The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has struggled to provide homesteads for tens of thousands of Native Hawaiians, but it’s not because of a lack of land.

More than 200,000 acres on all the major islands have set aside for Indigenous use, but most of those lots can’t be developed because they’re too far from roads, sewers, electric lines and broadband or are impossible to traverse, such as cliffsides and other mountainous areas.

That may be changing as the department plans to use a historic cash infusion from the Legislature to buy hundreds of acres of new land close to existing infrastructure in a renewed effort to reduce its applicant waitlist, which has surpassed 29,000 people.

The $600 million appropriated by lawmakers under Act 279 in 2022 “allowed us the flexibility to not only spend the money to develop our lands, but the opportunity to develop better lands in better locations that are less costly to develop,” Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Director Kali Watson said.

The department has a more than 100-year-old mandate from Congress to oversee a trust that was created by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 to protect and improve the lives of those who have at least 50% Hawaiian ancestry.

Native Hawaiians may apply for 99-year leases at $1 per year for residential, ranching or farming leases, but much of the original land trust is uninhabitable and thousands of Hawaiians have died while on the waitlist.

Expanding Inventory

Flush with funds from the 2022 appropriation, the department has implemented a strategy of buying new land that can more easily accommodate homes without the extra expense of installing infrastructure from scratch.

The most recent proposal would direct more than $100 million to buy more than 400 acres in Kunia as well as upward of 300 acres in Lihue and other lands on Maui, Oahu and the Big Island.

The initiative to acquire the Kunia lots is part of another round of changes to the overall $600 million spending plan going before the Hawaiian Homes Commission on Monday.

Watson said the department evaluated more than 50 offers for land after soliciting potential sellers. He said the department targeted land that would be easy to develop and were close to infrastructure, particularly on neighbor islands, where its inventory has been most difficult to develop.

Watson said more changes could come as the department evaluates more land.

The new acquisitions as well as other changes have more than doubled the number of lots planned for development. The department initially anticipated developing about 3,100 lots when it set out its spending plans in late 2022.

Now, that figure is upward of 7,800 lots, thanks in large part to the new land that it plans to acquire.

But the new plans and land acquisitions would create additional development costs. 

The department projects it will need more than $561 million in additional funding to complete development on all those lands.

‘Prime Spot For Housing’

The department is eyeing about 211 acres owned by Haseko Development just above Anoiki Street in Royal Kunia.

Haseko acquired the land in 2020 but hasn’t built on it yet. In a statement, the company said it’s still in the design and entitlement process and acknowledged it is in discussions with the homelands department for the potential sale of the property.

Sale of the Kunia lots would allow Haseko to focus on completing its Hoakalei resort development in Ewa Beach, the company said, describing that as its “flagship project.”

The state Department of Agriculture owns about 150 acres just north of that area. Investment firms Jupiter Holdings and Robinson Kunia Land LLC also own lots near areas the homelands department is considering for development. Watson said he’s hopeful the other landowners will be receptive to the department’s plans.

Rep. Luke Evslin, who represents Kauai and chairs the state House committee overseeing DHHL’s spending, says he’s excited to see the department’s change in strategy. 

He’s looking forward to the acquisition of more than 300 acres of land owned by Grove Farm near the Walmart in Lihue. Most of the department’s lands on Kauai are far from jobs in town.

Some of those lands owned by Grove Farm are used for farming, Evslin said.

“Personally I’m hesitant to put out conversion of ag land to housing, but this one in particular is very close to the center of Lihue, it’s a prime spot for housing,” Evslin said. “And if that housing is going to beneficiaries, that’s even better.”

The department already has acquired new land in Wailuku and in Hilo. And it has plans to buy a lot next to Kapolei High School as well as land owned by Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii Kai.

Beneficiary organizations support the concept of adding new property to DHHL’s inventory. 

The Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations and the Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands, nonprofits that advocate for homesteaders and waitlisters, came out with a $600 million spending plan in 2022 that proposed directing most of the funds into purchasing new land and preexisting housing units.

Lessons Learned

That plan called for the department to buy vacant lots that were ready to be developed and large areas that could be used for farming. It also suggested buying homes and land out of foreclosure and facilitating rental units in conjunction with homestead associations.

While much of the land that DHHL is buying is close to infrastructure, many lots are unimproved and would require development agreements and funds to make them ready for construction.

The department has fared well in the past. Many of the lots that it acquired in the early 2000s such as the Kaehu Bay development are now occupied.

However, some are still not developed. Some lots in the Kakaina development in Waimanalo that were acquired in 2007 are still vacant.

There has also been little movement on the Varona Village lots in Kapolei. DHHL has improvement rights to those parcels under a 2014 agreement with the City and County of Honolulu and Honolulu’s rail project. The City Council only recently took action to transfer the land to the department in 2022, with the condition that the city reimburse DHHL for money it’s still owed from the transfer.

Mike Kahikina, a former Hawaiian Homes commissioner and president of the Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands, said he isn’t opposed to the department buying new land. But he’s skeptical that things will pan out.

“It sounds good and all that. It seems good, but in the end, does it end the waitlist?” Kahikina said.

He recalled his time as a state lawmaker in the 1990s and attempts to broker a deal between DHHL and a developer in Makaha. After years of trying, his efforts proved fruitless after deals fell through.

He now worries that if land negotiations fail, projects will be delayed. 

The DHHL director said he understands that sentiment.

“When people look at the program in the past, they shake their head,” Watson said. “We’ve been found negligent, breaching the trust. We’re trying to switch that around. We want people to feel positive about this program.”

Some funds for projects already have been pushed back because land they were on has proven problematic.

For example, development of a DHHL housing project in Maili was delayed because of drainage issues on the property. The department also had to redo plans for development at the former tsunami warning center in Ewa Beach over concerns that sea level rise could one day inundate the property. Site work for that project is now projected at over $40 million.

To fund the Kunia acquisition and other initiatives, the department has proposed yanking about $58 million in funds initially allocated for homesteads in Waiehu Mauka on Maui. Kalani Fronda, DHHL’s acting land development administrator, said those funds were shifted to projects that could be developed faster. He said the Waiehu lots still need to be assessed and may need significant site improvements.

Republican Sen. Kurt Fevella, vice chair of the Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee, thinks the department should focus its spending on developing lots on land it already has, especially lots that are close to infrastructure like those in Kapolei.

About $140 million has been set aside for the department’s East Kapolei developments, but the agency anticipates needing another $60 million for future roadway and utility construction. 

Fevella said it will be hard to advocate for more infrastructure funds if the department is spending its money on new land.

“If you buy land, you’re back to the drawing board,” Fevella said. “You have land with no infrastructure.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of Native Hawaiian issues and initiatives is supported by a grant from the Abigail Kawananakoa Foundation.