Bill Text: HI SB1323 | 2021 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To The Department Of Hawaiian Home Lands.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-1)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-03-24 - Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on FIN with Representative(s) DeCoite, Holt, Tokioka, Wildberger voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Quinlan excused (1). [SB1323 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2021-SB1323-Amended.html
|
THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
1323 |
|
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021 |
S.D. 2 |
|
|
STATE OF HAWAII |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that in 1921, Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (HHCA), which created a land trust intended to rehabilitate displaced native Hawaiian people by enabling them to lease residential, agricultural, or pastoral homestead land from the trust for one dollar per year. When the Territory of Hawaii became a state in 1959, the State promised to take responsibility for the management and disposition of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920. In the years that followed, the State struggled to carry out its duties and obligations as a trustee.
To date, more than two thousand native Hawaiian beneficiaries have died while on the waiting list for a Hawaiian home land lease, and twenty-eight thousand beneficiaries currently remain on the list, half of which are over the age of sixty. Additionally, the department of Hawaiian home lands recently estimated that to house all beneficiaries on the waitlist, cost projections range between $4,000,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 for infrastructure alone.
The legislature finds that eliminating the waitlist for the department of Hawaiian home lands has not been made a priority in past and current administrations. The State's lack of effort to address the waiting list for a home land lease and mismanagement of the trust have caused native Hawaiian beneficiaries to languish. In 2009, the first circuit court found in Kalima v. State of Hawaii that the State breached its trust duties to keep and render accounts, exercise reasonable care and skill, administer the trust, and make the trust property productive. The circuit court also found that these breaches caused eligible native Hawaiians to remain on the waiting list for a home land lease and suffer damages as a result.
Further, in 2015, the first circuit court held in Nelson III v. Hawaiian Homes Commission, that the State "must comply with its constitutional duty to make sufficient sums available to the [d]epartment of Hawaiian [home lands] for its administrative and operating budget". Additionally, the first circuit court ruled that the State underfunded the department of Hawaiian home lands by approximately $28,000,000 per year.
On February 26, 2002, the Hawaiian homes commission approved the general plan prepared by the department of Hawaiian homelands. While the general plan includes an emphasis on the management of their existing land inventory, the general plan does not make explicit mention of providing lot development on a trajectory that will extinguish the waitlist. In addition, the department sought to generate $30,000,000 in land revenues annually (adjusted for inflation) by 2014 and use no more than one per cent of Hawaiian home lands for commercial and industrial uses by 2014. The department has not accomplished either of those objectives.
The department of Hawaiian home lands planning office provides a long-term and comprehensive perspective that supports the Hawaiian homes commission, the department, and its beneficiaries in realizing the mission, goals, and objectives of the Hawaiian homes commission act. The planning system functions in three tiers:
(1) The general plan that provides a statewide, twenty-year timeframe that identifies the long-term goals, articulates the vision, and organizes priorities for the department and the commission;
(2) The strategic program plans (statewide with a three- to six-year timeframe) and the island plans (regional twenty-year timeframe) focus on statewide programs and policies, as well as island-specific land use projections; and
(3) Regional plans (focused on developed areas with a two to four-year timeframe) and development plans (focused on undeveloped areas with a ten-year timeframe).
The associated island, strategic, regional, and developmental plans flow from these general plan guiding objectives.
A May 2017 report from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that the department of Hawaiian home lands' "shift to more expensive housing development may have exacerbated the problem of people staying on the waiting list for extended periods of time." The report also finds that even if beneficiaries are offered a land lease during the past twenty years, beneficiaries have not accepted land leases because they have been unable to secure the necessary mortgage loan for the home on the property, among other reasons. The department of Hawaiian home lands has also failed to aggressively pursue diversification of housing awards for multifamily complexes, rentals, kupuna housing, and supplemental dwelling units, in addition to turnkey style housing.
The purpose of this Act is to require the department of Hawaiian home lands to develop a long-term strategic plan based on a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the waitlist population with the objective of eliminating the waiting list for a home land lease.
SECTION 2. (a) The department of Hawaiian home lands shall develop a strategic plan to devise and implement long-term strategies and solutions to eliminate the waiting list for a home land lease based on a comprehensive assessment of needs and resources of beneficiaries who are on the waiting list for a home land lease. The department of Hawaiian home lands shall develop its general plan, strategic program plans, island plans, regional plans, and development plans with the primary objective of eliminating the department of Hawaiian home lands waitlist. The plans shall emphasize the department's leverage of trust resources, statutory powers, and other means of state funding and support to focus on lot development and distribution to eliminate the waitlist. These plans shall be based on a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the waitlist and developed with beneficiary consultation.
(b) The department of Hawaiian home lands shall
submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed
legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the
convening of the regular session of 2023.
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2050.
Report Title:
DHHL; Strategic Plan
Description:
Requires the department of Hawaiian home lands to develop a strategic plan to devise and implement long-term solutions for eliminating the waiting list for a home land lease with an emphasis on leveraging its trust resources, statutory powers, and other means of state funding and support to focus on lot development and distribution. The plans shall be based on a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the waitlist and with beneficiary consultation. Effective 7/1/2050. (SD2)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
