Aloha! I'm Arjuna
Born and raised in Honolulu, Arjuna has a deep love for Hawai'i and the people who call it home. She grew up in Nu'uanu with her sister and parents, and now lives off of Punchbowl, here in District 26. No matter where life has taken her, she's always found herself pulled back home — to the ocean, the food, and the people.
Arjuna has watched too many people she cares about leave Hawai'i because they couldn't afford to stay. Housing is the operating system everything else runs on, and right now it's failing too many people.
While working between her undergraduate degree and graduate degree Arjuna has done multiple part-time jobs and faced housing uncertainty firsthand. She knows what it’s like to work hard everyday and still budget to afford a life here. That experience shaped everything that followed, and led her to dedicate her career to making sure fewer people face that same uncertainty.
Arjuna earned her master's in Urban and Regional Planning from UH Mānoa where she met her wife and went on to become the Research Director and Housing Policy Director at Hawai'i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. Every day, she works to make it easier for local families to find a home they can actually afford and stay in. Over the years, she has fought for legislation to bring down housing costs, worked to prevent renter displacement, and helped plan safer streets and transportation options for people getting around without a car.
What all of that work has taught her is that the solutions exist. She has helped pass housing legislation to lower costs, planned safe routes to school, and pushed for the policies to make them real. She has seen what works and where the system falls short, where the money is there but the follow-through isn't.
Arjuna walks these streets every day with her dogs, talks to her neighbors, and sees what needs to change. She is running because she is ready to hold people accountable and because the people of District 26 deserve someone who has done the work and will keep doing it.
She can't wait to meet you at your door, hear what matters to you, and build something together.