An analysis of Hawaiʻi’s pandemic-era rent relief and pre-litigation mediation program created through Act 57 (2021).

How expanding the state Earned Income Tax Credit to make it refundable can boost the economy and provide opportunity to Hawaiʻi’s working families.

Tax credits can fine-tune the tax system to promote social welfare and encourage economic activity by delivering targeted tax relief.

Part three of the Good Health Depends on Decent Housing series highlights the disconnect between the state’s housing market and the needs of its residents.

Part two in the Good Health Depends on Decent Housing series shows how helping people who are currently experiencing homelessness with housing and other needs is not only life-changing, but also saves money.

Part 1 of a Good Health Depends on Decent Housing series of policy briefs shows how chronic stress from insecure housing produces cumulative effects that result in mental and physical health problems.

Policymakers have shaped an economy that relies far too much on extractive tourism that provides little to residents in return. To reverse these trends, we need a dramatic shift in our public policy. 

The State Government’s Crucial Role in Countering the Pandemic Recession.

40 Years of Rising Costs & Stagnant Wages.

In the context of COVID-19, correctional facilities are public health disasters waiting to happen.

Building food system resilience and feeding families in the time of COVID-19.

Hawaiʻi’s post-COVID-19 economy should be one informed by an understanding that the old economic order had been failing many Hawaiʻi residents for decades.

Policy and spending decisions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on Hawaiʻi and its people.

Patients, providers, and administrators alike agree that quality mental health care is hard to come by—there is a catastrophic dearth of services for low-income youth.

Looking back at the Great Recession, 2007–09.

Not only would a minimum wage increase help to improve the living standards of affected Hawaiʻi workers, but it would also strengthen local businesses, as low-wage workers plow almost every additional dollar of earnings back into the local economy.

Recommendations on handling Hawaiʻi’s public worker retirement commitments as the Baby Boomer generation prepares to enter retirement.

Despite the heavy toll that eviction takes on households and communities, tenants facing eviction in Hawaiʻi have relatively little support to ensure they are not improperly removed from their homes.

Hawaiʻi counties have an opportunity to model vacation rental unit regulations off successful ordinances from around the world. The stakes are high: our housing crisis is among the worst in the nation.

The adverse consequences of housing stock lost to vacation rentals far outweighs the benefits they might provide to local families and our community.