Kamaaina residents remember quite clearly the protests of the 1970s that arose over the planned development of Waiahole and neighboring Waikane valleys, one of the threshhold events of the Native Hawaiian renaissance.
Now, decades later, the preservation of a rural character for that region is seen as an overwhelmingly positive outcome of the uprising.
But the state’s investment in purchasing the Waiahole land and issuing the low-rent, long-term leases must be rewarded with a sustainable community in which rent obligations and commitment to farming requirements are enforced.
Things have gone a bit awry in the otherwise peaceful valley, and it’s the state’s duty — albeit an unpleasant one — to provide oversight.
In 1977, the state bought 795 acres in Waiahole for $6 million, averting the evictions that had been threatened by the landlord. Ultimately the administrative responsibility for the 100 residential households fell to the state Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., and it has identified some problems.
There are expenses — replacement of cesspools and improvements to the water system among them — that can’t be covered by rents, unchanged since the original 55-year leases were signed in 1998. The operating deficit amounts to $150,000-$250,000 annually, and that’s a drain the state can’t afford to ignore.
Yearly rates are $540 for a typical half-acre house lot and $100 per acre for farmland. The original leases allow rents to go up in 2023, which they must do.
The costs are only going to keep climbing. The replacement of cesspools, at $25,000 per lot, and the water-system upgrades, at $10 million, are the biggest-ticket items.
But, aware of the sensitivity surrounding this issue, HHFDC hired SMS Research and Marketing Services to produce a strategic plan.
That blueprint will have to delineate how to restructure leases, potentially charging more for households that need a renegotiation and possibly enabling subleasing for those who no longer can fulfill farming requirements on their own. This seems only fair, given that the rents now being charged amount to just 18 percent of fair market value.
Further, there are 10 vacant residential lots, as well as three unused farm lots that the state can and should map out how to lease.
That’s the first area of contention in which the state really must assert its authority. At community hearings and during the outreach campaign that’s been underway so far, some of the existing tenants have opposed the idea of new arrivals coming into the community, those who would be viewed as outsiders.
This notion has to be nipped in the bud. Waiahole is state-owned, not the private entitlement of the long-term tenants. There is a need for affordable housing in the state, and it’s the mission of the HHFDC to help fill it.
The state should aim to minimize disruption to the community, but plainly it needs to move ahead with some expansion.
Another more immediate concern is to settle with about 15 tenants who are delinquent with rent. These people long ago knew the terms of the rental, and the taxpayers shouldn’t have to continually subsidize the deal.
Finally, one pending proposal, to transfer ownership to a nonprofit community land trust, should be explored. It’s likely that such an entity would be a less-reluctant landlord than the state has been, ready to take up the duty.
The residents are understandably concerned about the community being uprooted again by the state, which has worked to protect them. But HHFDC has the duty to protect the interests of others needing housing, and it must pay some attention to that now, too.
