Prince Kuhio Day eve event rallies support for Hawaiian Homes funding

The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands held a unity rally Tuesday at the state Capitol to pay tribute to Prince Kuhio a day ahead of his birthday and to counteract recent resistance to homestead development funding at the Legislature.

Around 200 people participated in the “Kuhio Kakou” rally, which included music performances, hula, sign waving on Beretania Street, voter registration, speeches by elected officials and pleas to lawmakers on upper floors of the building to support a bill intended to provide $600 million to build homestead lots for DHHL beneficiaries.

Posters and T-shirts honoring Kuhio were printed to commemorate Tuesday’s event on the eve of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day, a state holiday recognizing the father of the Hawaiian Homestead Act passed by Congress in 1921.

Yet a big purpose of the event, which lasted three hours, also was to rally support for a bill introduced in January to appropriate $600 million for DHHL mainly to develop more homestead lots three years after lawmakers appropriated $600 million for the same purpose in a historic move to reduce a waitlist of nearly 30,000 homestead applicants.

“Let’s put some pressure on our state legislators,” kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine said at the Capitol rotunda shortly after the rally began at 9 a.m. “Let’s figure out how we can influence our legislators to make the right decisions. … Every two years is an election.”

The funding legislation, House Bill 606, is a top priority of the 13-member bipartisan House Native Hawaiian Affairs Caucus, and passed the full House of Representatives in a 48-1 vote on March 4 after an initial House committee changed the appropriation amount to an unspecified sum, as is common for many appropriation bills early in the legislative session.

HB 606 ran into resistance last week when two Senate committees advanced the bill further but also requested in a side note that the next Senate committee in line to review the measure consider inserting $50 million for the appropriation sum.

The Senate committees on Housing and Hawaiian Affairs made the request in committee reports as part of advancing HB 606 on March 18 after a contentious March 11 public hearing.

During the hearing, a few DHHL beneficiaries and a former Hawaiian Homes Commission member opposed the funding bill over what they characterized as deficient use or accounting of the $600 million appropriation made in 2022 via Act 279.

“Where is our money going?” Patty Kahanamoku-­Teruya, a former com­­missioner, asked at the hearing.

Sen. Samantha DeCorte, a Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee member, questioned whether DHHL was making good use of the 2022 appropriation based on a shifting and wide-ranging number of beneficiaries who DHHL estimates will receive lot leases due to Act 279.

“The department has not proven themselves to be fiscally responsible to do the job of Act 279,” DeCorte (R, Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha) said during the hearing.

Sen. Troy Hashimoto, Senate Housing Committee vice chair, said it’s been hard to track DHHL’s use of Act 279 funding because of repeated changes to an initial strategic plan approved by the commission.

“Things aren’t adding up,” Hashimoto (D, Wailuku-­Kahului-Waihee) said during the hearing.

Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Housing Committee member who supports $600 million in added funding, said during the hearing that it pained his heart to see Hawaiians opposing Hawaiians over HB 606.

“The only people that are losing right now is the Hawaiians,” said Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-­Iroquois Point).

During Tuesday’s rally Fevella gave two impassioned speeches urging more Hawaiians to vote and to unite behind giving DHHL another $600 million to produce more homesteads.

“We need to make our people strong, and we need to get back to the aina (land),” he said. “We got to stop tearing each other down in committee hearings.”

Later, Fevella added, “We need to rally my colleagues in the House and the Senate to do what is right.”

Rep. Daniel Holt, co-chair of the House Native Hawaiian Affairs Caucus, said DHHL has shown that it can dramatically expand homestead lot development, and told rally attendees to keep up pressure on the Legislature to pass HB 606 with a $600 million appropriation by submitting testimony on the bill.

“This bill is very important,” said Holt (D, Sand Island-­Iwilei-Chinatown).

Val Kekawa, a DHHL beneficiary on the agency’s waitlist since 1973, said more support for HB 606 from Hawaiians is needed to obtain land that is owed to them.

Kekawa suggested that lawmakers need to know what rally participants want.

“I need to make this very loud and clear,” she said, gesturing to the upper floors of the Capitol overlooking the rotunda. “What’s up there needs to come down, and what’s down here needs to go up.”

The homestead program, administered by the state since 1959, aims to return Native Hawaiians to their ancestral lands after the U.S. annexed the islands. The program offers residential, agricultural or pastoral land leases to DHHL beneficiaries, who must be at least 50% Hawaiian. Lot leases cost $1 a year, and beneficiaries must pay for or build their own homes.

Over the past century, about 10,000 homesteads have been created, or 100 per year on average, largely due to meager funding and a large land base not well suited for residential development. At least 2,100 DHHL beneficiaries have died while on the agency’s waitlist, which recently reached 29,543 applicants.

DHHL Director Kali Watson said the agency has 29 projects progressing under the 2022 appropriation that should result in more than 3,000 homestead leases but that it will take $6 billion to provide homesteads for everyone on the waitlist.

“The need is very, very great,” he said at the rally. “When you talk about $600 million, it’s a step in the right direction, but it is not enough.”

Rep. Mahina Poepoe, lead introducer of HB 606, said a second $600 million appropriation represents an obligation that has been too long delayed.

“This funding is not a gift,” said Poepoe (D, Molokai-­Lanai-Hana). “It’s a payment on a long-overdue debt.”

Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, said a rally to support DHHL funding shouldn’t be necessary.

“The state is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to Native Hawaiians,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. … I’m tired of coming over here and asking for what we should already be given, what is due to us as Native Hawaiians.”

The rally also had a mix of entertainment and advocacy that included veteran radio personalities Lina Girl and Davey D serving as emcees. Jonathan Osorio, dean of the Hawai‘inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaii, sang two songs, including “Ka Hulina Au,” about a turning time that could apply to the present.

HB 606 is referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which has yet to schedule the bill for consideration and possible advancement to the full Senate.