Spiraling housing prices spark worry about Hawaii's future

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Tedorian Gallano would like to buy a house for his wife and three youngest children in Hawaii, but real estate prices soared so high eight years ago he moved his family back to his childhood home outside Honolulu — and last year, his older brother followed suit. Lawmakers have Determined to find solutions, a college student taking a break during COVID-19 and a recent college graduate co-founded a nonprofit advocacy organization called Housing Hawaii’s Future to lobby on the issue. “It really bothers me that we are saying to the young people of Hawaii, ‘It’s great that you might have been born and raised and educated here, but now that you’ve become an adult, you have to leave and you cannot come back,’” said state Sen. Stanley Chang, a Democrat who chairs the Senate housing committee. Wayne Tanaka, the director of the Hawaii chapter of the environmental and social justice nonprofit the Sierra Club, said efficiencies could expedite needed housing development, but the “devil is in the details.” He said the community must also consider the environment, water sources, food security and climate change threats, like severe drought and powerful hurricanes.