LIHU‘E — The final draft of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands plan to spend a historic $600 million allocation indicates it will fund the development of 190 lots on Kaua‘i.
Established in the federal 1920 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, the DHHL is tasked with providing those with at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood 99-year homestead leases at an annual rate of $1 and supporting beneficiaries through a variety of financial assistance programs.
After decades of chronic underfunding that left roughly 28,700 Native Hawaiians on the waiting list for homesteads, including about 4,000 on Kaua‘i, the state Legislature passed Act 279 this year, providing an unprecedented $600 million for the department — on the condition it submits a plan for how it will use the funding.
The main focus of the plan, submitted to the Legislature on Tuesday, is developing new homestead lots rather than acquiring new land or providing individual assistance to beneficiaries.
“We have set forth a plan for what is possible to accomplish given all the information we have on creating new homestead lots and leveraging other resources to work alongside this funding,” said Hawaiian Homes Commission Chair William J. Aila Jr.
“The plan is rooted in reality and flexible enough for the next administration to make adjustments as needed and seek innovative solutions to meet the needs of the beneficiary community.”
Two Native Hawaiian advocacy groups, the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations and the Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands, blasted an initial draft of the plan, saying the majority of funding should go toward expanding land holdings and helping beneficiaries afford home purchases.
They recently submitted their own plan to use the funds, focused on acquiring land and homes and providing home purchasing aid, to newly elected Gov. Josh Green.
“Our plan boldly leverages that support, maximizing more land awards, building more housing units of all types; and, even acquiring more housing units and more land,” said KipuKai Kuali‘i, the SCHHA policy chair and Kaua‘i County Council vice chair.
“We believe we absolutely have to maximize the impacts of this investment by creating transformational change at (DHHL). We can’t afford to have business as usual. Far too many of our beneficiaries have been suffering without housing opportunities for too long,” said Kuali‘i.
He said their plan was developed through consultation with beneficiaries throughout the state at policy meetings.
“Our beloved Prince Kuhio has always intended that our lands be invested in our people — that our lands be utilized and leveraged to greatly improve the quality of our lives,” he continued. “The leveraging of this historical support now is critical to reaching more and more of our beneficiaries, more Native Hawaiians, and more of our Hawai’i residents in general.”
Of the 190 new lots for Kaua‘i beneficiaries included in the DHHL plan, 75 would be located in Hanapepe and 115 would be in Anahola. Both these projects are currently in the engineering design phase.
The 190 Kaua‘i lots make up 6.9 percent of a total of 2,727 new lots to be developed under the plan.
According to a 2020 DHHL study, 6 percent of beneficiaries listed Kaua‘i as their first choice for a homestead lot, while 5.2 percent listed it as their second choice. The number and distribution of planned lots are identical to the numbers in a draft plan released in August.
Kaua‘i beneficiaries could also have access to roughly $60 million in what the plan describes as “alternative individual assistance programs,” such as down payment assistance on beneficiaries’ homes.
The numbers in the plan are still not fully set in stone and may change over time due to uncertainty in construction costs, the document reads.
The DHHL also submitted a list of proposals for new legislation, including laws that would exempt the development of homestead lots from general excise taxes, allow the department to conduct its own historic preservation reviews, and make an affordable housing credit program permanent.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
