New Hawaiʻi Appleseed report makes landlord-tenant law accessible, offers a path toward greater housing stability for tenants and landlords
With Hawaiʻi’s rental market among the nation’s tightest—and an estimated 38 percent of households renting—the need for clear, accessible information about tenant and landlord rights has never been greater.
Hawaiʻi Appleseed releases 2026–27 state budget primer and legislative recap
The legislative session is fast and dense, making it hard for the public to follow. But an informed public is the bedrock of democracy. Our hope is these reports help strengthen that bedrock.
Fund Our Future: Policy brief outlines path to a thriving Hawaiʻi through fair tax reform
How Hawaiʻi can both avoid devastating cuts to public services and fund solutions to our most pressing problems.
Hawaiʻi Appleseed launches interactive economic justice dashboard to drive data-informed advocacy
Unlike single-issue tools, this dashboard integrates key indicators across food security, housing, transportation, and economic security to show how these issues are related.
As federal food aid shrinks, Hawaiʻi counties hold important key to local food security
With closer community connections, counties can tailor solutions to local realities, such as inter-island transportation barriers in Maui County or the dispersed rural communities of Hawaiʻi County.
Hawaiʻi Appleseed releases 2025–26 state budget primer and legislative recap
Together, these documents tell the story of how Hawaiʻi invests in its communities, analyzing the most recent legislative session and the budget that emerged from it.
State legislature must do more to protect Hawaiʻi’s vulnerable, struggling renters
Our existing statutes don’t do nearly enough to keep renters stable in an unstable housing market; yet, year after year, the legislature has punted the issue down the road.
“Beyond the Ticket” report imagines traffic enforcement reforms to reduce harm
Hawaiʻi comes down hard on minor traffic violations that pose little to no threat to the public; this punitive approach does little to advance public safety, harming struggling communities instead.
Community forum will bolster political will behind Universal Free School Meals
Free School Meals 4 All: A Community Forum will take place Sat., March 15 from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. at McKinley High School auditorium.
Recent state tax cuts leave many struggling families behind, in need of more help
Tax credits can help round out relief efforts at low cost to the state by targeting assistance only to the families that need additional support.
Hawaiʻi Appleseed launches 20 year anniversary giving campaign
The nonprofit hopes to raise $100,000 from individual and corporate donors by December 31.
Estate tax giveaway HB2653 would further concentrate wealth, drive inequality
New data-driven policy brief from Hawaiʻi Appleseed aims to educate lawmakers on the true nature of the policy proposal contained in this 2024 bill.
Hawaiʻi’s conveyance tax can be an effective tool to address our housing crisis
Hawaiʻi lawmakers have an opportunity to tailor the sales tax on real property so that it reinvests nonresident wealth into our island communities through affordable housing development.
New report calls upon the state to join a growing national movement and provide free meals to all Hawaiʻi public school students
Extending free meals to all public school students would cost about $25 million per year—about 1 percent of the DOE’s operating budget.
Hawaiʻi’s tax system makes inequality worse, national study finds
Hawaiʻi lawmakers can improve the economic health of our communities by re-balancing the state’s upside-down tax code.
Hawaiʻi’s low wages relative to its cost of living put a serious strain on society, local economy
In a new report, Hawaiʻi Appleseed researchers demonstrate how chronically low wages have prevented Hawaiʻi’s working families from thriving, and outline the significant cost that poverty exacts from these families, from future generations, and from all of us.
Hawaiʻi households to suffer deep cuts to SNAP benefits; anti-hunger advocates urge lawmakers to address hunger cliff
The cliff is a result of Congress’ decision to end the federal emergency allotments that were implemented to reduce food insecurity and stimulate the economy for the duration of the pandemic.
Hawaiʻi's tenant-landlord mediation program kept hundreds housed amid pandemic fallout
Study aims to ascertain whether or not there are ways to increase housing stability by examining the temporary measures Hawaiʻi put into place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two local nonprofits receive $100,000 grant from Safeway and Safeway Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors
Hawaiʻi Appleseed and Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network are teaming up to ensure families with keiki can purchase enough food this summer.
Maui tenants welcome federal court decision preserving low-income housing
Federal District Court Judge Jill Otake ruled that the developer was obligated to honor its commitment to keep rents affordable for the next 31 years.