Dozens of homes, many of them dilapidated or boarded up, are sitting empty on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property around the state even as thousands of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries are waiting to get residential homestead lots from the agency, according to residents of the homestead communities.

Some dwellings have been vacant for five to 10 years or longer, neighbors say. The worst ones have fallen into such disrepair that they’ve become community eyesores, creating potential fire and safety hazards.

One vacant Nanakuli home on the verge of collapsing was so overrun by cats earlier this year that a neighbor caught 12 in his yard using Hawaiian Humane Society traps. He said neighbors complained to DHHL for years about the home to no avail.

Homesteaders who live near the vacant or severely dilapidated homes say DHHL takes too long to deal with the properties, especially given the 26,000-plus beneficiaries on a wait list, most seeking residential lots. Some have waited decades.

“It’s totally frustrating and unfair,” said Waimanalo homesteader Harrigan “Bino” Kanoa, 51, who lives across the street from a boarded-up house that he estimated was vacated about a year ago. “Everybody I talk to is frustrated. They don’t understand why it takes Hawaiian Homes so long. I don’t even understand it.”

“It’s a disgrace,” agreed Renwick “Uncle Joe” Tassill, one of nine Hawaiian Homes commissioners who oversees the department and who accompanied the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month on a drive to look for boarded-up or unoccupied homes in his Waimanalo community. Six were found, mostly in poor condition. One was under renovation.

DHHL spokesman Puni Chee said the department has boarded up only 14 homes — a number that Tassill and others dispute — over the past several years, and four are being re-awarded to qualified beneficiaries.

DHHL takes possession of a home when the underlying $1-a-year land lease is canceled or surrendered or no successor lessee takes over upon a homeowner’s death. The home is boarded to secure it while the agency undertakes a complicated process to find a qualified — and interested — buyer via the wait list. Beneficiaries must be at least 50 percent Hawaiian.

“There are challenges getting qualified buyers to purchase previously owned homes,” Chee wrote in response to Star-Advertiser questions. “Often times those that can qualify financially want a new home and those that want a previously owned home cannot qualify for a loan.”

The home’s location and condition also are factors, he said.

The time a property remains vacant has a lot to do with the lease cancellation process, Chee added. That process can be lengthy and requires multiple steps to protect the lessee’s interests.

Homes not in DHHL’s possession are the responsibility of the owners, Chee stressed.

The agency is unable to say how many vacant homes are on its land statewide in part because beneficiaries who abandon their residences often do not give notice to the department. Beneficiaries sometimes walk away from their homes because they can’t afford the mortgage payments and fall deep into arrears.

In other cases, Chee said, lessees will continue to make their payments even though the homes are unoccupied.

“Housing on Hawaiian Home Lands (is) not public housing and should not be compared as such,” Chee wrote. “Instead, similar to other leasehold lands throughout the state, DHHL is the underlying leasehold landowner. … Above-ground structures are the private property of the homesteaders.”

The issue of long-vacant or dilapidated homes has generated complaints by beneficiaries for years. They say DHHL’s poor track record in dealing with such properties reflects an inefficient, sometimes dysfunctional bureaucracy that permeates the department. Since May, the Star-Advertiser has been examining problems plaguing the agency.

The housing problem extends beyond vacancies.

Numerous occupied dwellings in older homestead communities around the state are in need of major repairs, yet beneficiaries and their advocates say DHHL has done little to help low-income families gain access to renovation funding.

“Nothing has happened,” said Kamaki Kanahele, chairman of the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, an organization of homestead associations around the state. “They have done nothing to correct or improve” the situation.

And some of the homes — both vacant and occupied — are in such poor shape that they likely violate city regulations pertaining to the upkeep of properties.

Yet no government agency appears to be enforcing such regulations on Oahu.

A Star-Advertiser check of city records for about half a dozen seriously dilapidated homes found no citations for building-code violations. Several of the structures appeared to be uninhabitable.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting, which enforces the code, told the Star-Advertiser that the agency does not have jurisdiction on DHHL land — with the exception of oversight for a federal pollutant discharge law.

If someone complains about possible code violations, the city will ask DHHL for authority to investigate, according to a DPPspokesman. Even if violations are found, though, the city does not cite the homeowner but passes along the information to DHHL, the spokesman said.

“Enforcement is ultimately up to DHHL,” he wrote in a statement.

Chee, however, told the Star-Advertiser that administrative rules require homes on DHHL land to meet county building and zoning codes and other regulations. “Health and safety is the responsibility of the private property owner and the respective county authority,” he wrote.

DHHL’s own data indicate a growing problem with poor housing conditions.

