity, we deepen public mistrust and polarize the housing conversation even further. Stability is not a soft add-on—it’s a core pillar of successful, sustainable housing policy.
Redevelopment without protection often displaces low-income tenants to make room for wealthier newcomers. Without anti-displacement policies, this displacement accelerates inequality and leaves long-time residents without access to the improved infrastructure, transit and public services that come with redevelopment—because they’re no longer there to reap these benefits. Without proper policies in place to mitigate displacement and preserve housing stability for these tenants, we’re attempting to fix one problem while deepening another.
Human Cost of Displacement
When redevelopment happens without protection, long-term residents and cost-burdened families are at the greatest risk of being pushed out of affordable homes. The impact of displacement is deep and far-reaching. It breaks apart social networks, disrupts access to schools, jobs, healthcare and transit, and it creates instability for families already stretched thin. The emotional and financial toll is especially devastating for families with children, kūpuna on fixed income, and communities of color.
When communities see new housing as a force for dislocation rather than relief, they fight it. Even when data shows that more housing helps lower rents regionally in the long run, visible and conceptual displacement either directly or indirectly fuels neighborhood resistance.
Inaction on tenant protections paired with perceptions that developers make unfair gains while our housing costs continue to rise make it harder to build support for needed future development. We cannot afford to continue this cycle. Ignoring the harms of displacement without a plan undermines the public trust.
Real Life Impacts: Kuhio Park Terrace
For residents in Kuhio Park Terrace (KPT), HB1325 does not represent merely a hypothetical chance at stability, but rather a tangible promise. Residents have been showing up at the legislature to testify in support of HB1325, boldly sharing their experiences of uncertainty in the face of displacement and desire to help their neighbors from experiencing the same.
KPT is part of the Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority’s (HPHA) Section 9 rental portfolio, with buildings originally constructed in 1958 and 1965. KPT, like many of HPHA’s properties, has suffered from decades of underinvestment and deferred maintenance—the result of chronic federal and state funding shortfalls. In response, HPHA has begun pursuing public-private partnerships to revitalize these forgotten communities.
As this strategy expands, HPHA plans to redevelop a number of properties along the rail corridor into modern, transit-oriented neighborhoods. That transformation will require demolishing existing public housing and replacing it with a mix of income-restricted rental and for-sale units. While this presents an opportunity to improve housing quality and density, it also carries a significant risk: displacing the very residents it’s meant to serve.
Residents are already feeling the consequences. Despite prior assurances of relocation assistance and a guaranteed right to return, there is no explicit legal requirement guaranteeing those promises. Tenants are relying on promises buried in financing documents, with few clear avenues to hold decision-makers accountable.
The first phase of redevelopment is already underway, and families have begun moving without being offered comparable housing options or certainty that they’ll be allowed to return once construction is complete. This is precisely the kind of situation HB1325 is designed to address. The bill would require binding protections in any 201H redevelopment project so that residents aren’t left in limbo, and communities aren’t erased in the name of progress.
HB1325: A Step Toward Fair and Stable Redevelopment
HB1325 recognizes the human costs of redevelopment and aims to mitigate them without slowing down construction. The bill establishes minimum displacement protection for projects using the state’s 201H exemption process.
Specifically, HB1325 would require one of the following in qualifying projects:
A guaranteed right to return for displaced residents, giving them priority access to a comparable, affordable unit in the redeveloped project; or
Relocation and rental assistance, including financial support equal to three months’ rent, for those who are not offered a pathway back.
These are basic, common-sense protections. When redevelopment in Hawaiʻi does displace residents, we should have a minimum standard to assist residents who are most vulnerable and less likely to benefit from new development. HB1325 establishes that baseline on how we treat residents during transitional periods.
Hawaiʻi’s future depends on building more housing. But we must do so in a just way that allows our islands and neighborhoods to grow without pushing out the very people who made them what they are.
We should reject the false choice between growth and protection, we can do both. Anti-displacement policies like HB1325 ensure that, as we build for the future, we don’t abandon our present.
HB1325 has made it through the legislative process and is awaiting assignment of conferees. Contact Senator Chang and urge him to schedule conferees and support the passage of HB1325. Let our legislators know that Hawaiʻi can grow without leaving residents behind.