change. now is not the time to think small. zero fossil fuel is the right goal for hawaii. it is the right goal across the nation and across the globe -- the globe. host: >> joining us the a skype from honolulu. thank you for being part was acer: on saturday, or look at how hawaii is dealing with the challenge of homelessness and affordable housing. this is 15 minutes. >> we will turn now to the issue of affordable housing. we will turn to hawaii office of planning director leo asuncion calling on skype to talk about the issue. good morning. what do you define as affordable housing in the united states?

es? hawaii, there is always by the numbers. we can use the area median for a, but it is also person to say what is affordable? hawaiiyour mortgage and -- 30% of your mortgage? in hawaii it is 40%-60% of your income towards your mortgage and transportation. we stick to the high numbers, but look at how we do it locally in what is affordable for our residents. especially for us with a high cost of living. host: what is hawaii doing to help people find affordable housing?

is the state doing anything out of the ordinary to make sure people have a place to live? caller: the state is trying to partner with our private developers in the state. basically it is through the financing. a 10,000 unitat 2020.y then we have other studies that have been done where demand is upward of 66,000, of which 22,500 would be affordable rentals. my office completed a study on how we would get there, at least for the rental part. that goal is 2026 have 22,500 affordable rental units

completed for residents. we are looking at targeting the middle gap area where 60% to .0% of area mediancompleted fore that is a nationwide problem as well. host: is the problem of affordable housing worse in hawaii than the mainland united states? compare and contrast for us. caller: i think it is. we have a limited amount of land. none of the islands are connected in any way except by air. you could take a boat. it takes a couple of days to traverse the pacific to another island. mosty, you take oahu, our dense island, we have one million people here and 640 square miles. ourto 50% of it is conservation area, foothills to

the mountains. then we have other factors we are looking at, sea level rise, climate change and what that will bring in where we can develop. we have quite a bit of urban la nd, we probably need a little more. if we change the densities in our current urban land, the projection -- i was talking about the 22,500 affordable rental units -- the projection and theill be on oahu rest spread throughout the islands. we have unique challenges. we just don't have the space to build, but we do have different opportunities.

we have a real system coming in. we're looking at development as a way to bring affordable housing as well. that is a few years off. we are doing the planning for it now. lands alonge-owned rridor,nsit rail co seeing what we can do on our state lands partnering with the developers. host: has affordable housing always been a problem in hawaii, or something that has come up in recent years? when i firstember started my career in planning almost 30 years ago. i remember one of the first meetings was talking about affordable housing. it has been a perennial problem probably since statehood, 1959. there were boom years are we got a letter projects done. over the past 10-15 years,

production has slowed down. process, wed to our are trying to streamline those to a minimum. is communities will seek to file suit against into more of ats court setting that you have to go through before you can proceed. we are trying to look through different barriers. we do have an effort that says these are the , let's talk about it. over the past two years of effort we have made great strides in getting affordable housing production going. host: how do you describe fair

market rent, and how does that impact affordable housing in hawaii? caller: fair market rent is something that is sensitive and hawaii given that we have limited land. usually, landowners are not developers as well. you are adding another piece. if you take out the developer side, the profitability of a project. we try to look at fair market rent, but really it is supply and demand. if we do not provide the supply, the demand will keep growing. thus rents will go up as well. we have a limited amount of land block thatng, a city

becomes a couple of high-rises for affordable housing, that for square footage, even construction and rent tends to increase. . host: i heard you use the term ll, can you tell us what that is? caller: we have a lot of areas, especially on honolulu, they used to be plantation towns. almost metropolitan, but then there is old stock, like an old building. right across the street from my office there is a 12-story used to be office building that a developer just got her permit to renovate that into affordable

rent homes. newically, right next to a condo that used to be a parking lot that goes above 25 stories. opened,es, when they because they were not required to do affordable, private capital did it, they are upwards of $800,000. you have pockets of land, parcels, and buildings, and even vacant land that used to have something on it that the use terminated 10 years ago and is vacant land. we're looking at these types of properties to see if we can do urban infill. host: how much does the state of hawaii work with the federal government on the affordable housing issue? caller: we work mainly for our public housing, which is defined

roughly of 0% to 32% of area median income. include theto homeless as well, those who are 0% median income. that is our main conduit. we also work with different federal grants, housing grants. that would be through our state housing and finance development corporation. we work with them trying to make sure there is enough funding that is pipelined that comes to the state. then we distribute that to our counties, who also work with hud and federal agencies to ensure they can do their part in achieving affordable housing goals. host: you brought homeless into this.

