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Hawaiian Homes department outlines plan to develop 6,000 lots, says waiting list outstrips funding
Summary
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Director Collie Watson described work using Act 279 funds, acquisitions, and a development strategy combining infrastructure and large-scale vertical construction. DHHL said the $600 million appropriated will produce roughly 6,030 awards but that the agency needs far more to clear a roughly 47,000-person waiting
Collie Watson, director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, told the House Committee on Finance that the department has targeted roughly 6,030 awards and lots under the 2022 Act 279 appropriation but that the current waiting list of native Hawaiian applicants greatly exceeds the funding on hand.
"We need close to $6,000,000,000 in order to eliminate our waiting list," Watson said, describing a programmatic shift toward leveraging the $600 million to unlock additional federal and private funding and to prioritize larger, faster developments. He said the department has encumbered about $471,000,000 of the Act 279 appropriation across 18 projects as of June 30, 2024, with about $129,000,000 remaining to cover roughly 10 projects.
Watson and staff outlined a mix of projects across islands: off-site and on-site infrastructure to deliver owner-builder lots, turnkey units, and multifamily options. Highlights included proposals and requests the department presented to the committee citing additional lot development on Hawaii Island (including Laiopua, Kamuela, and Honoka), Kauai (Hanapepe), Maui (Kamalani/Kihei, Keokea Waihuli) and several Honolulu-area developments where the department is pursuing both higher-density condominium and mixed-use approaches.
DHHL officials discussed several programmatic shifts: separating infrastructure construction from vertical housing, using developer agreements to enable bulk production, and pursuing federal grants (including Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs) and tax-credit financing through the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. Watson described a first-time DHHL high-rise project in urban Honolulu that would create several hundred units and said the department is also exploring modular manufacturing to address local construction capacity.
Staffing and operational capacity were central themes. Department staff told the committee about 19 authorized but unfunded positions they want to restore and an additional 16 positions to better staff neighbor-island district offices; the department cited chronic understaffing on neighbor islands where only small teams manage development and lessee transactions. Deputy Katie Lambert said the unfunded positions include entry-level homestead services assistants, land agents, and office support the department calls essential to both transactions and local responsiveness.
Committee members asked about land transfers, reuse of state lands, permitting and whether DHHL could exercise permitting authority for vertical construction. Watson described efforts to identify state parcels that could be transferred into DHHL’s inventory for development and said staff are exploring internal permitting that follows uniform building codes while ensuring utility-provider review for hookups. Watson and staff also described plans for a paper-lease approach to allow beneficiaries to receive lease rights before vertical construction finishes, enabling loan eligibility and succession.
