Rising housing costs driven by market speculation and unchecked corporate landlords are driving kamaʻaina into the streets and away from the islands. I will fight to place the interests of working class tenants and homeowners over profit so they can live in security and dignity.

• Introduce rent control to allow tenants to stay in their homes. Nobody should be forced to move out because of the speculative value of their home.

• Expand public housing to provide more affordable options to working people.

• Tax vacant homes to encourage owners to rent or sell them.

• Crack down on abuse of “affordable” housing subsidies.

• End costly homeless sweeps that only push our neighbors from place to place without solving underlying issues.

TheBus is an essential service that hundreds of thousands of Honolulu residents rely on to get around every day. Yet too often, late, crowded, and infrequent buses get in the way. This is on top of the fact that the monthly cost of riding TheBus is about to become nearly the highest it’s ever been - a decision made by the current council. Investing in TheBus to increase reliability and speed and eliminating the time spent collecting fares will ease the burden on working class people and help them get where they need when they need to.

• Strengthen unions and worker protections to ensure that one job is enough to make a decent living.

• Invest in sustainable and regenerative agricultural production to promote food sovereignty.

• Pilot city owned grocery stores to bring inexpensive, locally grown, environmentally sustainable food to your table.

There can be a good life in Hawaiʻi for the many, not just the few, but it requires taking on the rich and powerful and redistributing wealth. I will fight to raise property taxes on the highest value commercial and residential properties and use the revenue to benefit working class people.

1. The political establishment has built a political machine based on connections and nepotism that have rewarded their friends at the expense of the taxpayers who fund their excesses. I will fight against these career politicians and their developer friends who enrich themselves off of the hard work of working families. I recognize that fighting decades of entrenched corruption will be difficult, and that I am unlikely to succeed alone, but we cannot expect a solution if no one calls out the problem. So I promise to be an open window into the operations of City Council and regularly meet with my fellow citizens to make you aware of the full extent of the rot that plagues our government. 

   1. Local politicians are swimming in contributions from developers and other monied interests and it usually doesn’t even come in a paper bag. My campaign is powered by small dollar donors and volunteers and I won’t take contributions from developers and corporations. I’ll fight for transparency and a laser focus on the interests of ordinary people in city government with no distractions from wealthy influence-peddlers.