 Welcome to Think Text Show, the state of the state of Hawaii. We're a bi-weekly program on Mondays, and we appreciate your viewership very much. Today, we have a wonderful guest, broadly experienced, and the opportunity she has had to serve in Hawaii and become knowledgeable about our state's policies and agencies and all the things that make it work for us. We look forward to hearing from Kim Coco Iwamoto about her experience, what she's learned, and how we can learn from her. Hi. Hi, Stephanie. Kim, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Well, welcome to the show, and Mahalo for your time and participation. I'm really pleased to have a chance to get to know you and your history and your work, and your contribution to Hawaii, the state of Hawaii even more. So we've talked about our conversation here. So we are about to know more about advocacy, I think from you, and you've talked about your advocacy as legislative advocacy, and other ways of being an advocate for tenants' rights, and also being an advocate for the homeless to get them into stable housing situations. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about what that is and how you do it, and then we can go from here to our specific. Well, I think for many of us who have the honor of serving the people of Hawaii in our communities, it happens organically. So for me, I got involved with the Board of Education because I was a licensed therapeutic foster parent at the time, and I was advocating for my foster kids' access to a safe, free education. And in doing so, you know, they asked me to help them address the bullying that they and their friends were experiencing in the schools. And this is in the mid-2000s. And so I would go to the Board of Education meetings and testify, and I would try to get some kind of you know, some kind of acknowledgement that they understood the plight of the students and concerned parents. And they would just look back at the audience with this kind of blank expression with no kind of acceptance of responsibility or accountability. So I went back to my kids and my community and said, I think we need to change things from the inside. And so I ran for office, we're an elected, at the time it was an elected seat for the Board of Education, and I was successful to make it through. Yes, there are quite a few people. Well, especially as you are a parent in particular, the foster parenting, we need to have as many of those as we can have. But your point is that, just to get the history right, that the Board of Education for viewers who probably mostly know this, but that it was an elected Board for a while and then it was voted to be an appointed Board, appointed by the governor or the- That's correct. Yeah. And that you had mentioned, Kim, that that's coming back up again as possibly a voting issue. Right. So the Board of Education has had a long history of flip-flopping between elected and appointed over since statehood. I think it started off as appointed, then it became elected. Then, as we know, went to appointed and now there's the movement to get it back to elected. And generally speaking, I see it. When I experienced this whole transition, it immediately occurred to me to be a red herring for some of the other deeper issues facing education. And when I was on the Board of Education, it was clear to me that the main problem or the root cause of a lot of missed opportunities and distress our Department of Education, it was experiencing was because of a lack or underfunding. This constant, as you know, we have a disproportionate amount of our students go to private schools. And so oftentimes public schools often ignored the funding for public schools often ignored and there just isn't as much political will to fund us the system adequately. And also what happens is the private school systems, you know, they kind of skim off the very high functioning families, the wealthy family, people who have access to a lot of educational support embedded within their families and within their communities. And so the Department of Education has a wonderful task and responsibility of educating students with disabilities, students who are coming from different cultures. So, you know, students who have maybe behavioral emotional situations that got them kicked out of a private school. So, you know, I mean, it's complicated, right? So we definitely, it's not tit for tat, like the amount of money that Punahoe or Yolani can educate their students with is not gonna be the same because their students have a lot of, you know, I guess safeguards around them to make sure that they're kind of more homogeneous in some ways. And so the diversity of our student body makes it more expensive to meet the needs of. Well, maybe you can be a little helpful for us to understand better how the funding does go. Of course, it's out of the state funding. We're unique, of course, here in Hawaii in this single school district situation we have, but we've recently received almost a billion dollars of the state of Hawaii, like other states are receiving the federal funding from the CARES Acts and from the ESSER, the Elementary and Secondary Education Acts of assistance post COVID or to get us through COVID and back to normal part at least, but we are having lots, I mean, like almost a billion dollars coming in. I think it's like 800 million at this point. So when I, so what I'm asking you is, can you tell us a little bit, even though you're not there now, maybe how that works is how is that gonna get all processed? I mean, just... So let me just, I mean, so I think what's clear is that even watching what's happening with DHL, Department of Hawaiian homelands, when you get a windfall, when you're a state agency and you get a windfall amount of money that's out of the norm comes with a lot of strings and a lot of oversight, a lot of accountability. So obviously expending those funds or spending it down or investing those funds into real life impacts for students, it's gonna take a lot longer because they're not like a private enterprise where they can just say, yes, let's throw this money there. There's