KANIELA ING, District 11 Rep , Kihei, Wailea, Makena -7-29-14

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Jason Schwartz interviews KANIELA ING, State House District 11 Rep , Kihei, Wailea, Makena -7-29-14 Maui, Hawaii

Summary & Transcript

In this detailed interview, Jason Schwartz speaks with Kaniela Ing, the incumbent State House Representative for Hawaii’s District 11, about his experiences, priorities, and insights from his time in office. Ing, who won his seat against a well-funded opponent by relying on grassroots campaigning, shares his commitment to constituent engagement and effective policymaking. His key achievement has been securing $130 million for a long-awaited high school in the district, which had been without one for over 20 years. He discusses the challenges of balancing budget priorities, navigating legislative politics, and maintaining integrity amidst external pressures from corporations, unions, and political action committees. Kaniela highlights the importance of young people and diverse voices in politics, emphasizing that good policymaking requires various perspectives, not just traditional professional backgrounds. He advocates for increasing voter turnout, particularly among young adults, and shares his success with passing same-day voter registration. The conversation also touches on local infrastructure needs, healthcare system challenges, GMO labeling debates, and homelessness. Ing stresses the importance of community involvement beyond government action and promotes bipartisan efforts such as the “O Future Caucus” to address pressing social issues. Throughout the discussion, Kaniela presents himself as a pragmatic, engaged public servant focused on long-term, sustainable solutions for Maui and Hawaii.

Highlights

• [01:56] ? Kaniela Ing won his seat by knocking on 20,000 doors and running a grassroots campaign with minimal funding.
• [02:55] ? Secured $130 million for a new high school in District 11, the largest investment in the area in 15 years.
• [05:39] ? GMO labeling passed the state House but stalled in the Senate, despite 85% public support.
• [08:35] ?￯ﾸﾏ Emphasized the importance of small donations from voters to reduce outside influence and pressure.
• [12:06] ?￯ﾸﾏ Championed same-day voter registration, expected to increase voter turnout by 68%.
• [19:32] ? Successfully secured funding for a traffic light near Hope Chapel on Upper Highway to improve safety.
• [27:58] ? Discussed homelessness challenges and the launch of a “Housing First” program focusing on affordable, small-unit housing.

Key Insights

• [01:24] ? Grassroots Campaigning is Powerful: Ing’s victory despite being outspent 10-to-1 underlines the effectiveness of direct voter engagement. By personally knocking on every door multiple times and listening to constituents, he built trust and credibility, showing that persistent, grassroots efforts can overcome big money in politics. This approach fosters accountability and closer ties between representatives and their communities.
• [02:55] ? Long-Term Infrastructure Investment is Essential: The $130 million secured for a new high school represents a transformational investment for District 11, addressing a critical 20+ year gap in educational infrastructure. Such large-scale projects require vision and persistence, as well as community involvement, demonstrated by Ing’s strategy of collecting constituent letters and testimonies. This investment not only benefits education but also community identity and youth engagement.
• [05:39] ? GMO Labeling Debate Illustrates Political Complexities: The GMO labeling bill’s success in the House but failure in the Senate highlights the intricate legislative process and the influence of competing interests. Despite overwhelming public support (85%), corporate lobbying, political factions, and procedural hurdles can stall popular legislation. This case exemplifies the challenges lawmakers face in balancing public opinion with political realities and industry pressures.
• [08:35] ? Campaign Finance Shapes Political Behavior: Ing’s emphasis on small donations from many voters rather than large checks from corporations or unions reduces undue influence and pressure on legislators. This funding model promotes responsiveness to constituents rather than special interests, enhancing democratic representation. It also points to the challenges politicians face when navigating money’s role in politics, including direct pressure from union members even on the legislative floor.
• [12:06] ?￯ﾸﾏ Voter Engagement Remains a Critical Challenge: Hawaii’s decline from top voter turnout to the lowest in the nation, especially among youth, threatens democratic accountability. Ing’s push for same-day voter registration aims to remove barriers to participation and is projected to boost turnout by 68%. This reform is a significant step toward revitalizing civic engagement and empowering citizens to influence policy, counteracting apathy and disenfranchisement.
• [27:58] ?￯ﾸﾏ Addressing Homelessness Requires Multifaceted Solutions: The “Housing First” program emphasizes providing immediate shelter with minimal bureaucracy and focuses on affordable, smaller housing units, including innovative options like container homes. Ing recognizes that homelessness is a supply-demand problem aggravated by luxury developments that do not meet local housing needs. This insight reflects the importance of practical, scalable solutions that balance cost, speed, and community impact.
• [30:07] ? Bipartisanship and Post-Partisan Approaches Can Bridge Divides: The formation of the “O Future Caucus” with members across political lines shows a promising direction toward addressing Hawaii’s challenges collaboratively. By focusing on common goals like education, housing, and entrepreneurship, this caucus exemplifies how transcending partisan divides can foster practical, community-driven policy innovations such as state-supported crowdfunding initiatives. This approach may serve as a model for other regions struggling with political polarization.

