Bill 58 sets affordable housing requirements in designated rail station areas on Oʻahu. It requires developers seeking a building permit for 10 units or more to provide a percentage of affordable rental or “for sale” units and keep them affordable for a set number of years.  

Gavin Thornton is co-executive director for the Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. “We’d really like to see 30 years of affordability. We don’t think that it has any impact on whether units pencil out or not. It’s worked in a number of other jurisdictions—60 years has worked; 99 years has worked; we think this is doable. We just can’t afford this public investment in rail to be squandered after five or 10 years.”