Bill Text: HI SR9 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Resolution 9 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Requesting That The Department Of Hawaiian Home Lands Implement Programs To Support Very Low Income Native Hawaiian Beneficiaries.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-06-06 - Certified copies of resolutions sent, 06/06/22. [SR9 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SR9-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	9
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS IMPLEMENT PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT VERY LOW INCOME NATIVE HAWAIIAN BENEFICIARIES.

WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the public land trust are for the benefit of the native Hawaiian people; and

WHEREAS, the waitlist for residential and farming homesteads reached 28,500 native Hawaiian adults in 2019, and still currently remains around 28,000 adults despite pledges of money and programs designed to expedite the process of reducing the waitlist; and

WHEREAS, over two thousand native Hawaiians have died while on the waitlist; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii has one of the worst homeless rates in the country when measured by the number of homeless per 10,000 people and Hawaii's homeless population contains a disproportionately high number of native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, partially due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, even those native Hawaiians who are renting are having difficulties keeping up with rising costs; and

WHEREAS, the average mortgage in Hawaii currently is over $600,000 which is nearly impossible to support every month at conventional rates if rent is already an issue; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is requested to implement programs that would support very low income beneficiaries; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is requested to consider the following potential solutions:

(1) Awarding a flexible ninety-nine-year lease, which could be used to live in a tent or other temporary structure in an off-grid village, and with terms that may change as the lessee's financial situation changes;

(2) Duplicating the Puuhonua O Waianae, Kings Landing, or Bumpy Kanahele model on every island, where very low income beneficiaries can live village-style and off the grid;

(3) Allowing beneficiaries who receive vacant lots from the waitlist, to live in temporary structures off the grid until their financial situation improves; and

(4) If a beneficiary has been on the waitlist for five years or more, then buys a home outside of the homestead, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands should pay their land tax; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.