Additional Notable Points

• Ing’s background includes public policy education and experience at federal, state, and local government levels, which informs his pragmatic approach.
• He acknowledges factionalism within the legislature but views it as driven more by ideology than petty politics, with potential for constructive debate.
• Infrastructure issues, such as the need for traffic lights and road safety improvements, are ongoing priorities that require both legislative action and community input.
• Ing stresses the importance of humility and staying connected with constituents to avoid losing touch or becoming disconnected from the people’s needs.
• The discussion on GMO labeling underscores the need for transparency and honest communication to reduce community polarization and fear.
• Ing encourages individuals to help their communities directly, emphasizing that government action alone cannot solve all social problems.

This interview offers valuable insights into the complexities of state-level governance, the importance of grassroots political engagement, and the need for diverse, pragmatic leadership to address critical community issues in Hawaii.

Transcript

00:12

I’m Jason Schwartz I’m not running for office but this is Kaniela Ing who is our present State House of Representatives in Hawaii District 11 is that we now I use the number but Kaniela Ing so if that’s you you can vote for Kaniela now you’ve been here 2 years you’ve been in office is that right yep uh 2012 in been wow well to me that’s two years almost yeah when you started in the race before you with the uh the young kid that was challenging the big redheaded uh guy and U you’re fortunate

00:51

enough to Prevail how’s it been up there in the state house it’s been a  really it’s been um a lot of challenges but uh a lot of super super hard work but kind of stressful but end day it’s been extremely rewarding and we got a ton of work done for s m I have heard nothing but that Kaniela has been going at it and really I guess the word is he doesn’t know that you can’t do a lot of things so you’re real busy doing to it it’s good see what we always talk about

01:24

people that are fresh at it that you know have the enthusiasm so what kind of issues have been brought up what do you feel likeo when I first decided to run um you know I ran against the big money special interest and I wanted to bring a new type of politics to to Maui and to all of Hawaii so I went against the machine and even though I was outspent 10 to1 I ended up winning by knocking on doors I knocked on um every door in the district uh for four times less around 20,000 doors I did it for $8 a day for about a

01:56

year and a half and you know that way even if people might disagree with on some issues they at least know you’re listening and they know that you’re going to work hard so I took that with me and made sure that the people’s concerns were my priorities and uh of course the number one thing was um K high school so that was my first focus and somehow as people are still campaing on that but actually the legislative part we got our job done so in previous years we requested um $17 million $20

02:23

million and these attempts have been unsuccessful this year we went for all of it $130 million so we can actually save the state money by not facing it out and I sent out this teren and postcard to every District in the um every house in the district and um I let them write why we need a high school and then they sent it to the finance committee and you know we received hundreds of those we also went to K 4th Friday and did the same and I carried a bunch of testimony from the community over with me to the capital and we got

02:55

it we got the full $130 million and that’s actually more money than we sub secured in the district over the last 15 years we got it this year we also got a covered play CT for Tom Elementary we got new AC fixed for ke Elementary where place too okay I we got like a Litany of um projects done and uh despite having a uh a smaller budget this year and being extra fiscally responsible we made sure we took care of infrastructure and priority projects first you wonder how they do this you know you

