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NACo presenter urges using city‑owned land for affordable housing; council presses for feasibility, staffing and lease safeguards
Summary
Patrick Spence of the National Association of Counties told Honolulu council members that repurposing publicly owned land can lower housing costs and yield deeply affordable units. Council members asked for feasibility studies, RFP templates and amendments to Bill 35 governing city leases.
Patrick Spence, program manager for economic mobility at the National Association of Counties, told the Honolulu joint committee on executive management and housing on Monday that cities and counties can use land they already own to reduce the cost of developing affordable housing.
Spence said land is a large component of housing prices and that placing projects on publicly owned parcels can cut per‑unit costs by roughly $150,000 in illustrative estimates. "If you have an issue of a shortage of affordable housing and you start looking at free land, land you already own, there's an opportunity to leverage that for affordable housing that doesn't actually cost taxpayer dollars," he said.
The presentation drew on large examples, including Miami‑Dade County deals that converted county…
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