all of this accounting. And as you may know, the Department of Education is audited, has a financial auditing every single year. So there's a lot of people who are like, oh, we don't know what's going on. We do know and it's there in the auditor's report annually. So I actually don't feel there's any misspending. I do think that there's a lot of, it's challenging to find for any employer to hire people. I mean, there are shortages, I think everywhere right now and when you pile that onto the years and years of underfunding and underpaying teachers for so long and not recruiting new teachers because a lot of people who, for instance, in math and sciences, a lot of people who are inclined to do good works in their community who are gifted in math and science, a lot of them are going into nursing because there's been traditionally a lot more money and definitely a lot more social respect to some degrees. A lot of the media because of the advertising that's generated from private schools, a lot of the local media is constantly bashing the public school system, right? Because you're making people afraid of the public school system so that they send their kids to private schools and those are your advertisers. So there's this whole kind of relationship that happens. And so because of all of that, I think it would be attracting public school teachers who are impassioned about contributing to their community and who happen to be talented in math and science is gonna be harder. So all of these issues kind of, you know, they pile on and it just makes it harder to deliver quality public education to the students and to invest that into the future of Hawaii. But we have to continue trying and yes, so it's great that we have the money but we have to have long-term funding. Funding and one of the issues too is something that I witnessed and experienced firsthand with the Department of Education is a lot in the past, I don't know if it's true now, but in the past, and I was with two different superintendents in the past where my feeling, and I think they acknowledged this was that the funding, the budget that they asked for was not the budget that they actually needed. They were short changing their own operations because they didn't want to insult or offend the chairs of the education or the chairs of the money committees by asking for too much, right? So they only would ask what they think they could get and not for what was really, really needed to provide the services of quality public education. And so one of the things, and I actually confronted them as a board member, I said, this budget does not reflect the true cost of delivering quality public education. What are you doing? And they said, well, we don't wanna upset the legislature because they'll get really upset with us and they'll punish us by cutting funding or trashing certain departments or positions. And that's really an interesting take on our system actually. And I mean, it sounds that you're talking about leadership is having the kind of leadership in that position in those positions. And they do have a new superintendent and also three new superintendent assistant positions. So hopefully there's gonna be some leadership that we can see that will get at some of these issues. But yeah, that's very interesting take on it. I wanted to, speaking of leadership, go into some of the other ways you've been a leader in Hawaii and especially with regard to the advocacy and for tenants rights and for the section 8 housing, excuse me, vouchers. So with homelessness being such a tremendous challenge and really burden for the state, there again, we've got people that need to be thinking out of the box to do something about that. And it looks like you just went in full board on it again. Stable housing for people. So how does all that work, Kim? Yeah, again, once again, I started my legal career here in Hawaii as a coordinator of homeless legal services. So I actually conducted legal clinics and homeless shelters across the state. And then my position, I became a managing attorney and then I ran all of the legal clinics across the free legal clinics across the state for individuals who are homeless who have experienced domestic violence. People who just don't have enough money to hire an attorney. So that began in 2001. And then as I mentioned, I was a foster parent and some of my foster kids had been homeless, had experienced many years of life on the streets with their biological families or because of their biological families didn't want them in their home. So, and the struggles that they had to deal with. And then when I became, when I decided to buy a small apartment building in the Ala Moana, Cacaco area, I at first I was a little hesitant. I didn't know much about section eight, which is a housing subsidy. All I knew was there was a lot of hoops yet to jump through as a landlord. And so I was always like, I could rent a unit out within 24 hours of it being vacant because my units, I cleaned them up. It was kind of a rundown building and I just love renovating and making things nicer. So my units would go really quickly. And then at the thought of actually not bringing in a rental income and leaving that apartment vacant while section eight had to inspect it and had to wait longer for that made it really challenging. And then I realized actually how much more section eight actually subsidizes. So my section eight units do pay quite a bit especially for my zip code, which is 96814. So it's based on zip code is the amount section eight will actually provide a subsidy, the limit. So it's quite economically from a business point of view, it's a sound business decision. And then during COVID when families- On that section, the zip code area, 14, 96814. And that's right next to 9515, which is definitely the highest property values in the country. But yeah, so what you were saying though with the zip code of the 14 is that the vouchers were adequate or getting close- Yeah, so let me tell you the difference For Y and I, for instance, a one-bedroom, the maximum subsidy that section eight will pay and this is for 2022. And