Figures compiled by the agency show that nearly 200 families on Hawaiian home lands live in substandard housing, a 46 percent increase since 2009, according to DHHL’s annual housing plans. If homes considered just short of substandard were included, the number would be much higher, beneficiaries say.

One estimate is that more than 2,000 homes on DHHL land need repairs.

It is not hard to spot such residences in the older homestead communities. They have damaged walls or roofs, broken windows or other visible defects. Frequently, the homes are surrounded by residences that are well maintained, drawing more attention to the eyesores.

In explaining some of the problems affecting its operations, DHHL has cited a lack of funding.

Yet it has more than $50 million in unencumbered federal housing funds — money that beneficiaries say could be used in part to more aggressively deal with substandard and vacant housing. Among the funding possibilities they mention are more grants or low-interest loans for home repairs and hiring homestead associations to help maintain and secure vacant properties.

Beneficiaries, federal officials and legislators have raised concerns about the unspent federal money, particularly given all the unmet housing needs.

“That is problematic to me,” U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said of the unspent Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act money.

But Chee told the Star-Advertiser that by the end of the current fiscal year, only $5 million of the $50 million will be unencumbered. For instance, DHHL is expected to allocate $9 million for infrastructure development on Oahu and $11 million for interim construction loans for 117 homes for families eligible for federal assistance.

Over the past five fiscal years, DHHL has provided funding from the program for major renovations to 32 existing homes and minor repairs to five, according to agency data. It has budgeted nearly $4 million for home repairs in the current fiscal year.

Still, the main focus of the program is to put Native Hawaiians into homes. With that focus, the commission over the past five years has made its priority the development of infrastructure and new affordable housing, Chee said.

THE CONCERNS expressed by beneficiaries about the vacant and boarded-up homes generally focus on the poor conditions or the extended periods they are empty.

Neighbors of a boarded-up Waianae home on Kaneilio Street said the structure has been vacant roughly 10 years and until it was boarded up within the past few years, it attracted vandals, drug users and homeless people. Complaints to DHHL sometimes prompted someone to come clean the lot, but it eventually returned to its overgrown norm, neighbors said.

On a recent visit by the Star-Advertiser, dead brush dominated the yard, and the home’s exterior suffered from prolonged neglect.

“That thing has been like that for a long time,” said homesteader Benjamin Ili, 63, whose home of more than 30 years is two lots away. “That tells me DHHL is doing nothing about it.”

Nanakuli homesteader Tom Wolfe, 65, can sympathize with Ili and his neighbors.

He said people in his neighborhood over the years have had little success complaining about a Pohakunui Avenue home so dilapidated that it is on the verge of collapsing.

“Nothing has been done,” said Wolfe, who has lived on the street for more than 50 years. “It’s the typical Hawaiian Homes way of doing things.”

Wolfe sought the Humane Society’s help in dealing with the cat problem and now worries about a rat and mice infestation. “It’s the perfect place for those creatures to multiply,” he added.

City records show the new owner has received a demolition permit, but it’s not clear when the home will be torn down.

Asked about the status of the Nanakuli and Waianae homes and 10 other properties that were boarded up or appeared to be vacant when the Star-Advertiser visited several homestead communities recently, Chee said all but a Waimanalo home were under active leases. An active lease means the home is beneficiary-owned, not in DHHL’s possession.

But four of the boarded-up Waianae andNanakuli homes the Star-Advertiser asked about had DHHL signs saying the properties were government-owned or warning against trespassing.

Chee could not explain the apparent discrepancy.

Tassill, the commissioner, said the discrepancy doesn’t surprise him. DHHL records are in such poor shape that beneficiaries have told him the agency has acknowledged losing their leasing paperwork, he said.

For beneficiary-owned properties that are dilapidated, Chee said the agency cannot use state funds for repairs or demolition unless health and safety matters are involved.

The challenges DHHL faces in helping eligible families maintain their homes include a lack of department resources and a lack of economic self-sufficiency on the part of some lessees, according to Chee.

 He said DHHL’s process for selling previously owned homes works well when the units are in good condition. For properties badly damaged, the agency is considering working with a nonprofit to make repairs before the homes are offered for sale.

Jeff Gilbreath, executive director of Hawaiian Community Assets, a financial counseling agency, said beneficiaries struggle to qualify for DHHL loans to purchase vacant homes in part because the department has no established loan underwriting policies or procedures.

At the same time, DHHL staff members are not provided adequate guidance or tools to determine accurate loan qualifications of beneficiaries, he wrote in an email to the Star-Advertiser.

“The lack of process creates unnecessary confusion for everyone involved and can result in homes being left vacant for months or even years,” Gilbreath said.