Gavin Thornton, co-executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, has been looking at housing studies dating back to 1946. He found one from 1970 describing Hawaiʻi’s housing problem. “That study from 48 years ago was already saying we were in a crisis. And what has changed since then? In 1968, 23 percent of Honolulu renters were paying more than 30 percent of income for rent. By 2005, 46 percent of Honolulu renters. By 2016, 54 percent of Honolulu renters.

“So we were calling it a crisis back in 1970. And yet the problem is twice as big now,” adds Thornton, who was on the ALICE committee.

“The lowest-income folks in Hawaiʻi are paying 11 percent of their income in just GET. That’s a lot of money. Yes, we have to raise wages, and we have to work on affordable housing. But we also need to look at the tax burden,” says Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst at Appleseed.