The City and County of Honolulu has awarded a contract to the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii, or UHERO, to fund the development and maintenance of an Oahu housing database, it was announced Monday.
According to an announcement from the city, the database will list all of the island's subsidized and price-restricted housing units across the island, including units still under development.
The Mayor's Office of Housing will oversee the contract, the announcement noted.
“As we develop momentum in our housing efforts, we recognize completely that the availability and affordability of housing is one of the most important issues facing Oahu residents, but understanding a problem is a critical prerequisite when it comes to offering a set of solutions,” Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement. “By partnering with UHERO to create this housing database, we will be able to use concrete data to better develop our affordable housing strategies that we know will impact generations of residents across our island.”
According to the announcement, the publicly-accessible database will be maintained by UHERO and available online.
Available data points will include, but aren't limited to, the total number of subsidized or price-restricted housing units on Oahu; the location of those housing units, including property name and address; whether housing units were targeted for specific populations, such as senior housing or workforce housing, etc.; and the construction funding source or subsidy program that applies to each unit or housing development.
Philip Garboden, a professor at the University of Hawaii, will lead the project for UHERO.
“There is a remarkable range of subsidized and price-restricted housing on Oahu, and the devil is really in the details,” Garboden said in a statement. “What groups does it serve? Who owns it? Where is it located? And, importantly, how long until it reverts back to market prices? This database will pull data across all agencies to paint a full picture of this precious resource.”
The state’s Chief Housing Officer Nani Medeiros said in a statement she agrees with the need for housing data and the importance of "data-driven decisions to identify housing supply shortfalls and price increases.”
“This database is aligned with our efforts at the state to create a similar platform to track all housing projects in the pipeline and their status in the various county and state permitting processes," Medeiros continued. "I commend Mayor Blangiardi and look forward to using this valuable tool.”
According to the city, the database will serve as a tool to help city agencies like the Department of Planning and Permitting, the Department of Community Services, the Department of Land Management and the Mayor’s Office of Housing, "better understand the city’s current housing supply and shortfall, analyze future housing costs and develop strategies to deploy new financing mechanisms to build and preserve housing."
Garboden said that the data will be helpful not only to government agencies, but also will help the public understand "where we’re at as a county in terms of helping families secure housing. And we also hope the folks who live in this housing will help us ensure the data is accurate and up to date.”
The contract amount is $94,030 and was funded jointly by the city's Office of Housing, Department of Land Management, Department of Planning and Permitting and Department of Community Services, "all of which play critical roles in developing and implementing the city's affordable housing strategies," a city spokesperson said in an email to Pacific Business News.
The city anticipates the completed database to be open for public viewing by early 2025, but UHERO may explore a beta test prior to that date, the spokesperson said.
