A bill that would allocate $112 million to Big Island housing projects on Hawaiian Home Lands is still alive and moving through the Senate.
House Bill 2511 would, if passed, make the single biggest appropriation to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in the department’s history, awarding it $600 million for projects statewide.
Those projects include construction of nearly 3,000 “shovel-ready” homestead projects throughout the state, including 465 on the Big Island, said DHHL spokesman Cedric Duarte.
The Hawaii County projects include 40 new agricultural lots to be built in Honomu for $2 million, 400 lots to be built in La‘i ‘Opua Villages 1 and 2 for $70 million, and 40 lots and a new water system to be built in Ka‘u for $40 million.
Duarte said each of these projects have been in development for three to five years at least, and are simply awaiting the necessary permits to begin construction. DHHL beneficiaries could be able to move into these new lots in five to eight years.
“There are currently 28,700 Native Hawaiians on the DHHL waitlist right now,” Duarte said, adding that 10,651 of those are Big Island residents. “So, we recognize that there’s still a long ways to go, and this is not a magic bullet. But it is a great start.”
Also included in the appropriation is $112.3 million that would be used for down payment or mortgage payment assistance. Duarte said that beneficiaries could be eligible for up to $100,000 to assist in paying for housing, or to reimburse beneficiaries for payments already spent.
However, Duarte said the specifics about how those funds would be administered and how eligibility would be determined have not yet been decided by the Legislature.
The bill also would require the DHHL to submit annual reports to the Legislature about how much money has been expended and how many beneficiaries were removed that year.
Testimony regarding the bill has been overwhelmingly positive. The latest committee hearing for the bill, on March 15, had 432 pages of written testimony submitted regarding the measure, with only one person explicitly in opposition.
But some testifiers were skeptical that simply giving DHHL an enormous sum of money will help solve its waitlist problem.
“We all would like to think that by throwing $600 million at DHHL, we could make a significant dent in the production of Hawaiian homestead lands and getting people off the decades-long waitlist into Hawaiian homesteads,” read a statement by the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. “But there are apparently issues with getting DHHL to spend the money it now has.”
The Tax Foundation of Hawaii noted that DHHL was sitting on $55 million in unspent federal funding, and questioned why the department couldn’t first spend the money it already has before receiving an infusion of funds. However, the foundation added that it does not necessarily oppose the bill directly.
But most of the measure’s support comes from the Native Hawaiians it would most directly benefit.
“2022 makes 15 years since I have been on the waitlist,” wrote Oahu resident Clarence Kalima. “I am 45 years old, and I don’t want to be like many of my relatives who died on the wait list without being awarded a lease.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.