The following commentary was first published Feb. 21, 2026, in West Hawaii Today and Feb. 22, 2026, in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald under the headline “State, county reform needed for ag housing laws.”
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By Jonathan Helton
State lawmakers often talk about supporting agriculture, especially on Hawaii Island, where almost half of the state’s roughly 9,500 farm laborers are estimated to be employed.
But year after year, Hawaii’s farmers and ranchers continue to struggle, partly because of difficulty in finding workers.
Indeed, a 2020 survey of farmers across the state found that 41% reported a lack of labor as a barrier to expanding their operations. And a reason for that is the lack of housing for agricultural workers.
According to a new report from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, “How to facilitate more housing for Hawaii farm and ranch workers,” making it easier for farmers and ranchers to build employee housing on their land could help them overcome their labor shortages and give consumers in Hawaii and around the world greater access to Hawaii-grown products.
Fortunately, lawmakers have a golden opportunity during the 2026 legislative session to address this lack of ag worker housing.
SB2006 and its companion in the House, HB1737, propose defining “farm employee housing” in state law so that farmers and ranchers across the state would have more clarity about where and how they could build small dwellings on their land for full- or part-time employees.
Right now, there is no state-level definition of farmworker or farm employee housing, leaving it to the counties to adopt their own standards.
Some of these standards have worked better than others, and there are ways Hawaii’s counties could make it easier for farmers and ranchers to build employee housing on their land.
Hawaiʻi County’s rules for such housing are among the most straightforward — and successful.
In the past decade, the Planning Department has approved nearly 200 requests for additional farm dwellings, which shows a great need for this type of housing.
Hawaiʻi County farm and ranch owners are currently allowed to build single farm dwellings on lots within each of the island’s four agricultural zoning districts. In three of those districts, they can also apply for permits to build more.
The Planning Department simply checks to make sure that the proposed dwellings would be used to house employees who actually work on the farms or ranches, and also requires applicants to provide evidence that their lands are being used for agricultural purposes and indicate how they would benefit from the additional housing.
This process has worked well for smaller agricultural operations, but it could be improved by making it easier for mid- to large-scale farmers and ranchers to also build workforce homes on their land for full-time or seasonal employees.
Hawaiʻi County lawmakers could pass a county-level farmworker housing ordinance that includes clear, predictable rules to indicate where and when farmworker housing could be built.
The lack of ag worker housing across the state isn’t the only problem local farmers and ranchers face, but removing it as an issue would be a win for Hawaii farmers and ranchers, their employees and everyone who enjoys local eats.
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Jonathan Helton is a policy analyst at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and author of the report “How to facilitate more housing for Hawaii farm and ranch workers.”
