THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	41
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the hawaiian homes commission to appropriate one hundred per cent of lease revenues from commercial property uses to homeland lot development.

 

 

        WHEREAS, in 1920, Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA), which created a land trust intended to rehabilitate displaced native Hawaiian people by enabling them to lease residential, agriculture, or pastoral homestead land from the trust for one dollar per year; and

 

        WHEREAS, when the Territory of Hawaii joined the United States in 1959, the State promised to take the responsibility for the management and disposition of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920.  In the years that followed, the State has struggled to carry out its duties and obligations as a trustee; and

 

        WHEREAS, to date, more than two thousand native Hawaiian beneficiaries have died while on the Hawaiian homes waiting list for a home land lease, and twenty-eight thousand beneficiaries currently remain on the list, half of which are over the age of sixty.  Additionally, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands recently estimated that to house all beneficiaries on the waitlist, cost projections range between $4,000,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 for infrastructure alone; and

 

        WHEREAS, eliminating the waitlist for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has not been made a priority in past and current administrations.   The State's lack of effort to address the waiting list for a home land lease and mismanagement of the trust has caused native Hawaiian beneficiaries to languish; and

 

        WHEREAS, in 2009, the First Circuit Court found in Kalima v. State of Hawaii that the State breached its trust duties to keep and render accounts, exercise reasonable care and skill, administer the trust, and make the trust property productive.  The court also found that these breaches caused eligible native Hawaiians to remain on the waiting list for a home land lease and suffer damages as a result; and

 

        WHEREAS, in 2015, the First Circuit Court held in Nelson v. Hawaiian Homes Commission, that the State "must comply with its constitutional duty to make sufficient sums available to the Department of Hawaiian [Home Lands] for its administrative and operating budget."   Additionally, the court ruled that the State underfunded the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands by approximately $28,000,000 per year; and

 

        WHEREAS, on February 26, 2002, the Hawaiian Homes Commission approved the general plan prepared by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and while the general plan includes an emphasis on the management of their existing land inventory, the general plan does not make explicit mention of providing lot development on a trajectory that will extinguish the waitlist; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands sought to generate $30,000,000 in land revenues annually (adjusted for inflation) by 2014 and use no more than one per cent of Hawaiian home lands for commercial and industrial uses by 2014; however the department has not accomplished either of those objectives; and

 

        WHEREAS, a May 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' "shift to more expensive housing development may have exacerbated the problem of people staying on the waiting list for extended periods of time", and the report also found that even if beneficiaries are offered a land lease during the past twenty years, beneficiaries have not accepted land leases because they have been unable to secure the necessary mortgage loan for the home on the property, among other reasons; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has also failed to aggressively pursue diversification of housing awards for multifamily complexes, rentals, kupuna housing, and supplemental dwelling units, in addition to turnkey style housing; now, therefore,

 

        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is respectfully urged to appropriate one hundred percent of lease revenue from commercial property uses to homeland lot development; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and the chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:  

Hawaiian Homes Commission; Homeland Lot Development