UHERO
Insights
What it Takes to Age in Place in Hawaiʻi: The Income Older Adults Need to Meet Basic Needs
Hawaiʻi’s population is aging rapidly. In 2024, there were 310,324 adults age 65 and over living in Hawaiʻi, making up 21.5% of the State’s population.[1] A…
Housing Choice Voucher Program in Hawai‘i
Read the full report: The State of the Housing Choice Voucher Program in Hawai‘i About 12,000 low-income households in Hawaiʻi pay their rent with help…
What if Honolulu upzoned everywhere? Lessons for solving a housing crisis from Aotearoa
Read the Companion Brief I’m grateful for helpful comments and suggestions from Trey Gordner and Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy. Hawaiʻi has some of the most expensive housing…
America’s housing affordability challenge: How big and how broad?
We’ve heard lots about the unaffordability of housing. How widespread is it and how extreme? To assess this, we need to do more than some…
Native Forests as Critical Infrastructure: The Economic Case for Watershed Management in the Ala Wai
Take Home Messages Recent flooding events from multiple back-to-back Kona Lows devastated areas across Hawaiʻi. While we cannot stop high rainfall events, land care and…
The True Cost of Subsidizing Childcare
Executive Summary As Hawaiʻi’s lawmakers are confronting budgetary challenges, expanding the childcare subsidies may seem fiscally out of reach. Yet, as we discuss, an expanded…
From Oil to LNG: Would It Really Lower Hawaii’s Electricity Rates?
Hawaiʻi’s electricity rates are the highest in the nation — roughly three times the U.S. average. The main reason is that the islands burn imported…
The Housing Market Impacts of a New Honolulu Condo
Housing policy discussions in Hawaiʻi often focus on how we can make newly built homes affordable. Yet new construction represents only a small share of…
Are People Leaving Hawaiʻi Because of High Prices, or Low Incomes?
This post focuses on a key theme from our comprehensive report, “Beyond the Price of Paradise: Is Hawaiʻi being left behind?” For 23 of the…