Homelessness and affordable housing top the list of legislative priorities for health and human services agencies. Natalie Okeson, executive director of PHOCUSED, the advocacy coalition, says housing should be a priority for families with annual incomes of 31-thousand dollars or 30 percent of the area median income—AMI.

“We need new developments and we can’t always talk about under 80 percent AMI. We need to also be looking all the way down to under 30 percent AMI where many of our minimum wage workers are at.”

Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst for the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, says a $15 an hour minimum wage and an increase in the low income renter’s credit will help struggling families.

“Currently, the low income renter’s credit is only $50 per person in the household. So, if we were to increase it just for inflation since the 1980s, it should be up around $150.  o let’s say you have a single mom with 2 kids. That would be $450.”