Blangiardi continues push for affordable housing in second term

HONOLULU (KHON2) — After a commanding victory in Saturday night’s Hawaii Primary Election, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has been chosen for a second term. He surpassed his three opposing candidates with 78% of the vote, surpassing the 50% plus one vote needed to move past the general election in November.

Continuing to serve in his title, Mayor Blangiardi says he will continue to address concerns over affordable housing and violent crime. He joined Wake Up 2Day Wednesday morning to talk about his plans for the next four years.

“First of all i want to thank the voting public. because it really meant a lot to not only me personally but the entire team. I think it speaks volumes about people recognizing the work we’ve begun means something to them, that they can see that they can see the progress,” Mayor Blangiardi said.

One of his goals is to get 18,000 affordable housing units online by the end of his second term in 2029.

“It will help a lot. it’s a combination of rentals and homeownership. but candidly speaking the city’s never been an active player that it can be in the housing sector. We’re doing a lot of things and not the least of which is changing some regulation. Part of what drives up the cost, there are 3 things that drive up the cost, governmental regulations which is really skewed unfavorably to us potential buyers,” Mayor Blangiardi said. “You have to deal with rising interest rates and construction costs. Those two we have less control over.”

Mayor Blangiardi says that another goal is tackling violent crime.

“For us right now we’re trying to make our public as safe as we possibly can and that’s no small challenge. So public safety is the overarching thing that segways into how we deal with homelessness the issues we face there housing is a big part of it too. From the standpoint of how people feel with respect to being secure you know being able to stay here. we talk about the out-migration. what can we do to counter that?”