03:32

wonder where and what takes priority how are you figure what takes priority you know I mean obviously to get 130 million in a limited budget it’s interesting anything suffer saw anyone that didn’t get what they need well when the entire CIP budget Capital Improvement budget is around $300 million and one District out of 51 gets half of that you’re going to have certain other members that are um you know a little bit envious a little bit bitter but you know this was a project that we been waiting for for

04:08

over 20 years and our community has um literally been without a high school for way too long we have a thousand kids that are ready for a public doe School you probably went to baldwi or Maui high right I went I went to K yeah but but long drive and you don’t get the after school thing cuz you’re so far away you know but the I mean the high school is also like a sense of identity right you have a football team a stadium we don’t even have a gym yet in this uh District so you know that’s going to really give the

04:40

kids something to be proud of that’s great uh what surprises did you find out about working in the legislature well I came in as like a Brazen reformist like I got to shake things up and I kind of expected a certain level of uh I guess not corruption but like under the table kind of paper bag stuff and I’m not going to lie like there there’s some of that like in the Smoke field rooms but for the most part people are um my colleagues are generally um they come from the heart and they come from a

05:10

place of intellect and if you know the issue better than anyone else and you really care about the issue it’s probably going to pass and that was surprising to me I thought it was going to be a lot of just like dealing and uh just pure politic so that was actually very heart n again nice Len I don’t know if you were involved at all you’ve been hearing about GMO labeling and it went up there and then it was I guess it never made it the right of day but any thoughts about what happened there I

05:39

mean I Ros Baker was saying there in the state senate three committees had it and they all have to agree and then I spoke to someone else they say that’s not true well so well I mean it’s a really popular issue I did a survey I want to make sure I’m still listening to the people so I sent out a five question survey with the hottest issues and actually GMO labeling received uh 85% in support you know that’s more popular than flannel on Maui and you know the kids love flanel here and uh

06:10

unfortunately it didn’t pass the Senate although it did pass the state house and you know this is a big as you can see we’re out with the people this is the people are here that’s why we have so much noise right on the heart of in fact this is a Java Cafe is that what it is yeah if you haven’t been here I think they have the best coffee around that’s right and 70 70% of all the coffee served in Java Cafe is actually from ma wow that’s a big deal yeah that is yeah it’s better

06:40

than K yeah it’s really good yeah so um oh no we became the first uh chamber in the nation to pass GM the state house so the support was on our side unfortunately it died in the hands of uh the cending so you’ve seen this stuff I I don’t know what you see like you said I’m not sure the paper bag stuff but do you think that people that are taking money are from a corporation are cow Towing to them do you get a feeling about that uh no I mean it’s like a you got to figure out like which comes first

07:17

you know do this do you do you support the corporations because they give you money or do the corporations realize that they support you and that’s why they’re they funding your campaign or you support them that’s why they’re funding your campaign and like raw said you know never has she made a vote uh and made a deal to get money I’m sure that could be so right and it’s not just corporations I mean if you look at where the people’s money come from especially Democrats it’s unions it’s packs like

07:42

people I know there’s people claiming that like you know I’m not taking money from corporations and lobbyist corporations and lobbyist make up like maybe 5% of the normal um campaign treasury of of any candidate most of the money comes from packs individuals and unions so if you’re going to say I’m not going to take money from packs and unions and corporations and lobbyists and that’s a big deal you probably have a lot of rich friends but that’s but that’s a big deal um you know I mean I I

08:07

I’m all about um not taking huge checks either because I do feel the influence like literally the there’s unions that would be or members from the unions texting us on the house floor like pressing us to vote and you know that’s not that’s not right on the house floor yeah literally on the house floor like you know how you going to vote on early childhood education and um you know you got deal with that kind of pressure and uh you know if if you take if you have a lot of small donations from a lot of

08:35

people which I actually had the record amount of um donations on Maui from the most amount of people small donations both last election and this election then you don’t have that kind of pressure the people that you um you really need to cater to are the voters because they’re the ones funding your campaign and they’re the ones who ultimately uh gave got got you elected and who are ultimately your boss now that you’ve done this do you think that there there are a lot of people that

