Limited equity co-ops could ease Hawaiʻi’s housing crunch

As director of Housing Public Policy with the Hawaiʻi Budget & Policy Center, Kenna StormoGipson’s research and work focused on ways to create affordable housing. She invited Finnish Housing First representatives to Hawaiʻi to share methods Finns used to virtually eliminate homelessness in Finland.

The Finns described how they built affordable housing more quickly by giving developers loans—not grants, as we do—for the entire cost of constructing an affordable complex. After construction, when developers recoup their money, the loan is repaid and the money goes back into the affordable housing fund to loan out again.

Since financing does not need to be cobbled together, Finnish build time is considerably faster than ours.

Why doesn’t Hawaiʻi draw on options like these, such as switching from grants to loans?