DHHL Wants To Generate $, not Homesteads

[kalakoa]

DHHL drives home happy in their fat pickups or BMWs. Hawaiians have no home to go to.

This is exactly why TMT must be stopped, right?

[pbmaise]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

You all have likely noticed the DHHL subdivisions in Puna with few if any people living there. The old Red Road has one and there's Makuu Homesteads. Nice roads, water and power. Empty.

Here's what I have observed.... DHHL takes a decade or two to subdivide, survey, plan, lay water lines, install power, roads,civil engineering. Looks high end by Puna standards.

The thing is that DHHL contracts "friends and associates" at about 10x the going rate for the work. Kickbacks flow into DHHL staff. The development costs are divided by the number of lots. Then the might offer them to a Hawaiian family who is expected to get a loan for those development costs. No bank will loan at those numbers and/or few Hawaiian have sufficient high credit scores. DHHL drives home happy in their fat pickups or BMWs. Hawaiians have no home to go to.

Rinse and repeat.

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The primary issue I ran onto as a loan officer is a home could not be foreclosed upon and sold on the open market. Therefore, we could not lend on the property no matter how high their credit scores.

Here in the Philippines, at least in most areas, absolutely no permit is needed to build a house provided it is built using native materials. In other words a little grass shack that may have no indoor plumbing.

If Hawaiians were allowed to build their traditional style houses the neighborhood would be full.

[alaskyn66]

According to the KITV article, they will only paid 200,000 per year for the the use of the land. That hardly seems like a significant amount.

https://www.kitv.com/story/40767834/cana...iian-lands

[Aaron S]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

There's more than enough DHHL land for all the Hawaiians to have a homestead -- if that were the real purpose of DHHL.

The housing "crisis" is completely manufactured.

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Not exactly...

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/06/the-pr...developed/

Over 60% of the more than 200,000 acres of land granted long ago to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands may never have any homes for Native Hawaiians built on it.

About 59,660 acres are in conservation areas that contain endangered species and cultural resources, or may simply be geologically unsuitable for development. Another 65,218 acres cannot be developed in the next two decades because they lack infrastructure such as roads and water lines necessary to support homes.

[kalakoa]

200000 - 59660 - 65218 = 75122 acres available for housing.

Nor do I buy the argument that "they lack infrastructure such as roads and water lines", lots of people live in Puna despite these "limitations", and it sure beats a cardboard box on the sidewalk, or dying of old age while still on the waitlist.

[BillyB]

I hear talk once that they were considering storing nuclear waste on DHHL property because the wait time for a lease was coincidentally twice the half life of Plutonium-239 which is 24,000 years.

[glinda]

I hate to admit it, but suspect our illustrious Mr Mayo may have made an important point. A point, seemingly, not often recognized... if an Hawaiian can not get conventional financing on DHHL lands the gigs up.

Yes, kalakoa, many live in substandard conditions.. tents in some cases, on their own land. Yes you can cobble together enough to buy a lot in Ainaloa or Nanawale and bingo you are a king of your own domain. Even if your castle is an army surplus tent on pallets you cockroached from behind the Natch, you're the king. Right?

Unfortunately, or so it seems if we use your analogy, some are not prone to think a tent is a castle. Nor is a lot in Ainaloa their idea of a living. But hey, you are right, it may be better than dying on the list without ever getting zip.

And Rob's point, that there is a Hawaiian Homestead subdivision right here and not that many live in it, is the best we can point to to ask, what is the problem? Why are those lots not filled? Not full of Hawaiians living out their lives on their own land surrounded by a community of their own? Unfortunately I suspect it has a lot to do with Mayo's point. But hey, I'm just a haole, and have no personal experience with any of that, so what would I really know? Though I think it's a shame all those that might have been able to shed a little light on this are gone. I miss Opihikao. I'd love to hear her take on this.

[kalakoa]

what is the problem? Why are those lots not filled?

That's part of the screw: as DHHL lands are leased, the lessee must comply with DHHL conditions, which require a new fully-permitted building -- and nobody has that kind of cash (they wouldn't have to wait around for a DHHL lease if they did) so now they also need pristine credit and a lender who will pay the (inflated) development costs.

Cleverly designed to fail. "We built it and they didn't come."

Eventually there won't be any "Hawaiians" who qualify for DHHL land, so the lands can be "repurposed".

[SBH]

Kalaeloa is a very industrial area, maybe the most industrial area in Hawaii, with large oil and propane storage tanks, Kalaeloa Cogeneration Power Plant and other industries with smoke stacks venting downwind (during tradewinds) of the population of Oahu.

Not a desirable area for homes for people to live. It is the perfect location for a solar farm.

https://www.insynergyeng.com/blog/2017/5...-plant-one

That old military property they refer to in linked article is Naval Air Station Barber’s Point.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

there is a Hawaiian Homestead subdivision right here... Why are those lots not filled?

Perhaps as Rob pointed out, and the people who testified on Oahu pointed out, DHHL is disfunctional and doesn’t work. That’s not the fault of banks, or the Native Hawaiian people. As kalakoa said the system is cleverly designed to fail.

Why do the DHHL subdivisions between HPP & Pahoa have four lane wide, paved, curbed roads? Doesn’t that add to the cost of a lot? Do they need fiber optic which was a big fat sweet contract for someone? It was explained at the time the Hawaiian people could get jobs and work online. Or start their own business. How many residents on DHHL lots now work online because a super fast internet connection was added to the cost of their lot?

HPP doesn’t have wide paved curbed streets, or fiber optic and people can afford to live here. Maybe DHHL needs to first figure out an affordable price point for a property, then do what is necessary so they can meet that price point. If the current crop of DHHL executives find that impossible, maybe they should be replaced. After they resign they can always start their own online business if they live in a DHHL subdivision.