Testimony in Opposition

The report submitted in support of the PARUS program actually raises serious concerns about whether additional County funding is justified.

According to the report, the program has organized approximately $7.6 million in combined capital to produce just 15 housing units statewide, with more than half of that funding coming from government subsidy. At that scale, the cost per unit approaches roughly half a million dollars. For a County facing a housing shortage affecting thousands of residents, this level of output is extremely small relative to the amount of public subsidy involved.

The report also explains that the program’s strategy is to purchase existing homes in the open market and convert them into nonprofit-controlled rental housing. That approach does not increase housing supply. Instead, it removes homes from the ownership market while relying heavily on taxpayer funding to do so.

Maui County should prioritize policies that increase the total housing supply, reduce barriers to construction, and support infrastructure needed to build new homes. Using public funds to acquire a small number of existing homes does not address the scale of the housing crisis facing this island.

For these reasons, I respectfully oppose additional County funding for this program.

Lore Menin, Kihei Resident

Testimonies received from BFED Committee as of 4/22/2026 at 9:30 a.m.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the BFED committee, thank you for considering my testimony in support of Bill 55.

My name is Ken Cheung from Oceanit in Honolulu. We are Paia Mantokuji Mission’s engineering consultants, and we have been working with Paia Mantokuji to stabilize their eroding shoreline to protect their historic temple grounds for almost a decade.

Our goal is not only to protect the Paia Mantokuji’s structures, but to preserve Mantokuji Bay for its use as a habitat for wildlife and recreation for residents and visitors.

We have exhausted our resources in the latest round of repairs of the emergency shoreline protection structure, and are humbly asking for the County’s support to design, permit, and construct a long-term solution to preserve the bay.

The long-term plan is in the concept stage, and it involves two elements:

1. Dune restoration via beach nourishment: to stabilize the eroding escarpment and restore a sandy beach. The erosion is currently causing red clay soil to discharge into the ocean, causing chronic severe turbidity and damaging wildlife.
2. Wave dissipation by building an off-shore artificial-reef structure, also referred to as a “living breakwater”: this will reduce the amount of wave energy reaching the shore and removing sand

Paia Mantokuji is currently compliant with Federal, State, and County regulations. The Mission is maintaining the emergency protection structure under an emergency CDUP issued by DLNR. We also have a Special Management Area (SMA) permit and Shoreline Setback Approval (SSA) from Maui County, and are fully compliant with Federal regulations.

Paia Mantokuji was hoping to be provided some relief from some (not all) regulatory requirements in proposed 2026 legislation (SB3169 / HB2490), but the bill did not make it through the final House committee and is effectively dead. This means that the potential time and cost relief that we were hoping for will not be realized. We are prepared to comply with the required Federal, State, and County regulations.

Thank you for your consideration, and I will be present at the hearing to answer any questions.

Aloha.