Community members and developers are closer to a compromise on where to build a new teacher housing complex at Mililani High School, but the proposed solution will likely require more time and money.

In response to Hawaiʻi’s ongoing teacher shortage, the state has tasked the School Facilities Authority with building affordable housing on the Mililani campus. Projected to open in 2030, it will consist of about 100 one- and two-bedroom units. Oʻahu teachers will receive top priority for the housing, followed by Department of Education employees and the general public.

The project may appeal to early-career educators, who often struggle to find housing options within their price range and have a starting salary of roughly $53,300. But it received backlash last year when the developer, Pacific Housing Assistance Corp., said it planned to build the complex where the school’s garden and agriculture program are located.

The site was considered a low-cost option because of its proximity to city sewer and water lines, but some teachers and students wanted to keep the garden.

“They failed to see all these projects because they just see it as land,” said Kelsie Kuniyoshi, who graduated from Mililani High School in 2019. While the developer offered to relocate the agricultural program to another part of campus, Kuniyoshi said the move would disrupt years of student work that had gone into planting trees and growing crops there.

The developer is now looking into building on a different site that currently houses a corner parking lot. But the new location will likely require more planning and more money from the state, said authority director Riki Fujitani.

Originally, Pacific Housing said it planned to fund, build and run the project on its own in exchange for leasing a portion of Mililani High School’s land from the state. That would have required little state investment, except for the money needed to move the high school’s agricultural program and gardens.

But the new location is a more expensive venture, hillier and farther away from city sewer and water lines, Fujitani said, adding that Pacific Housing is still estimating the costs of building on this site.

“The path is long and precarious ahead,” Fujitani said, “but overall, I’m pretty confident because we have everyone pointed in the same direction.”

There’s no guarantee lawmakers will provide more money for the project. Lawmakers initially proposed $170 million for teacher housing projects across the state in 2023, but the funding dropped to $5 million due to budget constraints after the Maui wildfires.

House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita said he was unaware of the need for more project funding, but his committee will consider the request once the authority has an estimate of the construction costs.

Even if funding from the Legislature comes through, building on the alternative site may require more time and planning. The School Facilities Authority originally said it hoped to know the project’s construction costs by December, but estimates were delayed since the agency held additional meetings for community input. Nathan Hokama, a spokesperson for Pacific Housing, said the project could still be completed by late 2030 if the permitting and environmental assessment process goes smoothly.

He said the schedule is still in flux with so many unknowns.

Despite uncertainties around the project’s future, some community members said the authority is taking the right steps in responding to community feedback.

Danielle Bass, chair of the Mililani-Waipiʻo Neighborhood Board, said she disagreed with the original plan. Traffic builds up in the morning, she said, and adding more residents would only make it worse.

She said the authority was receptive to her concerns as it considered the alternative site, where there tends to be less traffic and fewer parents dropping their children off in the mornings.

Lee Wang, deputy executive director of Housing Hawaiʻi’s Future, said he’s also glad the authority responded to community input and was willing to adjust its plans. Still, he added, there’s also a need to move quickly with the project in the new year to meet Hawaiʻi’s high demand for housing.

If the state completes this project, he said, it could provide an important example for building more workforce housing for employees in other high-demand professions, like law enforcement or nursing. 

“We’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he said.

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.