Our Opinion for Wednesday — March 24, 2004

• DHHL lots

DHHL lots

Kaua‘i’s ali‘i Prince Kuhio initiated the federal Hawaiian Homelands program in the 1920s. Since then thousands of Native Hawaiian families have received inexpensive leases for houselots that are part of these lands. The Native Hawaiian families have created communities at Anahola, Kekaha and other areas on Kaua‘i, as well as on other islands in Hawai‘i. The program was also moved to the State of Hawai‘i, which today oversees it through the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

The tragedy of the system is the haphazard funding of the infrastructure needed to create these lease lands. Items like paved roads, electric lines and meters, water and sewage lines and overall planning cost millions of dollars for large developments. The lack of infrastructure development has meant that thousands of other Native Hawaiians have died while being on the waiting list for a DHHL parcel, some waited for decades without being awarded a lot.

With the astronomical cost of land, homes and infrastructure development that Kaua‘i faces today, it is impossible for many of the Native Hawaiians now awaiting an award of a houselot or agricultural lot to buy or build their own homes if they go through a non-DHHL land lease or real estate purchase.

A new move to fund infrastructure development so Native Hawaiians can move onto thousands of newly developed house lots is in the works. This plan appears creditable, and is backed by administrators with proven backgrounds in community leadership.

Without the hundreds of millions in funding said to be needed to accomplish this development, the loss of even more Native Hawaiian families and youth to Las Vegas, California and other areas of the Mainland is likely.

Some say, “No Hawaiians, No Aloha” for Hawai‘i. This adage appears on bumper stickers, but is more than a slogan. All due speed should be given by county, state and federal officials in bringing about this plan discussed last week at a meeting in Kapa‘a to save our Native Hawaiian community. While increasing Hawaiian studies at our schools, pushing to preserve Native Hawaiian cultural sites and other works aimed at similar means is good, the bottom line is household economics for many Native Hawaiians. If the rising rents and real estate costs go beyond their means they will have to move somewhere else, away from the homeland their Polynesian ancestors settled over a millennium ago.