Get back on track with homesteading

The notion of self-help housing, in which the home is built with the help of the people who will live in it, meshes well with the mission of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The agency seeks to return Native Hawaiians to the land set aside for them more than 90 years ago under federal law, and "sweat equity" enables more homesteaders to afford a home in the place where they want to live.

So the end of a program with that aim — the Homestead Self-Help Program, initiated three years ago — is a disconcerting development. That’s especially so for an agency with a lot of hurdles to surmount in giving eligible beneficiaries — those with more than 50 percent Hawaiian ancestry — into homesteads.

The program contract was not renewed when it expired in June — but given that DHHL has so many names on its waiting list, its officials should feel duty-bound to restart some form of self-help housing initiative without delay.

What went wrong with the most recent effort is hard to nail down. Robin Puanani Danner is the chief executive officer for the contractor, the nonprofit Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. Danner told the Star-Advertiser that all seemed well in the most recent status meetings with DHHL officials in April, before Alapaki Nahale-a left the agency helm.

His replacement as chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission and department director is Jobie Masagatani, who took over in May. Danner said she received an email notification that the contract would not be renewed after June, and instructions to send a closing invoice. Danner said CNHA never received any program funds for its third year of work.

For its part, the new DHHL administration told the Star-Advertiser in a prepared statement that the contract expired June 8 after two one-year extensions. Officials also gave a different take on the communications it had with the contractor.

"With regard to contract management and communication, department staff made several requests for status reports, both before and after the contract expiration. To date, DHHL has not received these reports from CNHA," they said in the written statement.

There’s a disconnect here, one that could go beyond mere communications. Danner is also active with the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, the organization that serves beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920. The SCHHA has voted to oppose Masagatani’s confirmation when it comes up in the next legislative session.

All of that is a matter of record on the SCHHA website, and people can draw their own conclusions on whether such friction was a factor here. Regardless, it does not obscure the fact that DHHL can’t afford to lose momentum in any of its housing initiatives.

It’s possible that the new department administration believes there are enough avenues to pursue without renewing this particular contract.

"DHHL supports self-help and "sweat equity" programs that provide our homestead lessees with the opportunity to own a home that meets their family’s needs and is also affordable," officials said in the statement. "To that end, we currently partner with several organizations that provide these services, including the Habitat affiliates on Hawaii, Maui, Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation, and Self-help Housing Corporation of Hawaii.

"This is an option that DHHL intends to offer in the future," they added.

That’s a laudable resolution, as long as the "near future" is what’s meant. Marking some progress in that direction should be the job of the state Senate when it reviews Masagatani’s appointment in the new year.