CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
Home Challenges in Hawaii
According to Governor Green’s 2024 Housing Reform presentation, “Unlocking Barriers to Affordable Housing”, the median home price in Hawaii has increased by 3.5x since 2000. Only one-in-five Hawaii households can afford a median single-family home. This has lead to a significant population outflow to other states by the local population of Hawaii.
In addition to the affordable housing crisis, the state of Hawaii is also leading the push towards communities become entirely energy self-sufficient. Laws enacted set an aggressive goal of Hawaii being 70% energy self-sustaining by the year 2030 and 100% by the year 2045. According to the IEA, the heating and cooling costs for a typical U.S. home accounted for 12% of all household energy use. In hot and humid regions like Hawaii, that usage went up to 27%. A large amount of Hawaii's imported energy is spent on cooling thousands of homes and businesses that were built using traditional building materials and methods and are not energy efficient. Traditional wall and roof components allow for heat penetration, while at the same time allowing for all the cool indoor air to leach out.
Hawaii’s year-round warm weather is ideal for the various species of termites to thrive. The most destructive termites are the Formosan subterranean termite and the West Indian drywood termite, both of which arrived during the past 100 years and are now common throughout the State of Hawaii. Costs to Hawaii residents to control and repair termite damage have been estimated to exceed $100 million annually. It is disheartening to invest your time and hard earned money into your dream home, only to have it become termite food. Costly termite treatments and routine termite damage repair are constant reminders that your investment is not safe.
Hurricanes always pose a potential risk for Hawaii homes. When Hurricane Iniki hit, it damaged or destroyed 4 out of every 10 single family homes (more than 6,000 homes) on Kauai. The importance of having a home built to withstand hurricane force winds was emphasized.
According to the FEMA report analyzing the damage following hurricane Iniki, “One and two story wood light-frame buildings were the most severely damaged type of construction”. Contributing to the level of destruction were the “weakening of structural components, sheathing, and cladding caused by insects (termite) infestation and weatherization (rotting and rusting). This reduction in strength acted to increase damage.”
Here in Hawaii, the moisture levels are relatively high in many areas around the state. That moisture helps to create the beautiful landscapes and rainbows that Hawaii is known for, but it also results in unwanted mold growth. The CDC indicated: “In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people..." Traditional home building methods creates space inside the interior wall cavities. Once moisture is introduced, the closed cavity is ripe for mold growth. The results often are ongoing respiratory problems for the home dwellers and an overall decrease in home comfort.
Nationally, in 2022 the total dollar loss from residential building fires in the U.S. reached into the billions. Traditionally built homes are often constructed with more flammable materials compared to modern fire-resistant materials.
With all these challenges, it is no wonder that building, affording, and maintaining homes in Hawaii are increasingly becoming out of reach for most. What can be done?
HOME SOLUTIONS
As a part of the governor’s plan to address the affordability issue, he proposed SB 3202, which would allow urban homeowners with utility capacity to build two (2) Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on Residential Lots. It furthers states that it would require the Counties to enact these reforms no later than 12/31/26.
To address the lack of affordable housing supply in a time efficient manner, it is important to look at modern technologies that provide a solution beyond the outdated construction methods used in traditional home builds. Although the composite building system that we have been using could fulfill that need, a new home manufacturer has created a factory-built product that would maintain all the benefits of composite built homes and add extra benefits one top of that which have direct impacts on affordability and time.
This provider utilizes modern building materials and technology, which address all the challenges indicated above. Energy efficient roof, walls, and floors are the standard. Fire, wind, mold, and termite resistance is inherent in the precision factory built home. Being built on an assembly line production in a controlled environment ensures consistency, quality, and reliability. Bulk material purchasing, reduced construction waste, and technological automation bring down the cost. The innovative design allows for ease of shipping and rapid deployment on site. The homes ship with all finishes and even appliances.
This provider's current home offering can be geared towards fulfilling the govenor's ADU mandate to increase affordable residential units immediately. In the future, these units can be combined together to make 2, 3, or 4 bedroom homes with the room to expand or contract based upon your individual needs.
Who are we talking about?
Boxabl
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