The “housing policy playbook” is intended to help state and county lawmakers remove or reform the many regulatory barriers that stifle Hawaii homebuilding

New Grassroot brief details 10 ‘bold’ reforms that could help ease Hawaii’s housing crisis

from Grassroot Institute, Feb 5, 2026

HONOLULU, Feb. 5, 2026 >> A new policy brief released by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii emphasizes that Hawaii’s acute housing crisis will not improve until state and county lawmakers remove or reform the many regulatory barriers that have stifled local homebuilding.

Grassroot’s “Hawaii housing playbook,” written by staffers Malia Hill and Jonathan Helton, outlines 10 research-backed actions lawmakers could take to boost housing stock and reduce home prices throughout the islands.

Hill and Helton write in the introduction that, “Decades of misguided land-use rules, building regulations and administrative bottlenecks have made it increasingly difficult, time-consuming and expensive to build homes in the state.”

“The predictable result,” they say, “has been chronic housing shortages, soaring prices, overcrowding and the continued out-migration of local families, workers, young people and retirees.”

And, they note: “Despite billions of dollars in government spending and countless new mandates aimed at so-called affordability, Hawaii consistently ranks among the least affordable housing markets in the nation.” 

The 10 recommendations detailed in the report are:

>> Reduce minimum lot-size requirements.

>> Eliminate parking mandates.

>> Repeal inclusionary zoning.

>> Adopt a single statewide building code.

>> Permit more prefabricated and manufactured housing.

>> Make it easier to build higher-density housing such as triplexes and fourplexes.

>> Ease the permitting process for agricultural workforce housing and other ag-related structures.

>> Reform the state Land Use Commission and its district boundary-amendment process.

>> Reform the owner-builder contractor exemption.

>> Reform civil service requirements for state and county planning and permitting employees.

Keli’i Akina, Grassroot president and CEO, acknowledges in the report’s preface that “our elected officials have made strides in the past several years to identify and remove some of these harmful regulations.” But, he adds, more needs to be done.

“The time for mainly tinkering at the margins has passed,” he writes. “Bold action is necessary to pare back decades of bad policy.”

Referring to the 10 recommendations offered by Grassroot, Akina concludes: “I have high hopes that our lawmakers will be open to implementing them. They are changes that must be made sooner or later — preferably sooner — if we want Hawaii to be a place with affordable and abundant housing for all.”

PDF: Hawaii housing playbook