so it's probably changed for 2023, but it was $1,330. But if you rented a one-bedroom apartment in Kailua to the same section eight family, if they moved you could get up to $2,500 And so for 96814, it was for a one-bedroom. It's $2,020 for a one-bedroom. So there's a huge range of amounts that section eight will pay. And it's because I think it's fair to say that certain districts of the property values are more expensive. So if you're looking at a landlord who has a higher mortgage you want to make sure that that landlord can cover it. So yeah, and so... So how eligible are you gonna... Let's hear how you're eligible for a section eight voucher. Who are the... You know what, it's really, really challenging. So they do when the window of application does open and it opens oftentimes for like six hours or six days. It's like so a crazy tiny window because there are so few vouchers. They're like, why leave the window open if we're gonna have to just deny so many people? So they leave it open for a little while and they do usually give preferential treatment if you have a child, if you have a disability, if you're over 62. So there's all of these kinds of things that gets you a higher eligibility ranking. And then also if you are homeless then there might be routes especially because there is so much money now coming into address homelessness. And so 50% of my tenants in my building either have been homeless or they would be homeless but for their section eight subsidy. So that's the community that, I don't have an emotional resistance to people who've experienced homelessness because I just know how hard it is for a lot of people economically, health-wise, all of these different factors. And I would also, what I know is that our own sitting County, the management of our homeless population providing temporary shelter even, we don't even have enough temporary shelter for 50% of those who are currently unhoused. So when the police come and they're like, okay, you gotta go to a shelter. There's in fact no shelter, there's no beds available. And they know that. So that's why it just feels cruel, just disrupt or disturb somebody just to appeave them and when there's no actual solution. So as much money. Yeah, well, what about you as the landlord? How do you get to, are there criteria that the landlord must meet? It just needs to be a very safe, they come out and inspect. So it does take a little bit longer but as I mentioned earlier, the rental rates because of that gap in a vacancy gap because of the regulations, I do charge the maximum because it is vacant that when it is vacant, it does take a while or not the maximum but at least more than what somebody else who's been living there for a long time will pay. So yes, and so as a landlord, and I wish they would, put us on a special list like, oh, we've worked with this landlord and they're good and they can just use their phone to inspect, like just show us with your phone, FaceTime the inspector, push your smoke detector, turn on all your water taps, you can do that all with like a Facebook phone or just a Zoom thing on your phone. I think there's other ways to do it to make the inspector's job easier. So whether they go in that direction or not in terms of waiting for the inspection but once it's inspected and certified that it's good for habitable, it's safe and habitable, then it's just a matter of finding the right tenant. And so then it's just about working with the different organizations who are trying to find permanent housing. And then you receive enough then with those kinds of vouchers at those levels which seem thoughtful about what it really takes to have a property in those areas or be in a property in those areas, then those allow you to get your mortgages paid and keep your property up to standards, right? So- And yes, and again during COVID when people were losing their jobs when non-section eight tenants were losing work, right? They were being furloughed or they were being, they just weren't working as many hours or they lost their job completely. So some of the tenants who had section eight we didn't have to worry about that. So they actually provided more stability during economic turbulent times. So that was a good, so maybe it's good as an investor to think about keeping your portfolio diverse. So I strongly encourage landlords out there to consider having at least 50% of your tenants be section eight so that if we go through something similar as we did with the pandemic that you can kind of write that out a little bit more smoothly. Now there was a lot of rental relief. So even the tenants who weren't able to pay they did eventually the bookkeeping did get resolved. But- That's interesting, yes. Well, what about a relief for the lack of affordable housing? Do you see this? I mean, am I jumping to conclusions here? But Kim, I mean, is this an area that could be enhanced so that there would be more? But it has to do with whether the state's gonna provide the vouchers, right? Yeah, and yes, we definitely need more vouchers. We're helping out the problem, getting people into stable homes. Is this a way to work on doing that? Yes, and I think if we just said we're gonna increase our section eight budget that would go a long ways to helping more people- Have they said that? Who truly need the help? I mean, it's a solution that's out there. And I think all of the policy makers who are, you know, putting money towards certain things, they are aware of that as an option for sure. Yeah, so- But where would the person work on influence or, you know, requesting that kind of change? How could a person advocate? Tell us about how you would advocate for increased section eight vouchers. Are people working on this now? Are there any groups or people that are trying to influence the legislation? Yeah, it's interesting because, well, one of the issues is that, right, developers are huge campaign contributors. So a lot of developers want more money to build more affordable housing. And then the issue arises, affordable for who? Like a lot of the developers who are building affordable, when I asked them, I