What if we could help farmers, ease the housing crisis and improve Hawaiʻi’s economy all at the same time?
A series of simple reforms could do that.
The starting point would be to make it easier to build farmworker housing on agricultural land.
That would enable farm and ranch workers to find housing closer to where they work. Hawaiʻi’s farmers and ranchers would find it easier to hire, train and retain employees to help them with their operations. And that, in turn, would boost agricultural production, generate more sales and add to Hawaiʻi’s tax base.
It would be a win-win-win.
Unfortunately, state and county regulations make it extremely difficult and expensive to build ag-worker housing — or anything, really — on state-designated agricultural land. So first we need to identify which rules and regulations need to be removed or eased to achieve that policy trifecta.
The good news is that a colleague of mine at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi, Jonathan Helton, has done just that in a new report, “How to facilitate more housing for Hawaiʻi farm and ranch workers.”
Helton concludes that state lawmakers should allow more small homes to be built on agricultural lands, redefine “farm dwellings” to include subsistence farming, and permit “cluster housing,” which refers to housing units built near each other, creating small communities that enable more farm land to remain in production.
At the county level, lawmakers should also promote more small farm dwellings, as well as reduce many of the legal conditions and remove discretionary approvals for farmworker housing.
Ultimately, if we want more homes for farm and ranch workers — along with more agricultural production, greater food security and a healthier economy — we need to remove unnecessary burdens on those who would build them.
I hope our state lawmakers will direct some of their attention during the coming legislative session to work on this issue.
Reprinted with permission from the Jan. 12, 2026 "Presidentʻs Corner" of Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i President & CEO Keli‘i Akina, Ph.D.
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