BIA’s Big Goal: Supplying Homebuilders with More Entry-Level Workers

You probably best know the Building Industry Association of Hawaii for its annual home show, which this year is Jan. 24-26 at the Blaisdell Center. But for BIA Hawaii and Roseann Freitas, who took over as CEO in December 2023, another major focus is reviving a training program that shut down during the pandemic.

I spoke with Freitas about workforce development, the impact of tariffs, modular homes, affordable housing, building codes and much more. This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Question: What gives you optimism for 2025?

Our members build new homes and upgrade existing homes, and we know there is a demand for that here in Hawai‘i. So that makes us very optimistic. Plus we’re bringing back our education program, so that has got us very optimistic for ’25.

At BIA, we do three things: advocacy, events and education. Most people know us for our home shows – that’s our consumer event. And we also do B2B events throughout the year. But the big one is education and that’s why this building was built. (BIA Hawaii owns its headquarters building in Waipahu.)

The pandemic shut down our education, but we launched our first program since the pandemic in September, then did two more, in October and November – five-week courses. More are coming in 2025. This training in background skills makes apprenticeships easier and it helps us develop workers, but it also helps people in Hawai‘i get good-paying jobs.

Q: How does the training work?

This is pre-apprenticeship construction training for all the different trades, though the last couple have been focused on carpentry. It gives people with no experience an introduction to construction. We provide OSHA 30 training and basic mathematics – fractions are a huge part of construction – especially if they haven’t done it in a while, or maybe they didn’t get a good handle on it in school. We also do a lot of hands-on training and life training. We’re teaching them how to do a resume, how to do interviews.

We’ve been partnering with the state: They find the students, we provide the curriculum, instructors, location.

We also help the students find 100-hour internships and the state pays for the internships. It gives them job experience and gets them in front of local companies. Some go straight into the workforce after the internship, others enter an apprenticeship.

We work with union and nonunion companies. We’re basically producing workers to deal with the whole housing issue.

Q: When is the next class?

In January. The state has asked us to do one every month and we’re able to do 10 in 2025. Learn more at biahawaii.org and click on “Continuing Education.” If people email us (info@biahawaii.org), we can connect them with the state to enroll.

Q: Tell us about that first group in September.

We had 12 start, 11 graduated. They were aged 16 to 21, all men. Most had dropped out of high school; some had their GED. They were troubled youth and needed to go down a different path. Steve, it was amazing because they come in the door not knowing what to expect and in the five weeks, we saw change, we saw lightbulbs come on. They had hope, they could see themselves in these roles and they were excited.

One of the union representatives talked to them. … She told us, “They’re fighting over which one they’re going with.” And I asked, “The kids are fighting?” She says, “No, the union guys are fighting over which of the kids they’re taking to their union.”

One union guy said, “This cohort is really well prepared,” which then told us we were on the right path with our curriculum. That was the first cohort. The second cohort, we had 10, graduated nine, so still a good percentage.

In that cohort, we had one female and we realized quickly she was homeless. She had moved here from Maui. And we only found out because when we do the hands-on training, we require they have … shoes with closed toes and pants, and she didn’t have them. So as a team, we all chipped in money and got her some, plus materials, supplies and temporary shelter. She showed up every single day, excellent, and was able to graduate.

The third cohort has 13 and three are females. The students are all ages, I’d say 17 to their 30s. We have one young lady in this group whose family is in the Wai‘anae encampment and she’s trying to finish so she can get a job and help her family get out.

Q: Most construction workers are men. What do you tell women who are interested in a career in construction?

That there isn’t any aspect of construction they cannot do. Women can be the excavator. They can be the carpenter. There are so many things.

We know that 10.8% of the construction workforce across the U.S. are women – that’s a small number. So BIA Hawaii established a Professional Women in Building Council in June and we’re growing that because we want to encourage more women into the home industry to help build homes. These are jobs that pay above average – decent wages so people can afford to stay in Hawai‘i.

Left: BIA Hawaii’s Big Home Building & Remodeling show. Right: BIA Hawaii resumed its training programs in 2024 and graduated 33 students in three cohorts. Photo: BIA Hawaii

Q: What keeps you and your members up at night?

Of course, the high cost of living is driving everything right now. And the labor shortage keeps a lot of contractors up at night, because you can’t finish a project if you don’t have the bodies to do it.

The other concern is tariffs, especially on lumber from Canada. In August, the U.S. Department of Commerce increased tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber from 8% to 14%. Our nationwide group, the National Association of Home Builders, says American homebuilders get about 30% of our lumber from Canada. Once those tariffs start going up, that’s going to impact us.

The time it takes to get permits remains a problem. They are working on incorporating AI into the process at the Department of Planning & Permitting. I hear some of it’s getting better, but some is still a work in progress. They’re not going to flip a switch and fix everything overnight.

Regulations drive a lot of cost. And every time we add something new to the building requirements, there’s a cost associated with it. Someone must pay that cost. What was behind that regulation was good intent, but there are unintended consequences.

We also must really look at the international building codes that we get from the International Code Council. They distribute revised building codes every three years. We are just getting the 2024 codes. The State Building Code Council can amend those codes, but the governor’s emergency proclamations on affordable housing suspended the board’s authority and [under state law, if no amended code is submitted] the 2021 international code will become state law as written.

We have to always amend those codes because they are made for places with totally different climates. That is a challenge because Hawai‘i can’t keep up with all these codes. They are not two pages – these are thick codes – and somebody has to read and interpret them and make those decisions. BIA proposed that the board adopt the code every other cycle to better understand the codes, but that proposal did not pass.

The counties are still operating under the 2018 codes. But any state project will have to follow the 2021 code. How that will impact and trickle down to the counties is the next phase.

Q: Are local homebuilders suffering from supply shortages?

During the pandemic, it was crazy trying to get products. Things are definitely a lot better now. But the National Association of Home Builders is worried about shortages of two things: The lead time for getting electric transformers is 18 to 20 months. That’s huge. And lumber, which is used for framing homes, cabinetry and other uses.

Q: What are other trends you are seeing?

We’re seeing a lot more modular homes (also known as prefab homes). Obviously, that should be an answer on Maui, because it helps with affordability and speed. Whether that will be a huge trend on O‘ahu remains to be seen.

Another trend is developers creating innovative solutions for existing spaces, like how Christine Camp is redeveloping the Davies Pacific Center into condos called Modea. I think the biggest challenge they’re facing, just like everything else, is permitting and regulation – especially if you’re in that affordable housing realm. It has to pencil out. Nobody can run a business at a loss. And adding too many roadblocks and costs makes it much harder to make affordable housing.