More than a smattering of skepticism has greeted news that the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) plans to restart a program of issuing undivided interest lease awards, aka “paper leases.” These grant Hawaiians on DHHL’s homestead waitlist an “undivided” interest in a project that’s not tied to a specific lot or housing unit, but which can be passed on after a beneficiary’s death — unlike a waitlist position, which evaporates if a would-be beneficiary dies before taking possession of a lease.

The skepticism is reasonable, based on DHHL’s past performance. Of 1,434 paper leases awarded by DHHL in 2005 and 2006, during Linda Lingle’s time as governor, more than half — 774 — remain just that, paper, despite assurances at the time that work was well underway to fulfill lot leases to all. Tens of thousands of Hawaiian households have languished on the DHHL waitlist, debasing Hawaii’s federally mandated mission to provide qualified beneficiaries with leaseholds for residential, agricultural or commercial land. Over many decades, the state has struggled through the “Great Recession” of 2007 to 2009, followed by sharply rising housing and construction costs — and DHHL has stumbled through periods of lax oversight, poor management and patently inadequate state and federal funding.

This time around, however, DHHL’s plan is more certain — buoyed by a comprehensive vision and funding largesse — and so, the reworked paper lease strategy is worthy of support. A paper lease gives a waitlistee, who must be at least 50% Hawaiian, a stronger ownership interest in an eventual award, and provides beneficiaries with additional time to seek financing to build a home on an improved lot, if that’s the goal. Further, a paper lease gives beneficiaries the ability to pass their ownership interest to a successor who is a minimum of 25% Hawaiian; conversely, if a waitlistee dies, successors who are less than 50% Hawaiian are barred from assuming that homestead lease.

DHHL Director Kali Watson, who in that role also serves as Hawaiian Homelands Commission (HHC) chair, expects to deliver on both outstanding and forthcoming paper leases, because DHHL’s position in 2024 is not what it was in 2005. After Lingle, then-Gov. David Ige increased funding and support for DHHL, and today, Gov. Josh Green strongly backs the agency’s mission. And on the federal level since 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden’s administration has authorized federal funding programs that left Hawaii flush with cash, if only temporarily. In 2022, the state’s Act 279 authorized an unprecedented $600 million to fund DHHL.

“It’s a totally different ballgame,” Watson says. “We have the funding to move forward.”

DHHL expects to have properties available to offer all 774 of the beneficiaries holding Lingle-era paper leases by June 30, the end of fiscal year 2024. And it aims to issue nearly 3,700 additional paper leases by the end of fiscal year 2025 — with sufficient funding. Each would be tied to specific projects as they are authorized by the HHC, Watson says — and DHHL’s plan is to encumber projects delivering more than 6,000 homesteads by that time.

“The big difference, versus the past 20 years, is that we have a (federal) Bipartisan Infrastructure bill,” Watson told the Star-Advertiser. “We are aggressively pursuing funding with federal agencies including the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program, as well as other funding sources. Not only do we have the $600 million, but we also are in a very good position to get the additional $622 million that we’re seeking.”

DHHL has divided its planned programs into two phases — the first producing 2,180 lots or units, based on $600 million already allocated by the sytate Legislature, and a second producing 3,659 lots or units, based on obtaining this $622 million. Each of these phases includes certain developments that present an alternative to a bare lot that beneficiaries must individually finance home-building on — a multi-unit building, for example, at Honolulu’s former Bowl-O-Drome site, envisioned as an affordable rental housing project with a 23-story tower and several townhomes.

“We’re doing a full-court press,” Watson says — “not only in encumbering funds, but in executing developer agreements and moving to complete projects.”

So far, these lots and leases have yet to be awarded. But the process seems to be accelerating. For example, infrastructure work is underway at a portion of a 450-lot property in East Kapolei, and Watson said the first batch of lots could be available to beneficiaries in a matter of months. More than $3 million in federal funding for the Kapolei project has also been committed.

All this bodes well, finally, for DHHL — but more crucially, for its long-suffering beneficiaries. This alignment of strategy and funding must not be squandered.