09:01

quote aren’t professional politicians that could do this kind of thing I mean there are a lot of people that have a lot of fire and you know we all as voters think I wonder if they know how they can do this job it’s a big job it’s big decisions but I’m wondering now that you’ve done it you could help somebody new come along yeah I mean you don’t know what’s going to happen in these races you suddenly like I say in this race you’re the veteran cuz you got years of solid

09:31

experience I dedicated my education to this as well you know I’ve studied um both my bachelors and my masters uh in public policy uh went worked for office wi Affairs in DC in the federal level worked on a a city ccil as a legislative research on the state level as a legislative um Aid and served as neighborhood board member before I ran so that’s all four levels of government and you know I took the job seriously like we are a democracy but we’re also a republic which which means you know the

10:03

baker like a a pure Republic is like the baker bakes the policeman police and they don’t tell each other how to do their jobs and the same goes for the policy maker or also democracy meaning that um you know the people are in control and get to kind of influence the way that you work and I and I take both of those seriously like I’m representing the people but I also need to be well versed in policym and understanding uh not just politics but uh what makes good policy and bad be it economic uh social

10:35

or um regarding law and that I have no idea what that means try to figure out oh oops no no no it mean it’s just is you know you’re right you got to make good good decisions I mean I I I do think that we we need the most diverse uh legis legislature and you know right now we have a lot of lawyers and we have a lot of business people but I don’t think you need to be a lawyer or a business person to to make good policy it it’s not a full year right it’s only like a session yeah it’s it’s a session but it’s all

11:05

about the balance right so um you know without young people in politics this year we wouldn’t have gotten minimum wage pass we probably wouldn’t have seen um a marriage equality pass we wouldn’t have seen certain women’s rights issues pass it really helps uh it’s great to be a business owner and have that side of the minimum wage issue but it also helps when someone like me who worked the minimum wage job just 5 years ago is able to um give his side of the issues it’s all about the diversity so there’s

11:31

not one type of effective legislature um any issues that are I mean I can always bring up issues you know I mean I I just can things but things that are important to you that you’ve been working on that you’d like to share yeah um you know one issue of mine was engagement Civic engagement getting people to the polls if you want to get people hold us accountable um you got to vote you know if you want to balance the big money uh influence in politics then power to the people come out in numbers

12:06

and um Drive the poles your way and vote twice in fact no don’t do that no we actually used to be our state used to be number one in the nation for voter turnout and then 50 years later now we’re dead last and that’s unfortunate from young people 18 to 24 year olds the statistics are even worse we come out in less than 20 something per. and I wanted to change that so um you know I was a big focus in my my first term and you know as a as a freshman legislator on the majority party they try to give you these baby

12:40

issues and say you know put your name on it and we’ll help you out but I said nah I want to focus on something that I can actually feel like I accomplished and they said no you’re probably going to fail like that but I did it anyways and I focus on um same day border registration so that’s uh allowing people to just if they want to vote they can just go ahead and do it reg why does it take so long for something like that to go into effect I I understand it’s a couple of Elections away before it’s

13:05

real well there’s concerns of uh voter fraud there are concerns of U lots of things but I wanted to make sure push it into the future like that right and I and making sure that the co-workers are well equipped so I want to make sure that we modernize the systems Implement online registration at the same time to actually reduce border fraud and alleviate the coworker burning so it it worked it passed and our expecting a increase of uh 68% in Hawaii and that’s that’s huge that’s giant and you heard

13:35

him 68% oh 6 I hope you know the reason that I can sit here and joke is I’ve seen this guy go from uh you know coming from scratch I am very uh thrilled because a lot of people you know didn’t really know what to see for me but you come out strong it’s a really exciting thing to see how hard you go and and uh I’m glad you didn’t have to walk so many houses this year I’m coming on again I am coming on and what he does if any of you want to buy a house he’s telling you