how often does the lack of affordable housing lead to homelessness, and help -- and how big of a problem of that -- of a problem is that in hawaii? caller: we had a serious homeless problem. they were camping out in the gypsys, sort of like homelessness. when the police came in, they just moved to another public site. we have put emphasis on transitional shelters. , alsoty club of honolulu looking for lowrise apartments purchasing them and making them into transitional shelters and apartments for the homeless.

of work ine a lot the philanthropy world. philanthropists in hawaii took it upon themselves. he saw vacant land on the outskirts of an industrial area that had the components, public transit. get a little village community. to do the next phase. the first phase, my understanding, is he did it with sweat equity and volunteers. the total cost was about $20 million to do the village. there are different efforts. through those different types of efforts, we have to be able to -- like last year was the first year we saw a

homelessness. we focused first on the families that are homeless, get them into shelters, transition them to affordable housing. of course, you have those that are impacted by drugs and the like and are homeless. we have different programs trying to go other ways working with service providers in honolulu and statewide, to try -- et to these folks

>> the c-span bus made the long journey to hawaii. we will feature stops across the line islands, showcasing the natural beauty, unique history, literary culture of the 50th state. >> the speech on a walk who is one of hawaii's most historic locations area >> we are here at sandy-- >> we are here at beach a wahoo and in the cultures very cool. we have a brotherhood. everybody who comes here regularly knows each other and we catch waves so we are always sharing waves. it's kind of a nice feeling you

come here, it's kind of like home. this is the capital surfing, serving was born here, it's kind of an old sport. as a hawaiian, you want to perpetuate the culture. i think it's important to that level plus a practical level. if you are here, the ways are dangerous and oftentimes you see people come here and they don't understand the ways. they don't understand they can be relieved powerful. you see families jump in there and get in trouble. locals have the advantage of knowing about the surf, respecting the ocean, and we can help them and we've done a bunch

of rescues. >> this is where surfing all-star nets created so many good things for the island. not only tourism but the bonds we get through it in the family that is created through surfing. i feel like we are all one big community.

journal,'s washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up monday morning, national journal political crosh josh crush our -- our discusses the races to watch. and the director of the college of law talks with the history of supreme court confirmations of the senate.

be sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on monday morning. join the discussion. tomorrow, a panel discussion on trade and protectionism and the outcome of the u.s. china trade war. live coverage from the brookings institution starts at 2:00 eastern on it c-span3 and on the freeseas that -- c-span radio app. >> monday night on the communicators, the assistant homeland security secretary for cyber security and indications talks about cyber threats against the u.s. and how the country is working to foil foreign efforts to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections. >> every system whether it's a federal agency, a bank, a local government office, you are constantly battling actors who are trying to get your networks. data, ifve sensitive

you have a system that powers something important, you have everything from your everyday activist trying -- everyday hacktivist trying to deface your website for a purpose they believe important to criminals which is the majority of what people deal with all the way to nationstates trying to gain access to either sensitive information or trying to be in a position where the of the structures held at risk. monday night :00 eastern on c-span two. -- night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. c-span visiting national constitution center in philadelphia were asked folks what it means to be american. when you feel like you're at home so you can your comfortable to live here. >> for me, what it meant as i

was blessed to have been born in , one of the countries with the most freedoms for people. pursue people to happiness and life. enjoy with your family. >> freedom to pursue your dreams and opportunities. friendship. getting along with everybody here in america. family and love. theimply doing responsibilities both civic and family and every thing like that. membersghter of service and a service there myself, i felt it was my responsibility under the constitution to go

ahead and do my duty and serve the country. pursue yourom to me,iness and really for i've been able to be whatever i want to be and in the country where i come from it would be possible. we are asking middle and high school students to produce a five to six minute documentary answering the question, what does it mean to be american. we are working $100,000 in total cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. what does it mean to be american? the deadline is january 20. for more permission, go to our website. -- for more information, go to our website. the senate science and preservation committee held a hearing on the challenges facing companies working to extend broadband access in rural areas of the u.s..