said, oh, are you actually open to renting to section eight? A lot of them say, oh, no, I don't even, I haven't even thought of that. But we can actually say you must rent to section eight. And in your zip code that you wanna build this new tower, this is the limit. Can you work with that? Like, there's ways of doing this. Also, what landlords should know is that there is a slush fund for landlords in your tenant actually, you know, again, this is a fear fantasy that section eight tenants are gonna destroy the property, which has not been my experience, more so than a non-section eight person, right? And so there is the slush fund for this landlord kind of putting things back together. It has so much money in it because no one's really using it. So the fear of the destruction is greater than the reality is so, yeah. So that's another incentive for a landlord who's kind of like, you know, trying to get over their own internal bigotry, you know? Yeah, and speaking of Kakaako, we've got Howard Hughes in here who's not even finished planning yet all of the buildings that he's putting up. And so I would imagine maybe that's the kind of landlord or situation where they're not thinking about including section eight housing vouchers in a meeting. They are required to provide low cost housing, but that's another place where there could be a requirement that they also do that. Yes, yes, so there's many opportunities to actually address the needs, yeah, of these various communities. How are we doing on time? Is there anything else that we want to? We have a few more minutes to go. And so, yes, I was just thinking of all the things we've been speaking of and what else we might want to get you to speak to. Well, one of the hats I also wear is I along with some other small business owners started a group called the Chamber of Sustainable Commerce. Basically, we believe that we can strengthen our economy without hurting workers, consumers, communities or the environment. And one of the reasons why, what got us, and this is two years ago in 2021, we launched, and we've had meet and greets on Oahu, on the Big Island, on Maui, and we look forward to expanding to Molokai and other parts of, and Kauai as well. So we're gonna be actually providing a voice for small businesses to network, but also to set policy or at least weigh in on policy that the traditional chambers of commerce don't always, we're not always aligned. And so we need an alternative voice for business. For instance, we supported Shutting Down Red Hell and one of the other chambers actually wrote testimony in opposition to Shutting Down Red Hell, which is kind of wild when you think about, I know there are businesses on base that have been hurt by the lack of clean water available to consumers. And so you would think that all the chambers of commerce would have supported Ernie Low's fight to Shut Down Red Hell before the contamination occurred. But no, they sided on the side of poisoning our aquifer because they thought that that would be better for their kind of the businesses that they represent. And so I just wanted to, we just wanted to make sure that the people of Hawaii and legislators and policymakers know that there are actual other business people here who care about our workers and consumers and the people of Hawaii and the environment while still being profitable and sustaining our families and our investors. Well, that is a wonderful effort and we've shown your webpage up on ThinkTech and people can see it there. And if they're interested to contact you, the information is there. And what other kinds of projects would you have? What do you wanna see a person come in and be eager to do? What's an example of that in addition to the Red Hill crisis? Right, well, obviously. So there are other issues that we need to focus on. Obviously corruption at the legislature. I think that there's a lot of people who feel that that benefits corporate lobbyists who can make a lot of very high priced camping contributions, this pay to play thing. And then it would leave a lot of small businesses kind of out in the dust to have that kind of inequity of access to policymakers. So reaching out, just making sure that those standards and ethics are maintained is really important. Yeah, and there's obviously, you know. Absolutely, we need something like that. Is there anything already operating that's like that? Are you filling in a space or are there other people in that space out there? Well, there are other, like there's a chamber for West Hawaii Chamber of Commerce. They are quite progressive around environmental issues. So that's great. And we look forward to aligning with a lot of their positions. Again, so hopefully we're adding and fortifying the business community's voice on issues that affect all of us. I think about the book, The Lorax, the Dr. Sees book about this. Basically, it was a business of making sweaters, but unfortunately, you know, capitalism went haywire and the business basically became obsolete because there was no more resources to make sweaters. There was no more workers because everything was polluted, no water, no trees. And I'd say it just made everything unsustainable. And so that kind of striving for profit and production at any cost is not sustainable. And so that's kind of the model. I'd like to compare what we're trying to do. Well, you've put the word into what well known, the Chamber of Commerce, like it's sustainable in there and it's got purpose and mission that needs to get to work. Well, I think we're short on time, we're out of time and it's been a pleasure to have you in this conversation, Kim. And we've been talking about your advocacy and also we did cover some education issues that abide in our state. And we're on the road here to trying to make everything better and especially through the kind of advocacy that you do and you've explained to us. And now we know about a new nonprofit out there to do some critical work for the state too. So thank you very much, Kim. Thank you. Thank you so much, Stephanie. And mahalo to our viewers and aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.