The story of trust lands for housing Native Hawaiians at Waikoloa is yet another chapter in the long, sad saga of delays in fulfilling commitments to this constituency, with a real human cost.
The problem dates to the 1940s, when the Waikoloa Maneuver Area, a 185,000-acre site then used for military training, became littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO).
The repercussions of persistent live-fire on a site, with cleanups that have been less than thorough, have included tragic accidents and, later, the loss of housing opportunity for people who really need it.
There are two imperatives here. One is for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove the impediment to financing home construction for Native Hawaiians by seeing that sufficient site cleanup progresses promptly. This means focusing on the limited zone with active housing projects.
The second is to recognize the reality: Live-fire training leaves a lasting scar on the land, and the state must hold the military accountable for cleanup. And now is the time for ensuring that commitment is cemented, leveraging the Army’s quest for a renewed lease on another Hawaii island site, Pohakuloa Training Area.
The most immediate need is for the Native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), the state agency that administers the homesteading land trust set up more than a century ago for those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood.
In an investigative report for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and the nonprofit ProPublica, staff writer Rob Perez delved into the experiences of families waiting to build houses on parts of the Waikoloa acreage.
One is Liliu Ross, one of hundreds of Native Hawaiians affected by the delays. Ross for years has lived in a one-room, tin-roofed shack on her 5-acre farm lot, the only shelter she could muster without the financing for a conventional mortgage.
In 2014 she had secured a loan for a two-bedroom Waikoloa house under a special program for financing homes on native lands and had the plans drawn up. But before it could proceed, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put a freeze on the funds because of the UXO hazard.
There are larger projects similarly put on hold, including Lalamilo, a subdivision of some 400 homes originally set for completion next year. The vacant lots are now choked with weeds and the paved streets are empty.
Amid myriad regulatory complications, the Army Corps of Engineers rebid a contract to assess the UXO risk on the largest parcel in the former training area, Puukapu, adding to the delay.
All this lost time has had significant impact on families. One man spent $25,000 to hire a company to sweep his elderly mother’s property for ordnance and secured a loan that way, The home was built seven years ago, but the mother has since died.
Another couple did finally find a source for a $300,000 loan to build their home but only after spending $60,000 of their own to rent a trailer for five years.
Others are simply waiting, having missed an opportunity to build equity during a period when real estate values soared.
The Corps needs to focus on the priority areas of Puukapu and Lalamilo and get the UXO work done for those subdivided lots. These amount to nearly 1,000 lots — awarded to people who deserve a move-in day sooner rather than later.
Further, there should be a reimbursement program promptly set up, for the Army to cover homesteaders’ legitimate out-of-pocket UXO expenses, such as outlined in the cases above.
These are families whose stories must be remembered during discussions over renewing the lease of 23,000 acres of former Hawaiian crown lands, part of the Army’s Pohakuloa training area.
That land, which the state leased to the Army in 1964 for $1, is too precious to let go cheaply, and certainly not without securing a commitment to remove hazardous waste.
