Hawaii keeps limited emergency housing and homelessness procurement flexibility through September

Hawaii’s emergency proclamations for affordable housing and homelessness services remain active through September 8, allowing limited flexibility in procurement and project approvals for qualifying work across the state.

Gov. Josh Green issued the two proclamations on July 10, 2026. The Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency and State Procurement Office list both as active through Sept. 8, unless they are terminated or superseded sooner. The orders authorize departures from specified procedures; they do not automatically cover every housing project or homelessness provider or eliminate procurement, building, environmental, health or public-safety requirements statewide.

Which housing projects qualify

The affordable-housing proclamation applies to state and county affordable-housing projects. Other projects may use the emergency pathway only after certification by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, or HHFDC.

Under the proclamation, HHFDC certification requires a project to qualify as an affordable-housing project, have at least 60% of its units offered for sale or rent to households earning 0% to 140% of area median income, or meet applicable statutory criteria, and agree to pay prevailing wages to mechanics and laborers for the duration of the project.

The definition of qualifying housing includes new construction, redevelopment, adaptive reuse, acquisition, rehabilitation and repair of affordable or subsidized units. It can also include mixed-use or mixed-income projects and infrastructure that primarily serves housing.

The proclamation directs state agencies to prioritize the review, approval and processing of permits connected with affordable housing. That may affect administrative timing, but it does not guarantee faster construction, lower rents or completed units.

What changes in procurement and approvals

The housing proclamation allows an agency to suspend part of the solicitation process under Hawaii’s public procurement law when the agency determines that traditional procurement is not practicable or advantageous and the procurement promotes the construction, development, redevelopment, repair, renovation or occupancy of housing.

The suspension is limited to solicitation. Agencies must verify vendor compliance and document the compliance records and contract award in the procurement file. Awards must be posted on the Hawaii Awards and Notices Data System, or HANDS, within seven days after the award.

The proclamation also modifies specified requirements involving impact fees, building-code updates, administrative procedures, funding and civil-service hiring. Counties retain authority to update their own building codes.

For eligible state or county projects approved by HHFDC, a county planning director may approve, modify or disapprove a project without waiting for a county council resolution. The planning director must act within 45 days after receiving HHFDC approval. The director may not impose stricter conditions, stricter income requirements or reduced fee waivers that increase the project’s cost beyond what HHFDC approved. If the project is not disapproved by the 46th day, it is deemed approved under the emergency rules.

Even where listed state or county requirements are suspended or modified, qualifying projects must still meet minimum health and safety requirements, including applicable floodplain-management duties needed for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.

What the homelessness proclamation changes

The separate homelessness proclamation suspends portions of Chapter 103D, Hawaii’s Public Procurement Code, and Chapter 103F, which governs purchases of health and human services. The State Procurement Office says those suspensions apply through Sept. 8 to qualifying housing and services connected with people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

The proclamation is intended to give agencies flexibility in contracting for homelessness-related housing and supportive services. It should not be read as an automatic exemption for every provider or project, or as a blanket removal of land-use, environmental, historic-preservation, public-lands, health or safety protections. Eligibility and emergency-rule requirements still control how the authority may be used.

For residents and providers, the practical issue is whether agencies can show why emergency contracting was needed, which eligibility conditions were satisfied and how contracts, payments and performance were documented.

Oversight remains a central issue

The continued flexibility comes as state officials face questions about controls over homelessness spending. In an April report, Hawaii News Now reported that State Auditor Les Kondo raised preliminary concerns in a letter about invoice review and cost controls involving 10 HomeAid Hawaii contracts worth $40 million.

According to the report, Kondo said the review found no evidence of meaningful invoice validation, no verification that costs were allowable, reasonable or within contract scope, and no enforcement of limits on overhead or administrative expenses. State and HomeAid officials said they review invoices, track progress and use closeout reports. The full audit was still pending, so the letter’s concerns were not a final audit determination.

That history makes procurement files especially important while the emergency rules remain active. Residents, lawmakers and watchdogs can look for project certifications, award postings, contracts, amendments, invoices, performance reports and the final audit record.

What to watch next

The current relief period for both proclamations ends Sept. 8, 2026, unless the governor ends or replaces it sooner. Transition language may allow some qualifying contracts or projects to continue under the proclamations after that date, depending on the specific terms and status of the work.

Until then, the key accountability question is not whether Hawaii has waived its housing and homelessness rules wholesale. It is whether agencies can show, project by project, that emergency flexibility was necessary, eligibility conditions were met, public money was documented and promised housing or services were delivered.

Sources

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