Issue Position: Build Housing for Residents (Not Outsiders).

Issue Position

Sharon has been fighting Kakaako's "luxury blight" since it hit with full force five years ago. Honolulu is in the midst of the greatest housing crisis in the U.S. today. You know it, but politicians are failing us.

Honolulu is nearly the least affordable of 500 U.S. housing markets, and on our island, people can't drive to the next housing market for relief. No wonder we have the nation's worst homeless problem. No wonder young folks moving out make Hawaii the only Sunbelt state losing people.

Building luxury towers for outsiders instead of homes for residents hurts not just Kakaako. It's spreading to Waikiki and Ala Moana; then on to McCully, Moiliili and Sheridan. In line with bills alive in the current legislature, Sharon wants to tax the big investment trusts that underwrite high-end development, using their profits to finance residential housing. She favors "Hula Mae" loans to independent contractors that build middle class homes, the way local contractors built homes when Sharon was growing up. And she wants "rent to own" homes for those just starting out.

As Roger, one of her supporters says of Sharon, she who walks the walk, "Less Talki, Moriwaki!"

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