Hawaii Plans Payment For Homestead Land -- Will Help More Natives Get Plots

HONOLULU - Seventy-five years ago, Congress set aside 200,000 acres in Hawaii to provide homesteads for native Hawaiians left landless when Western culture introduced property ownership to the islands.

But there was a major catch.

The federal government provided no money for the Hawaiian Home Land trust to develop the land, leaving administration to the territory's government. A succession of territorial and state governors grabbed the land for public uses such as forest reserves, schools, airports and parks. Other trust property was taken for federal military bases.

Now the Hawaii Legislature has committed $600 million to compensate for misuse or wrongful sale of about 39,000 acres. The money will develop the parcels by paving roads and setting up water and electricity.

"All in all, it's going to be a tremendous help to get us on the land," said Hanale Kauhi, 36. "I've been waiting 14 years, going on 15. It just goes to show that perseverance can count for something."

Gov. Ben Cayetano expects to sign the popular bill into law after his office completes a legal review.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, signed by President Wilson in 1921, was conceived as a breath of life for a dwindling people. Its goal was to give natives a chance at self-sufficiency by freeing them from city slums and returning them to the land that had sustained them for centuries.

DYING WHILE THEY WAITED

Since then, only 6,059 of the $1-per-year homestead and agriculture leases have been granted - a little more than 10 percent of the land. The waiting list has grown to 16,000 applicants of an estimated 40,000 eligible Hawaiians.

Some have been on the list for 40 years or more. Every year nearly 200 die, never realizing their dream of owning a home.

Kauhi, who rents a home on the island of Maui, is executive director of the association representing Hawaiians waiting for homesteads. He has applied for a pastoral lot on the island of Kauai.

"I hope our people start to believe there will be an acceleration of the awards," he said, noting the frustration about the program in the Hawaiian community.

A HOMESTEAD FOR $75,000

Despite the wait, the program is an attractive deal for Hawaiians who can spend $50,000 to $75,000 to build a house on a homestead lot and avoid a commercial housing market, where the median price for a single-family dwelling is $350,000.

Lawmakers dipped into state housing funds for $30 million to make the first installment on the settlement. Plans are to pay $30 million a year in bonds or cash for 20 years. But lawmakers note it will take another 20 years to pay off all the bonds, running the total cost in principal and interest to $1.2 billion over 40 years.

The settlement also clears title to 12,000 acres of the land that had been wrongfully transferred or sold to 2,500 private owners.

A 1988 law waived the state's sovereign immunity to lawsuits, setting the stage for negotiations to resolve all the land claims. It led former Gov. John Waihee to agree to the $600-million settlement before his term expired last December, leaving it to the Legislature for ratification.

Waihee, whose father died while on the homestead waiting list, also ordered the transfer of 16,518 acres of prime state land to the Hawaiian Home Lands program, returning the land trust to its original size.

The settlement bill bars any future lawsuits against the state but leaves open the possibility for claims on the federal government's use of the land.

"It's a great day in Hawaii," said Kali Watson, chairman of the Hawaiian Home Lands Department and Commission.

"It shows a definite total commitment on the part of the state to helping Hawaiians," he said. "Now we can look beyond the money and to bringing more pride to the Hawaiian people, more jobs, more homes."