02-05-2025
Honolulu Council OKs merged housing department
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi's longtime vow to merge the city's real estate and housing agencies into one unified operation has come to fruition.
During a special meeting Wednesday, the City Council voted 6-1, with Radiant Cordero dissenting, to adopt Resolution 86, which advanced the mayor's plan to create the city Department of Housing and Land Management.
The Council's approved merger—which amends the City Charter via the mayor's executive power to reorganize city departments—will supposedly consolidate key housing and land functions.
Those tasks involve the city Department of Land Management, the Mayor's Office of Housing, as well as the city Department of Planning and Permitting and city Department of Community Serv ices, into a single entity with 51 full-time positions, the city said.
Kevin Auger, executive director of the Office of Housing since November, has been nominated by the mayor to serve as DHLM's director. Catherine Taschner, director designate of DLM, has been appointed to become the new department's deputy director, the city said.
'This marks the first time in 27 years that the city will have a fully staffed department dedicated to the development of much needed housing, ' Blangiardi said in a statement. 'When I took office in 2021, the Office of Housing had just one employee. Today, we are launching a department built from the ground up—one that reflects our administration's resolve to take action, cut through bureaucracy, and deliver real results for the people of Oahu.'
'DHLM will give us the structure, the scale, and the leadership to do more—and do it faster, ' the mayor added.
The new department will feature two major new divisions : a housing development division to lead partnerships on city-owned land, and a housing finance division to create innovative funding tools that reduce barriers to development, the city said.
DHLM's formation aligns with the city's 2025-2028 Strategic Housing Plan, released in January, which aims to partner with developers to 'activate underutilized ' city-owned lands on the island and involve using new types of 'financing strategies ' to build more housing on the island.
Before the vote, Council member Val Okimoto questioned the city about staffing—including leadership positions within divisions of DHLM that still remain vacant—and the logistics of the new department.
'I think in theory it seems wonderful, (but ) I wonder how feasible this is, ' Oki moto said. 'And in your mind, knowing that we still have some vacancies that you're having to fill, how long do you think you anticipate before you're running efficiently ?'
In response, Auger said DHLM 'won't be fully funded until July, ' with the start of the 2026 fiscal year.
'And then obviously, it takes time to identify really good candidates, ' he added. 'We're starting with the top leadership for those divisions, because generally when you hire somebody to lead a division, they can bring other people in under them. But it's still going to take time … and we've got to start somewhere.'
Cordero expressed displeasure over the way the new city department was brought to the Council. 'It's been very sloppy, and honestly, as a Council member, I feel like we've been pushed into a corner to pass this as well as putting it into the budget, to also approve of that budget under DHLM, ' she said.
'Council member, I appreciate and respect those comments, I do, ' Auger replied. 'However, the mayor announced this (reorganization ) in the State of the City in 2023, mentioned it again in 2024, and we've been working closely with Housing Committee Chair (Matt ) Weyer on this process. It's been almost two years.'
But Cordero shot back, 'That's my exact question to you : Why are we doing it in March 2025, with 60 days for the Council to pass it ? We could have had it even at the end of last year, and introduced it in March of 2025.'
Auger replied, 'The simple answer to that is it's important. It's not an issue of trying to jam the Council.'
'No, ' Cordero retorted, 'you jammed the Council.'
Council Chair Tommy Waters—who has expressed support for the merged department—recently requested the city administration provide a list of all city-owned properties on Oahu.
In a written response Tuesday, city Managing Director Mike Formby told Waters the city does not have easy access to records regarding city-owned properties. 'The responsibility for properties was decentralized in 1998 following the disbandment of the former Department of Housing and Community Development, ' Formby explained.
He'd note that one of the goals of the reorganization 'is to aggregate all housing programs and properties, particularly affordable housing programs and properties, into DHLM for centralized reporting consistent with the Charter.'
Formby said the inventory of city-owned properties is maintained on the city's Enterprise Resource Planning System, or C2HERPS, platform.
'Unfortunately, that platform lacks a user-friendly interface for sortable data review and reporting, ' he added.
Still, Formby said city staff are working 'to aggregate and update data from various departments, which is distinctive and incomplete in its existing format, to create a comprehensive database as required ' by City Charter.
He noted the requested 'database will be maintained in DHLM.'
'In closing, I apologize that we are not presently able to deliver the requested update, ' Formby said, 'but we are working in good faith on what we agree is a necessary database for both Council and the administration, and we will update Council as we make improvements.'
At the meeting, Waters said his April 8 request for a list of city-owned properties was related to affordable housing. 'The reason it's important is I'm asking each of the Council members to look at city-owned properties in their districts that we can identify for affordable housing, ' he added.
Although he received Formby's response, Waters asked, 'Do you have any more information on when we can expect that list ?'
'I don't, Chair, ' Auger replied, 'I can certainly follow up on that and get back to you on that.'
Waters said, 'The idea is we want to help you build affordable housing.' And he added, 'If we don't know what properties we have, it makes it that much more difficult.'
In response, Auger said, 'We do have an inventory of property ; it's just not really accessible in the way that we'd really like to see it be accessible.'
Auger asserted that 10 city-owned properties have been identified for up to 2, 500 units, 'which is more than we can currently finance.'
Council members Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola were absent from the meeting.
