Housing remains a key issue for the state, especially for Native Hawaiians who may be dealing with low-income or crowded households. That's according to Kali Watson, the director of the Department for Hawaiian Home Lands.
He discussed the department's plans to spend the $600 million that the Legislature appropriated to get more units developed for beneficiaries.
"To me, the part of the solution, a major part of the solution, is housing," he said. "Provide them with a stable environment that they can live and prosper. And so that's where I think this program, while challenging, has been given a big boost by Act 279 by the Legislature."
Gov. Josh Green nominated Watson for the position of DHHL director in February. This came after state senators voted against his initial nominee, former Honolulu City Councilmember Ikaika Anderson.
Watson previously served in the role from 1995 to 1998. During that time, he led the development of more than 3,100 homes on Hawaiian Home Lands, according to the governor.
He told HPR that the $600 million must be used wisely, especially to account for the 29,000 people currently on the waitlist.
"I think more realistically, the majority of people on our waitlist, want the amenities want access to schools and restaurants and jobs. So that's why we've kind of emphasized more logistically homesteads that are conducive to that kind of demand," he said.
Watson outlined how the cost of a unit alone starts at $200,000 for infrastructure, tacked on with $400,000 to cover what he calls "vertical construction costs."
"So you can easily do the numbers and see that is doing it is very, very expensive. So that's why the use of this funding is just gonna go so far, and we definitely going to need more funding," he said.
In addition to housing, Watson said DHHL plans to build schools, cultural centers, kupuna housing, medical clinics and more to accompany the communities.
The Ka‘uluokaha‘i project broke ground in East Kapolei on July 11 and will consist of 127 single-family residential lots across about 24 acres.
As of July, the project is expected to cost about $29 million, accompanied by an additional $23 million appropriated by the Legislature. The Hawaiian Home Lands Trust will fund the remaining $6 million.
"A lot of the projects we're doing, we're doing large numbers, which requires us to identify developers with the proper capacity to build at that level," he said.
Watson returned to the helm of DHHL for the second time and is more resolved than ever to get Native Hawaiians in housing than ever before with this Maui disaster.
In the meantime, a long-running lawsuit over the waitlist, Kalima vs. the State, went up the the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. It was recently settled.
