Get back on track with homesteading

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 20, 2012

~~<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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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. Login for more...