Affordable Housing in Hawaii: Part I

What’s the problem, and why do we even have it?

What is affordable housing?

There’s no crisp definition that everyone agrees on, but we can stand on the shoulders of giants. According to the State of Hawaii:

Generally, housing is considered “affordable” when costs are at or below 30% of household income.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says:

…the 30 percent threshold also became the standard for owner-occupied housing, and it remains the indicator of affordability for housing in the United States. Keeping housing costs below 30 percent of income is intended to ensure that households have enough money to pay for other nondiscretionary costs

The big picture is that we’d like housing costs, which means rents and mortgages, to be less than or equal to $3 out of every $10 that someone earns. We do this to avoid a ‘burden’, which practically means that if you’re paying too much in rent, you’re having trouble making ends meet.

How does an apartment stay affordable? That depends on the program. With a Section 8 voucher, the renter generally pays about 30% of their income, and the government pays the landlord the rest, up to a limit that is usually 90% to 110% of the area’s Fair Market Rent. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) apartments work differently. Investors put money into the building up front in exchange for federal tax credits, and the rents are capped for at least 30 years at levels tied to the area’s income limits.

who gets to live in affordable housing?

Different parts of the government have funding in their budgets to support the creation and maintenance of affordable housing. An important definition you’ll need as we keep going is the Area Median Income (AMI), which is the ‘…midpoint of a region’s income distribution – half of families in a region earn more than the median and half earn less than the median.’ For 2026, HUD puts the median family income at $133,400 in Honolulu County, $120,100 on Kauaʻi and $98,300 on Hawaiʻi Island.

This number changes every year, and percentages of it are used as cutoffs to decide who qualifies for help. In all three counties, HUD adjusts its limits upward, and the State builds its cutoffs from those adjusted limits, so they sit higher than a straight percentage of the median would. Even the “100%” line is above the median. Here are the State’s 2026 limits for a family of four, from the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC). Figures are for Honolulu · Kauaʻi · Hawaiʻi Island:

  • 100% of AMI: $154,000 · $135,900 · $121,000

  • Low income, 80% of AMI: $123,200 · $108,720 · $96,800

  • 60% of AMI, the usual ceiling for tax-credit apartments: $92,400 · $81,540 · $72,600

  • Very low income, 50% of AMI: $77,000 · $67,950 · $60,500

  • Extremely low income, 30% of AMI: $46,200 · $40,770 · $36,300

Please visit HHFDC’s pages for Honolulu, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi County to explore other household sizes.

Depending on where the funding for a particular affordable housing development came from, this means different things for the renters. Take 330 Kuʻulei, our new 40-unit building in Kailua and the first affordable housing built there in nearly four decades. Four of its apartments are set aside for households at 30% of AMI, four at 40%, 28 at 60% and three at 100%, plus one for the resident manager.

How did we get here?

It’s dishonest to point to a single reason, but there are a couple that are generally agreed upon.

Income limits are from HHFDC’s 2026 guidelines, effective May 1, 2026, which are built from HUD’s fiscal year 2026 limits. Figures current as of November 2026.