“We all say we want housing, but we make it almost impossible to build, by enacting thickets of regulations and requirements, and reviews.”
So said Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in brief, prerecorded remarks for a special Oct. 15 housing event at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i hosted by Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice.
But “here’s the good news,” Schatz added: “If the government got us into the mess in the first place, it can get us out of it, too. We just need to get out of our own way and let people build.”
Schatz said that “what’s been really encouraging about the past few years in Hawaii” is people coming together from across the political spectrum to enact laws that will facilitate more homebuilding.
“I belong to the left,” he said, “and I know Grassroot Institute has a more conservative perspective, but all of us understand that housing is the economic issue of our time, and we’ve got to do something about it together.”
Schatz said: “Bit by bit, bill by bill, the state Legislature is taking steps to remedy this crisis that has been building for generations.” But, he added, “The work is not nearly over yet. We’re just at the beginning, but we need to keep up the momentum.”
A complete transcript of Schatz’s remarks is provided below.
10-15-25, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz addressing Grassroot-Hawai‘i Appleseed housing event in Honolulu
Brian Schatz: Aloha, everybody. I want to thank the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for convening this important discussion and for having me. I really was looking forward to being there in person because of the diversity of opinions that are behind housing reform.
We’re still in Washington fighting to protect people’s health care and reopen the government, but all of you know that housing is the challenge of our time in the state of Hawaii. And too many people have had to move away from the only community that they’ve ever called home, or leave our state altogether, because housing is just too expensive.
And that is a tragedy of the government’s own making.
For so long, we’ve made it virtually impossible to build the thing that we all say we want. We all say we want housing, but we make it almost impossible to build, by enacting thickets of regulations and requirements, and reviews.
Anyone who has tried to build a shed or a patio or a backyard cottage knows just how difficult it is to build anything at all. So, over time, housing has become harder and harder to come by and therefore way, way harder to afford. We have a shortage of housing because it’s impossible to build housing.
Now here’s the good news. If the government got us into the mess in the first place, it can get us out of it, too. We just need to get out of our own way and let people build.
And what’s been really encouraging about the past few years in Hawaii is people from across the political spectrum. I belong to the left, and I know Grassroot Institute has a more conservative perspective, but all of us understand that housing is the economic issue of our time, and we’ve got to do something about it together.
Everyone from Luke Evslin to Keliʻi Akina to Will White and many of you, coming together and saying, “We need to do something about this.”
There’s nothing progressive or humane about preventing a teacher or a firefighter or a nurse or a senior or a student from living in their own community. And bit by bit, bill by bill, the state Legislature is taking steps to remedy this crisis that has been building for generations.
The work is not nearly over yet. We’re just at the beginning, but we need to keep up the momentum. And so I want to thank all of you for your continued work on this issue. It’s imperative that we get this right for the sake of our loved ones, for our neighbors and future generations.
Mahalo and aloha.