14:09

come to see me the fact of the matter is I’m cool um I uh what about I can Dum up with issues Hospital any thoughts about I’ve heard about Ki Hospital West B Maui Memorial kind of changes any updates for us on that stuff um yeah I mean actually M Memorial is one of the doing the best out of most of the out of all the public hospitals in the state but it’s still not doing well enough uh they’re talking about closing things down all time because they don’t have the money and they can’t expand and all these things

14:43

talk about going private but uh it’s about finding the right balance probably not full privatization it probably has to form some kind of public private partnership um I know the union was the employees union was a little bit uh scared about that because there history of like we we’re working with banner last year and if you look at the history of them they had some really um that’s company they yeah they tend to smash unions in the past in other states so we ditch them we’re looking elsewhere um

15:12

hopefully we can work with someone local like Queens if not someone um with a great reputation like male clinic and if they can come in and work with their local systems and uh find a right balance then yeah I think there is a need right now to um to allow our system to grow and suable at the level it’s at and right now that’s just not the case and it’s really a a bottomless pit for taxpayer money so what about an idea like the keii hospital if private money wants to do a hospital is that they have a think

15:45

about a certificate of need does that in any way impact do you guys get anything into that or you not really into that uh I mean private hospitals are great but at the end of the day we do need a a public hospital as a social SA to make sure that if you’re not insured and um you don’t have coverage you can what I was really bringing up I understand what I’m bringing up is um there was an issue about K hospital and they had they didn’t get their certificate of need so I’m just wondering you guys at the

16:16

legislature don’t get involved in any of that um no no so there would no change in legislation to allow a private company to be able to come in without me having Cate of me is that something that brought up I’m just wondering CU people with key are trying to get a hospital that’s why I you could I mean there’s a there’s a lot of legislation that needs to happen before we even form a a public private partnership with the hospitals or any other department so um yeah there’s going to be some changes in

16:46

regation if you want report have you seen a lot of things that people propose that get uh moved on right away versus they propose it it takes a while to go through uh my ISS my big issue my voting one took a couple years uh other things I focused on climate change um shoreline erosion uh those types of issues move a little bit faster because it we had such a broad Bas of support but for the most part unless it’s coming down from the governor or from a department slow it’s it’s slow but for the right reasons I

17:20

mean you got to make sure that all the Kinks are ironed out and any concern that’s raised uh you can address well I I get you like I heard that RZ was sharing about that and the GMO labeling spe specifically that the um attorney general thought it wasn’t state’s area to be legislating it was a federal thing I’m glad that you decided on your issues to get involved you know and not pass the buck I don’t want to pick on the council but I almost have to because of this GMO thing not being addressed

17:57

locally it’s now now creating a separation in our community I have never seen before you know rival you know it’s almost like rival gangs instead of trying to work it out to keep the jobs and maybe change their job description you know so it’s like could have been done differently yeah you talking about rival gangs in um Quai when the battle was going on for the buffer zones and everything in in the console there’s literally like one side of the street was wearing red shirts and the other

18:28

side of the street is weing blue shirts kind of like South Central LA yeah it was was pretty horrible the Crips in the Bloods we call them out here huh what do we call them in Hawai I don’t know but I one thing I do know is uh we have Paradise here but we’re being infringed by civilization I remember when I don’t know if you were here but uh Paradise fruit stands is where life’s a beach was you you guess you were really little and you know there were like two lights in Kei now there’s two lights per

19:03

block and you can’t make a left that would be interesting any I want to bring it up I don’t know if it’s your jurisdiction but maybe you can tell the county at wellah how in that upper Highway near Hope Chapel they desperately need a light hear that whoever is responsible so many accidents happened there I mean I people come at me cuz I’m going to be on TV all kinds of candidates and so everyone’s got pet issues that on has come up so much that’s not a state thing it is it’s

19:32

happening um there is Senator Baker put in a bill I put in a companion bill and it passed so we got funding for a light there uh I know some members of the you hear that you hear that KIA Community Association and some members they wanted a more holistic plan uh to change the whole highway and make a few different roundabouts on there and uh you know that good idea but not yet it’s probably not that realistic right now in the meantime we got to take care of the safety and that would be a light

