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Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole served as a non-voting congressional delegate from 1902 to 1922. During his tenure, he secured $27 million for key projects, including the establishment of Pearl Harbor, Makapu‘u Point Lighthouse, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea National Park, and construction of a hospital at Kalaupapa.
He also authored the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921 (HHCA), which allocated roughly 200,000 acres of former crown and government lands for Native Hawaiians. The act granted 99-year land leases for residential, agricultural, or pastoral use as part of a broader effort to rehabilitate Native Hawaiians. While lessees could live on home land virtually free, they were required to build their own home or purchase one from a developer. The act also offered financial and technical assistance for housing and farming. Prince Kūhiō faced strong opposition from the ranching and sugar industries, which successfully pushed to limit available homestead land and institute a 50% blood quantum. As a result, over a quarter of HHCA-designated lands were barren lava fields, while another 7,800 acres were steep mountain slopes that, according to one legislator, “a goat couldn’t live on.” Following the act’s passage, the federal government provided minimal funding and oversight. Issues persisted, as the state assumed management, following statehood in 1959. Today, the program serves approximately 8,400 residential lessees, but more than 23,000 applicants remain on the waitlist for land amid a severe shortage of affordable housing. In the past 25 years, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) has largely invested in building subdivisions to meet this crushing demand for homestead land and housing. However, these homes are often too expensive for low-income applicants; and DHHL, facing a lack of qualified buyers, has favored higher income applicants, according to one analysis. “It’s serving Native Hawaiians who are middle class or upper middle class. It does nothing for Hawaiians who are working poor or homeless,” attorney Tom Grande, who represented 2,700 plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against DHHL, said. “Their duty is not to check my credit,” Robin Danner, a beneficiary leader from Kauai, said. “Their duty is to issue me my land.” DHHL maintains that it offers various programs to help low-income beneficiaries become homesteaders, including homebuyer education, financial literacy training, and direct financial aid. Much of this funding—over $150 million in the past two decades—comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In January, President Trump issued an executive order directing all federal departments and agencies, including HUD, to freeze federal financial assistance, including grants and loans. This funding gap may hinder DHHL's ability to acquire and develop new lands or serve Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. Comments are closed.
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