Housing
The UHERO Housing Policy Group provides rigorous analyses to inform debates regarding housing in Hawaiʻi, with a focus on the high housing cost burdens experienced by the State’s residents. This problem is multiscalar in its origins and thus requires a bundle of analyses ranging from longitudinal portraits of the State’s housing market, to estimates of the impact of housing costs on local populations, to objective evaluations of proposed policy solutions.
HCRC Annual Report of Activities – Year 2
Due to the generosity of the HCRC, I was able to begin service as the HCRC Professor in Affordable Housing Economics, Policy, and Planning in the fall of 2018. Since that time, I have been able to maintain a vigorous national research agenda, while simultaneously working to inform housing policy in the state of Hawaii, […]
Read MoreUHERO Survey on the Impacts of COVID-19 on Hawaii’s Rental Properties
UHERO has partnered with landlord and property management organizations to initiate a statewide data collection effort related to the impacts of the COVID-19 crises on our state’s rental housing. Our goal is to gather representative empirical data each month on 1) the number of rental households struggling to pay rent and 2) the number of […]
Read MoreEvent: The Coming Covid Eviction Crisis and How to Stop It
The Coming Covid Eviction Crisis and How to Stop It Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 9:00 am Hawai‘i time Register and submit questions in advance HERE. Hawai‘i residents have long struggled with the elevated cost of housing and high rates of homelessness. Now the covid-19 recession is pressing more households to the edge. Join us to explore […]
Read MoreEstimating the Need for Rental Assistance in Hawaii
By Philip ME Garboden and Isabelle Picciotto Renters in Hawaii are at significant risk due to the economic downturn. Roughly 40% of all households in Hawaii rent their homes. They have significantly lower income than homeowners, with a median household income of $57,000 compared with $100,000 for homeowners. Their housing tenure is by nature less […]
Read MoreCoastal armoring and sinking property values: the case of seawalls in California
Rising sea levels necessitate careful consideration of different forms of coastal protection but cost-benefit analysis is limited when important non-market social costs have not been measured. Seawalls protect individual properties but can potentially impose negative externalities on neighboring properties via accelerated beach loss. We conduct a hedonic valuation of seawalls in two coastal California counties: […]
Read MorePreserving Housing Stability During Hawaii’s COVID Crisis
By Philip Garboden Last week, the Eviction Lab released a scorecard for COVID-19 Housing Policy. Hawaii scored fairly well comparatively: 15th out of the 50 states. Unfortunately, this only put us near the top of a fairly rotten pile. With the exception of two or three states, the vast majority of the country currently has […]
Read MoreHCRC Annual Report of Activities
Due to the generosity of the HCRC, I was able to begin service as the HCRC Professor in Affordable Housing Economics, Policy, and Planning in the fall of 2018. Since that time, I have been able to maintain a vigorous national research agenda, while simultaneously working to inform housing policy in the state of Hawaii, […]
Read MoreCombinatorial Optimization for Urban Planning: Strategic Demolition of Abandoned Houses in Baltimore, MD
In 2017, Baltimore City was awarded $75 million dollars earmarked for the targeted demolition of a portion of its 16,000 vacant and abandoned buildings. Selecting an optimal set of demolition targets is difficult given that the cost per demolition is not independent of the overall demolition pattern; like many older cities, Baltimore’s abandoned housing includes […]
Read MoreIs Leasehold Housing Built on Government Land a Solution to Unaffordable Housing in Honolulu?
Housing is expensive on Oahu. For most middle-class Honolulu households, even buying a median-priced condominium ($415,000 in February 2019) is financially out of reach. Some state lawmakers propose to remedy the situation by developing high-density leasehold condominiums on state-owned and city-owned land near rail transit stations on the Honolulu rapid transit system now under construction […]
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