19:59

especially when the high school was going to come up there and that new mall thing I’m not sure what exactly what it’s still look like right now anyone making a left has to deal with oncoming traffic in the L plane and I’ve seen just I’m glad to hear we’re handling that that’s great yeah it’s the number one priority for that area like I was knocking on doors in that P Village area and um that’s all they talk about for the first knocking on doors that is really I meaning it works you listen you

20:24

know that knocking on doors has really been probably once you get past that thing that it’s strain it’s a lot of fun isn’t it yeah see I that me yes I mean like I you get to meet the people and that’s really worthwhile yeah I mean sometimes you like knock on the door of like a fervent support of your opponent and it can be kind of nerve-wracking like U you know OB this brand of being a very Progressive guy which you know I don’t think is necessarily fair I’m very uh Pro free market and um libertarian in

20:56

a few ways but um you know because of that if I knock on a door and I hear like Fox News going on in the background and like a deer head on the door and American flag like all right loaded shotgun it’s like just be nice be humble um but yeah it can be could be a little stressful in certain areas anything you want our viewers to know about you that you think obviously as an incumbent you go into this race and a lot of people know you and they already have a lot of respect for you but you never I’m sure the guy back East

21:31

you know never expected to lose so you’ve been working hard I see anything you want to tell people out here um no I I just I I don’t think I’ve lost touch yet and if I do hopefully I’ll lose I’ll leave the job myself before you guys forse me out but um you know this is my home I was born and raised here and um you know I’ve seen a lot of changes on Maui and some are really positive and some um I think could do some work and it’s really important to look down the line every politician

22:02

talks about looking at the future and they try to make it more profitable by or more um concrete by saying like what will Maui be like 20 years from now or 50 years from now 20 and 50 years from now that’s within my lifetime hopefully and a certain level to accountability of accountability and Kiana to that so um you know it’s my life on the line that’s my kids we talking about so you know if I start now if there’s mistakes that are made I can along the way um but I always be looking at the long term and not just

22:33

the immediate uh Quick Fix and you know I think that’s that’s what’s good about having um young people in politics and a new generation coming up and you know as long as I remain humble which I I hope I’m doing and just to Thea and um M sigu and stand um I think we can go far as a community we got that high school not our priority we we’re the lowest voting district I we focus on that um G ging we got that through the house uh we’re going to try that again well we’ll see

23:06

what happen to this year maybe Monsanto will uh require anyone buying seeds that they have to label every product they sell wouldn’t that be good yeah I mean the irony is they’re saying like these companies were saying that that the labeling issue was like to smear them and it was like a thing to like lessen their brand and and move towards a band but it’s like look we’re already looking at a ban and partially because you guys aren’t labeling and it’s like and you’re

23:33

fighting labeling so hard that it’s scaring people even more like if of yourct lab how many people have we seen you say GMO and they I don’t care I’m diabetic I that’s how I get my insulin I don’t care about GMO or it’s not a big deal or so whatever but we’ve gotten to this point where’re polarizing our whole everybody just label everything and it would make it so much much easier yeah I I just feel like if if we labeled it a couple years ago then the debate would

24:02

have gotten to where it is now with the with the band um you know Japan they label all their GMOs and it doesn’t cost companies more they change people change labels every few weeks like there’s I think there’s like six different Pepsi cans for Brad cup like it’s not it’s not that hard to add like another line of text right out there we love you we don’t want you to lose jobs we want you to be just we long to go just walked by very longwinded um yeah I think there’s no

24:41

question that um we could approach things that we want to agree and resolve things rather than stick our side so strong I mean even the people that don’t like GMOs if they knew they’re GMOs then don’t buy it but if it’s not labeled just like you say it’s like here we go now we have to get radical and so it’s gone as far as an initiative that was a major thing major now you know what it takes to get all these signatures that was an extraordinary event it’s unreal really was I mean I’m really proud of it

25:18

because it’s like the people you know just the the power of the popul see where it goes we shall see it’s up to you guys I hope they you’ll all be informed and uh maybe before the election we can find uh some kind of something that can happen I don’t know exactly I just know that I don’t like seeing our community polarized over um do you find that you can work with most of the people that you’re up there with most people that are interested in cooperating yeah I mean right now

