More kids need school breakfast
Fewer than 4 in 10 low-income students who eat school lunch are also eating school breakfast in our state.
Half of Hawaiʻi barely gets by
Two or three jobs are not enough to provide financial stability for many local families. How can we create CHANGE?
How to encourage healthy diets and support local agriculture
Nutrition incentive programs like SNAP help stretch budgets and put good food on tables.
City council debates fate of Oʻahu's short term rentals
The council planning committee heard seven bills that would drastically change the fees, fines and enforcement on thousands of Oʻahu short-term rentals.
Addicted to Airbnb: Hawaiʻi’s tourism economy depends on illegal vacation rentals
While calls for a crackdown on short-term rentals grow louder, their rapid expansion accounts for a big chunk of the recent growth in the state’s largest industry.
Is housing sacrificed to attract more tourists?
One gets little sense that there is a plan behind Hawaiʻi’s tourism growth beyond sustaining it.
It takes everyone to bring fresh local food to keiki
Under the ʻĀina Pono initiative, schools are serving nutritious meals using locally sourced ingredients.
Hawaiʻi Interagency Council on Homelessness legislative priorities: $218M
The coalition of state, county, faith-based and social services organizations is setting its priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
No one is speaking up for Hawaiʻi’s renters
There is no organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of tenants, and a new study finds they lose nearly every eviction case.
Council must be forceful to reduce illegal short-term rentals
The Honolulu City Council must push forward for the sake of establishing a balance between collecting taxes owed and deterring further illegal vacation rentals.
Appleseed Center urges tough vacation rental rules
Hawaiʻi Appleseed released a report Monday as the city council prepares again to debate a bill addressing the issue after years of public frustration.
Kauaʻi residents receive enticing letters to list homes as short-term vacation rentals
Last week, residents from Waimea to Hanalei reported receiving form letters from VRBO, looking for homeowners who want to cash in by listing their properties as short-term vacation rentals.
State’s poor face nation’s second-largest tax burden
The least wealthy income earners in Hawaiʻi pay the second most in taxes of any state in the union, according to an analysis of tax systems across the country.
Affordable Hawaiʻi starts with housing
While the official poverty average from 2015–2017 makes Hawaiʻi look like an economic paradise, the supplemental measure puts Hawaiʻi at the 10th-highest rate.
Planning commission rejects short-term rental regulations
The Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice supports the effort to regulate short-term rentals, but opposes this measure.
Update on state's homelessness plans
A $766 million investment over a decade could house the 1,700 chronically homeless individuals across Hawaiʻi and save the state $2 billion in healthcare costs.
One in 10 county residents lives below poverty line
With supplemental data, Hawaiʻi falls to the 10th highest poverty rate in the nation at 15 percent, or 210,000 residents in poverty, according to Hawaiʻi Appleseed.
What new census data says—and doesn’t say—about Hawaiʻi
Incomes are slightly higher but housing costs are still among the worst in the nation.
Hawaiʻi sues for info on Airbnb owners who aren't paying taxes
The state is taking action to crack down on vacation rental owners who aren't paying taxes.
69 public schools offer free summer meals. But most kids don't claim them
Low participation in summer meal programs robs the state of more than a million dollars a month in federal reimbursements for the meals.