“The disconnect between average wages and the price of housing became glaringly clear as a result of the pandemic,” said Kenna StormoGipson, director of housing policy at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. 

“You had people buying second homes, people coming from the mainland remote working,” StormoGipson continued. “You just had this very clear example of how the housing market is not primarily based on local wages or primarily serving local residents.”

If the funding decisions are similar to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Hawaiʻi could benefit immensely, said Gavin Thornton, executive director of Hawaiʻi Appleseed.

Thornton said that Hawaiʻi received the seventh-highest amount of federal funding per capita from that bill, twice that of some other states. That’s partially because of Hawaii’s relatively small population and funding floors that were part of that measure. Ultimately it meant that the federal money made up 9% of the state’s budget, Thornton said.

If the Build Back Better plan is enacted with the housing provisions intact, Thornton estimates Hawaiʻi could get receive $1.4 billion dollars for housing.

“That’s a game changer for us,” he said.