25:56

there’s there’s two faes in the house a lot of people don’t talk about this in the public but you know there’s a faction that got speaker Joel elected as speaker and then there’s a de fa that yeah and um you know unfortunately no matter especially as a freshman you introduce something the whole same g bill and try to kill it other fa they’ll they’ll rip it apart and is it a spiteful thing I mean yeah I mean there’s also the factions are actually they’re not super Petty like they’re

26:26

actually based on ideological differences is at the end of the day um you know that side is a lot more um I guess institutionalized and our side is a lot more populist in many instances and um you know but I I came to learn that no matter like what the intention is of them trying to squash my bill they actually bring up some valid points and they’re worth discussion and at the end of the day my bill is better than it was when I first wrote it so um you know I it can get hard and contentious but I

26:57

think that’s part of the political process and it makes for better legislation see that takes it all and answer any questions here’s one no you know there are things that aren’t really state issues that I think they I they’re bigger than life K Bernie no no no I was thinking of homelessness you know but I don’t know whose jurisdiction any of that is I just know that I’m seeing an incredibly growing homeless Community everywhere including here and you know there’s no place for anyone

27:30

to be have you heard anything proposed that’s going to be in any way giving any relief yeah um we have a housing first program that we launched this year which is uh you know we can survey people we can do we can build shelters we can do lots of things but if we’re not getting if we’re not we don’t have enough homes for the amount of people there’s going to be homeless at the end of the day it’s a supply and demand problem and um it’s this problem right yeah so there’s

27:58

lots of houses here and they don’t get built because everything can being built with the super rich and the people that need houses there’s no housing that’s right uh we had like 2,000 luxury condos pop up in the Last 5 Years in Maui alone and how do that help the hos not how that out renters not it doesn’t right yeah and so it’s about affordable housing but it’s also about housing first party it’s for home new owners it’s for no it’s for um it’s like smaller units mainly so it can be

28:28

anything from a um a studio apartment to a literally a container like a storage container as a housing unit and uh we’re putting a lot of funding for that and we’re trying to launch the program and keep it as Slim as possible to uh with a little bureaucracy as as we can I hope that’s of some help you know and I hope that anything that isn’t happening in government the other part that I just personally like to stress is you know you can help without having to send someone to the state or the county it’s

29:00

going to take you and me to help people you know when there’s someone that has a need what about it you know that’s I think where the rubber meets the road you do this I do this we all do this CU we care and we hope that you will reach out and take a look in your heart be helping people to me that’s the biggest issue I’ve seen too many people that were were working that aren’t and are working and still can’t make ends me that yeah um we actually it’s like a it could be a partisan issue putting

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government money to these types of initiatives so um you know a lot of us young legislators we got together to form the O future caucus which uh looks for a postp partisan future in Hawaii and so there’s Republicans Democrats uh all kinds of people in this caucus that we’re focusing on issues education education that was another one of those cows we’re focusing on um on all business so one thing we want to look at is crowdfunding just like a Kickstarter um you know entrepreneurship works for a few it’s

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you know I mean I don’t know what the percentages are every every so often someone hits big but a lot of people go on there takes a lot Kickstarter there’s a couple of them but if we do something like that through the state and let’s say we got a we’re looking to fund a new shelter we don’t have enough money but everyone in the community wants to put in you know that uh that’s what we’re trying to we’re trying to make that viable through the state right now in the most

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streamlined way possible because every time we try to parking there just so much ramp and I think people from both sides of the aisle Democrat Republican libertarian we can agree that that’s one era we can improve on a lot notice he didn’t say green but I bet you green guys out there are going this election we’re going to see green candidates now this is really good you know what I like that’s me though well you know what I appreciate is that um that people are the young people are

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talking about postp partisan separation it really doesn’t great we got to remember we’re all on the same team we all want to get the same thing we all want a better quality of life I’m really thrilled that you’re uh involved thank you for running again thank you for doing a great job thank you and uh um make sure you guys get out and vote we want those numers up yeah Mak sure uping the level of Civic engagement it’s really important aloha