Why this Honolulu housing strategy is not a ‘super successful’ program

“I’m certainly not going to pretend that this is solving the problem,” City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said last week. He said ADU construction is an important part of an “all of the above” strategy of boosting the supply of housing that includes ensuring affordable units in Kakaʻako high-rises, building single-family homes in Kapolei and rentals in Makiki Heights.

Arjuna Heim, director of housing policy at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said ADUs could be a good option for people looking to downsize by moving into the ADU themselves while maintaining ownership of their houses, which they can then rent out.

She said one advantage from a policy perspective is that the additional units don’t require public approval through City Council or neighborhood board hearings, which sometimes doom housing proposals. 

“If I’m trying to build an ADU,” she said, “it’s just me and DPP.” 

Dos Santos-Tam and Heim both liked the idea of publishing ADU blueprints on the city’s permitting website, as did Kealoha, the Wahiawā ADU owner.

“I think it would’ve alleviated some of the stress,” Kealoha said.

But DPP canceled the idea after meeting with companies to ask them to send in blueprints for preapproval.

“In April, DPP met with industry stakeholders, and the overall feedback on the program was that the ADU templates were not necessarily helpful and many doubted the program would increase ADU application submittals,” Pitner said Friday in an emailed statement. 

Design professionals also worried about the intellectual property of their designs and whether the upfront effort and cost to get them preapproved would be worth the number of customers sent their way, Pitner said.

When asked his thoughts on the cancellation, Dos Santos-Tam said he wasn’t sure what nuances were discussed between construction companies and DPP, but he figures DPP can promote ADU construction in other ways.

Heim still supports the city posting preapproved blueprints, something California started requiring of its municipalities this year. She also thinks some kind of online map showing sewage capacity would help homeowners know upfront if their property is viable.