Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, February 13, 2022
DHHL, Spend Your Money!
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2052 Views :: DHHL

LINK: Talking Tax, with host Jay Fidell and guest Tom Yamachika, in Historic Funding to DHHL; But Can They Spend it

  *   *   *   *   *

DHHL, Spend Your Money!

by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation Hawaii

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) administers about 200,000 acres of public lands to be leased to native Hawaiians, upon which they may live, farm, ranch, and engage in commercial or other activities.  The department, led by a nine-member commission, must provide financial and technical assistance to native Hawaiians (those with at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood), which enables them to enhance their economic self-sufficiency and promote community-based development.  According to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, by doing this, the traditions, culture, and quality of life of native Hawaiians will be self-sustaining. In practice, however, moving native Hawaiians to homestead lands has been an agonizingly slow process. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement reported that the list of Native Hawaiians awaiting homestead land leases has been growing steadily from nearly 26,000 in 2010 to more than 28,700 today. It’s no exaggeration to say that scores of Hawaiians have died on the wait list.

Back in 2015, we wrote about agencies that received federal grants but were unable or unwilling to spend the money. DHHL was listed at that time as having $55 million in federal housing funds awarded for Native Hawaiians but unspent, resulting in HUD suspending additional funding.

House Bill 2511 and its companion Senate Bill 3359 in this year’s Legislature propose to provide a historic amount of funding, $600 million, to DHHL. If enacted, this would be the single largest state or federal investment in the program in any one year in the 100-year history of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. The bill currently has great support in both chambers of the Legislature.

We want to make sure that DHHL will be able to use the money for their mission. Some statistics on their website, however, make us concerned.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides a Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program. DHHL is the sole recipient of such grants. In 2014, DHHL was sitting on about $55 million in federal funds unspent, as a result of which HUD stopped providing additional funding in 2016. Recent news reports say that the federal money is still not flowing. DHHL’s website, http://dhhl.hawaii.gov/nahasda/, shows its current grant status:

2014 14HBGHI0001 $9,700,000 $7,736,927.94 (80%) expended
2015 15HBGHI0001 $8,700,000 $59,575.66 (0.007%) expended
2016   0 No federal appropriations
2017 17HBGHI0001 $2,000,000 No expenditures/encumbrances
2018 18HBGHI0001 $2,000,000  No expenditures/encumbrances
2019 19HBGHI0001 $2,000,000  No expenditures/encumbrances

 

It’s 2022, and the agency is still working on 2014 and 2015 money. We need to understand the problems that are preventing this money from doing some good here in Hawaii. We can’t throw a great deal more money at it blindly.

When these statistics were presented to the Legislature, DHHL was motivated to respond to us by saying that the block grant funds were all obligated, and that the available balance of block grant funds was slightly over $14 million. They also noted that the U.S. Treasury recognized DHHL as a high performing grantee in expending funds for rental assistance provided through the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Just to be clear, we are not at all opposing a historic level of funding for DHHL. We just want to make sure the money is put to good use and does not languish. So, we need to understand the operational challenges and we need to address them directly if we want to do the most good.

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT